Friendliest marinas in Florida?

[Capt Jeanne]

Currently completing 30 days at Dinner Key Mooring Facility, Coconut Grove, (Miami). Wonderful establishment that goes above and beyond usual service. Free water & pump out, showers and laundry are nice, clean & nearly new. Free internet at the office. Improvements are coming with new construction in the future but BEST PART is a free water taxi to/from your boat during business hours (and weather permitting). GREAT PERSONNEL to assist with most any questions and needs. Note previous good comment about safety of moorings. We'll be staying here until departure to Bahamas.

[pbiJim]

Originally Posted by Capt Jeanne

Currently completing 30 days at Dinner Key Mooring Facility, Coconut Grove, (Miami).

I'll assume that you've already found Fresh Market, Scotty's The Chart House & Montie's.

If you feel like going a little further & exploring Coco Walk, a good first place to stop is the roof-top pool-side restaurant at the Sonesta. It's one of the first places that you pass as you enter Coco walk & the view is outstanding. It's a good place to get your bearings & the lay of the land. The food there is also not bad. I kind of like some of the things on their ceveche side menu. I think that you get off the elevator around floor #8 for that place, but don't hold me to that.

Better dinner fare can be found at a place called Calamari's. They are on the other side of Coco Walk. Prices are a little higher. They are not really walking distance.

Coco Walk is loaded with plenty of other options for food, entertainment & general shopping. Most are at least pretty good.

I sometimes also get breakfast at a little bagel-shop/diner kind of place that is behind Crook & Crook. I think that it's called Coral Way Bagels or something like that, but don't quote me on the name. The fare is fairly basic, but you get to see an interesting cross section of the local color. It's probably about a 20 minute walk from Dinner Key, maybe a tad more.

Crook & Crook is a good place to try if you need marine gear/supplies. A small West Marine is just a little bit further south on Rt.1 from there.

If you go in the other direction, Viscaya is worth visiting while you are in the area. If nothing else sail up in front of that place & take a look from the water if your draft allows. That place has some pretty architecture.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by pbiJim

I'll assume that you've already found Fresh Market, Scotty's The Chart House & Montie's.

If you feel like going a little further & exploring ...

If you go in the other direction, Viscaya is worth visiting while you are in the area. If nothing else sail up in front of that place & take a look from the water if your draft allows. That place has some pretty architecture.

Also, find Ricky's, the PHENOMENAL Cuban bakery a little north of Coconut Grove. I know good Cuban baking, and they have it hands down over any other place I've seen. They don't speak a lot of English there but they do't care as long as you don't care. Make sure you see the amazing cakes they have on display. They were on that baking cakes contest show. Didn't win, but they were on it.

I dreamed I went to Ricky's the other night ..

[fjwiley1]

I hope many will view this Thread and see that our state is not such a bad place to visit .......

[Lespilot57]

Interesting about Regatta Pointe vs TD. I am from Bradenton and just visited both marinas and was told they were owned by the same people.

I too am looking at live aboard and TD seemed pretty nice. Funny I never paid any attention to it growing up there. LOL

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Lespilot57

Interesting about Regatta Pointe vs TD. I am from Bradenton and just visited both marinas and was told they were owned by the same people.

I too am looking at live aboard and TD seemed pretty nice. Funny I never paid any attention to it growing up there. LOL

No, they are not owned by the same people! The management at Regatta Pointe is flakey. They just do odd things. Every time my club has sailed there for the weekend the management has done some kooky thing that just doesn't happen other places. When I decided to move south I didn't even consider them because of that. If they could be so weird over a weekend trip, I didn't want them to be my landlord for a year or more.

[Lespilot57]

Thanks for the heads up.

[OutOfControl]

Originally Posted by fjwiley1

I hope many will view this Thread and see that our state is not such a bad place to visit .......

fj, let 'em think what they want.
It'll be less crowded that way.

OutOfControl

[Group9]

Originally Posted by fjwiley1

I hope many will view this Thread and see that our state is not such a bad place to visit .......

I used to live in south Florida and still cruise it regularly. The truth is, there are places in Florida that welcome boaters, and places in Florida that would ban boaters all together if they could find a way.

I've never found a state, except for Florida, with pocket communities that absolutely detest boaters the way a few communities in Florida do.

Florida would not have that reputation except for the fact that it happens.

And, even so, Florida is still a wonderful place to visit and boat.

[teejayevans]

Originally Posted by gonesail

for nice winter weather try telemar bay marina at indian harbour beach on the banana river. very quiet area with nice facilities and shopping is nearby. nearest inlet is port canaveral 20 miles to the north. get there in january and buy fresh oranges.

Telemar has restrictions, need to be 35' or more to be liveaboard

[teejayevans]

Originally Posted by gigigetter

Ditto, Sunset Bay Marina

Also has moorings if you prefer. Area is very nice.

[JusDreaming]

Originally Posted by gigigetter

Ditto, Sunset Bay Marina

Double ditto for Sunset Bay. Great marina, in a wonderful city,(Stuart), and really good staff. They are very liv-a-board friendly, we do live there 6 months of the year,!!!!!!
Welcome to Sunset Bay Marina & Anchorage

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Group9

I used to live in south Florida and still cruise it regularly. The truth is, there are places in Florida that welcome boaters, and places in Florida that would ban boaters all together if they could find a way.

I've never found a state, except for Florida, with pocket communities that absolutely detest boaters the way a few communities in Florida do.

Florida would not have that reputation except for the fact that it happens.

And, even so, Florida is still a wonderful place to visit and boat.

It's true. The little town of Gulfport, just south and west of some parts of St. Petersburg, is right on Boca Ciega Bay. The town's logo is a sailboat.

Nevertheless, a resident mounted a campaign to rid that part of Boca Ciega Bay of all anchored sailboats. She wrote in the local paper that she didn't want to take her small children to Gulfport's beach and see sailboats out there!

Guess what. She's now on the city council and clearly angling for the job of mayor. She's stopped bitching and moaning about the boats, probably because someone explained the State Constitution to her, she seems to think a coastal community shouldn't have boats.

Before that we had a councilwoman, also angling for mayor, who tried to shut down the city's marina. She wanted to build condos on the land. Well, condos were the first to drop in value and still haven't sprung back in value *at all* in Gulfport and surrounding areas. If condos had been built on that land it would have been a financial disaster.

We still have the municipal marina, which actively helps solve the problems that live-aboards can present, in particular, no way to empty their holding tanks. They can come into the municipal marina and pump out for free. The marina will then allow them to use their hose, put clean water in the tank, and pump it out again. They are extremely accommodating, and the docks for fueling and pumping are easy to maneuver to.

I hope, if either of these women, or others of like mind have their way in the end, they change the town logo from sailboat to ugly tract condos. Truth in advertising and all that.

[Hudson Force]

Nancie and I were anchored off Gulfport about eigth or ten years ago and I took an active roll in supporting the rights of anchoring off the Casino docks there by speaking at a city council meeting. I was supporting the need that, if they were to install a mooring field, as planned at that time, they would need to provide such amentities as pump-out, bath house, laundry and fresh water in order for a mooring field to work well. I mentioned that we were currently anchored off the Casino and it was made clear to me that transient cruisers with boats like ours were not their concern. It became clear to me that their concern and the motivation for their action was the dismasted derelict of a large Piver Trimarran that was long term anchored next to me. The simple cure for their distress would have been to have authorities inforce the holding tank an pump out laws, but their approach and the reaction of many is to approach the problem by trying to implement anchoring restrictions. It's not ethical or simple in our nation of individual rights to write laws that discriminate against poor or ugly, but the wreck off Gulfport was not in compliance with the Clean Water Act of 1972,- it could have been so much easier! I also noticed that the town of Gulfport did not recognize the general function of the docks at the Casino for boaters. As a support for ecological concerns they did not allow clusters of sharp oyster shells to be removed from the edges of the docks that would pierce inflatable dinghies and they would not allow the removal these same sharp oysters from the rungs of the ladders provided for people to climb up from low tide to the high docks. I was hopeful things would work out in Gulfport, but there were some policies that were difficult for me to understand and I have not been back.

[Chris in destin]

I'll put my two cents in for my home port, Sandestin (Baytowne) on the Emerald Coast. It is a probably a little more expensive than others, but it does have some great features that really stand out. It's is primarily a sport fisher place and party boat hang ouT, but that means it is really quiet for the most part. There aren't a lot of full timers here, but the locals make up for that. It's is in a great location to go to other locations, the Bay has many other Marinas that are fun to check out for over nighters. The local scene can gotten around by foot or on bike or golf cart. Pensacola is one day cruise away to the west, and Appalachicola Bay is one day to the east. I've been here for almost a year and like it. Evac plan? Personally, I am getting the heck outta here, but my boat is a bit too big (46 ft) for the storage barns that are supposedly Cat 3 proof. A lot of the boats are heading for these places. Anyway, that's my two cents worth.