Seeking advise for a week long charter from St Petersburg.

[phillysailor]

Sounds like you did great! Glad to see you made it all the way down to Boca Grande, and still had time at the end of the trip for a little exploring. That's the truth about the docking.. our first day we plan to spend with a captain for familiarization with maneuvers.

I'm at the planning stage, getting together packing lists (wet suits to sunscreen, TP to coffee) and figuring out meals. Probably going to pack a cooler on the flight with pre-cooked frozen meals, augment that with some groceries first day.

[pskudlarski]

Not sure what are you chartering but I would not overestimate the size and strength of the boat freezer. We drove there but still did all the grocery shopping in S. Pete. Remember it is not some wild island archipelago, we even had to do some sail repair, all it took was a bike ride to the West Marine in Venice. If you have some time before or after, the Salvador Dali museum is worth checking.

[Cherod]

Sounds like a great opportunity , out of Saint Petersburgh , first stop Helsinki ( Finland ) , then Stockholm ( Sweden ) , then onto Copenhagen ( Denmark) , then quick visit to the Rugen peninsula ( Germany ) then fast passage back to St. Peter’s , enjoy the tideless beauty of the Baltic sea and some beautiful and interesting old world culture .

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by Cherod

Sounds like a great opportunity , out of Saint Petersburgh , first stop Helsinki ( Finland ) , then Stockholm ( Sweden ) , then onto Copenhagen ( Denmark) , then quick visit to the Rugen peninsula ( Germany ) then fast passage back to St. Peter’s , enjoy the tideless beauty of the Baltic sea and some beautiful and interesting old world culture .

Ah... Wrong St. Petersberg (or Petersburgh in your case) old son. They speak of the St. Pete on the southwest coast of Florida, USA!

[Cherod]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

Ah... Wrong St. Petersberg (or Petersburgh in your case) old son. They speak of the St. Pete on the southwest coast of Florida, USA!

Oh , that’s a shame , but hey , perhaps you could change your plans , take in the real one , anyway I hope you enjoy , young man .

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by phillysailor

...
I'm going with my family in March, and have tentatively set my itinerary this way:

Day 1: Tampa Bay muckabout, return to (resort) marina base St Pete muni
Day 2: Manatee River explore, then to Longboat Key anchorage
Day 3: early start Longboat Pass to Boca Grande
Day 4: Punta Gorda
Day 5: Peace River excursion
Day 6, 7 Return to St Pete, possibly via Venice

This is an aggressive itinerary which would require a favorable weather report....

I think this is a wildly optimistic itinerary. Firstly, I don't see the point of mucking about in the vicinity of St. Pete for a day. If anything, sail the boat down to Egmont and then back across to the mouth of the Manatee River and anchor out in the vicinity of DeSoto Point. On the north or south side of the River depending upon the winds.

Given how much the channel from Longboat Pass to the Sea Buoy has become shoal and meandered around, I would not chance that pass at any time in the near future. If anything, sail through the Southwest Channel past Egmont and make your turn south at the Sea Buoy from there.

Going through the Pass at Boca Grande, you'll want to time your passage for slack tide, at the end of a flood with westerly winds or an ebb if the winds are easterly. That timing will give you a needed departure time from the Southwest Channel Sea Buoy, keeping in mind you're looking at 58+ miles to the outer channel marker at Boca and another 4.3 miles to the Pass itself. Unless you leave at 0-Dark-30 in the AM, you're not making that entrance during daylight at that time of year and, not knowing where you're going, breasting that Pass in the dark and feeling your way to a safe anchorage would be something of a trial, even for those of us that are very familiar with the locale. On your second day you'd be wiser to head to Venice Inlet, which is somewhat easier to enter than Boca, and spending the night on the Long Dock at the Crows Nest where they also have a good bar and great food (Stick with the downstairs bar/restaurant. The same food as up-stairs but without white linen table cloths and 35% less expensive!).

From Venice to Boca Grande is a relatively easy shot, again timing your departure from Venice for the time you need to hit the Pass at Boca. If necessary, leaving Venice even very early in the AM is quite easy.

Rather than schlepping all the way up to Punta Gorda, which really doesn't have much to offer a cruising sailor, I'd suggest either Cabbage Key (for the novelty of the place) or, better, Boca Grande itself. Miller's marina is relatively easy (at high tide), the facilities are great, there's a great restaurant on site, and there's lots of interesting "stuff" to see via golf cart, which can be rented inexpensively from Millers. We've done both Millers and Cabbage Key and while one should visit the latter at least once in life, we prefer Miller's and Karen, the "Harbor Mistress" is really great and very accommodating. Spend two nights at Millers and then reverse you course for the return. You'll be glad you do.

FWIW...

[Leo Ticheli]

If you go North, the town of Tarpon Springs is a jewel, almost like being in Greece as it seems like most of the population just got off the boat from the old country and brought their culture, hospitality, and cuisine with them. Eat Greek food, buy some sponges, and don't miss the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral - it's amazing.

To the South, Venice is a great little town to visit.

Lastly, I hope you have time to visit the Dali Museum in St. Pete. Can't praise it enough.

I'll leave the anchoring out advice to others with better local knowledge; just my take on the towns nearby.

Fair winds,

Leo

[phillysailor]

Originally Posted by svHyLyte

I think this is a wildly optimistic itinerary. Firstly, I don't see the point of mucking about in the vicinity of St. Pete for a day. If anything, sail the boat down to Egmont and then back across to the mouth of the Manatee River and anchor out in the vicinity of DeSoto Point. On the north or south side of the River depending upon the winds.

Given how much the channel from Longboat Pass to the Sea Buoy has become shoal and meandered around, I would not chance that pass at any time in the near future. If anything, sail through the Southwest Channel past Egmont and make your turn south at the Sea Buoy from there.

Going through the Pass at Boca Grande, you'll want to time your passage for slack tide, at the end of a flood with westerly winds or an ebb if the winds are easterly. That timing will give you a needed departure time from the Southwest Channel Sea Buoy, keeping in mind you're looking at 58+ miles to the outer channel marker at Boca and another 4.3 miles to the Pass itself. Unless you leave at 0-Dark-30 in the AM, you're not making that entrance during daylight at that time of year and, not knowing where you're going, breasting that Pass in the dark and feeling your way to a safe anchorage would be something of a trial, even for those of us that are very familiar with the locale. On your second day you'd be wiser to head to Venice Inlet, which is somewhat easier to enter than Boca, and spending the night on the Long Dock at the Crows Nest where they also have a good bar and great food (Stick with the downstairs bar/restaurant. The same food as up-stairs but without white linen table cloths and 35% less expensive!).

From Venice to Boca Grande is a relatively easy shot, again timing your departure from Venice for the time you need to hit the Pass at Boca. If necessary, leaving Venice even very early in the AM is quite easy.

Rather than schlepping all the way up to Punta Gorda, which really doesn't have much to offer a cruising sailor, I'd suggest either Cabbage Key (for the novelty of the place) or, better, Boca Grande itself. Miller's marina is relatively easy (at high tide), the facilities are great, there's a great restaurant on site, and there's lots of interesting "stuff" to see via golf cart, which can be rented inexpensively from Millers. We've done both Millers and Cabbage Key and while one should visit the latter at least once in life, we prefer Miller's and Karen, the "Harbor Mistress" is really great and very accommodating. Spend two nights at Millers and then reverse you course for the return. You'll be glad you do.

FWIW...

This is some sound advice, I am sure. It's easy to be wildly optimistic, and I was starting to worry about my plans, to be honest. I will post again later with more reasonable goals. I really have promised an "Everglades" type excursion to SWMBO in order to sell the trip, so I'd really like to create an itinerary that accomplishes it, hence the Punta Gorda destination. Perhaps we could make it there from Venice or some such solution.

Thx again

[phillysailor]

A follow up post.

The charter was great fun, and probably because we dramatically downsized our itinerary. We started our trip at 0200 Saturday, leaving from near Philly to Newark Airport for a 0600 flight to Tampa. We had four big duffles for six people, which included our snorkel gear and five lifejackets. Since we had kids along (8-15) we wanted lifejackets on deck, and the only way to promote that is to wear them ourselves and have comfortable ones for use.

We also made sure we had a portable VHF radio, cruising guide and chartkit, basic nav tools for plotting... we used them aboard, but probably only really needed the cruising guide. Next time I'd bring them all again, though.

The first day was spent with a captain from Sailing Florida Charters, and that was a great idea, because the tech on the boat deserved, at least for me, a bit more instruction and information than a one hour briefing and we practiced a heave-to man overboard maneuver that was enlightening, to say the least. We also reviewed our week's plans and I learned a bit about some shoals that made Passe-a-Grille and a couple other passes more interesting.

The second day was a daysail with family who lived nearby. We had a pleasant trip into the bay, and then ate at a Thai place deeper into town, and did some provisioning because we rented a car for a trip to the Peace River on the third day. The airboat ride was great fun, but the horseback ride was pretty boring.

The fourth day we headed out, but had a snafu with the in-mast roller furling, that prompted a return to the Vinoy charter base. The car on the boom that guides the outhaul had broken prior to our charter, and the new block hadn't yet arrived. This meant the clew flew higher and extreme care had to be taken when furling the main. Whoops. The dock monkeys climbed the mast & sorted us out in no time, and, several hours later than we'd wanted, we headed for the Sunshine Skyway bridge. Turned the corner, and headed through Passe-A-Grille.

Reaching the Pinellas Byway fixed bridge separating us from Gulfport we saw 65 ft showing on the piling to the right of the main channel span. Not wanting to risk our 64 ft mast (with antennas and windex above that) under that span (although it only gets higher from that piling) we did an about face and anchored next to Isla del Sol after slowly depth checking the approach.

The next day we motored to behind the Don Cesar hotel, approached by Mud Key Channel: hard left at our nemesis bridge. Perfect little anchorage which we had to ourselves. The kids went off to the St Pete Bridge and made sand castles. SWMBO and I had a great time at Sea Critters Cafe where I managed to drop my eyeglasses getting out of the dinghy. Aargh.

So the next morning I headed out with the snorkel stuff to retrieve glasses before we left the hook and motored out to the Gulf and sailed to the Egmont Key entrance. Seas were 5 ft and winds were gusting to 25 so we had reefs in and spray was flying: fun conditions that the crew handled really well. Two of my kids slept the entire time, and the rest ate ice cream in the cockpit.

Sailing back to the Vinoy we gradually bore away from close hauled to eventually a run. The only drama was at the Sunshine Skyway two power boats over 45' coming from the ICW weren't really paying attention, but responded quickly to a hail on 16 that I was the sailboat to their right, did they see me? As soon as we arrived, I washed down the boat of all the salt and a meeting was convened in the pool and drinks were the agenda.

The next day we hit the museums in St Pete... the MFA had an exhibition on the costumes from Star Wars, and the Dali Museum was wildly interesting. While we were off the boat and it was in harbor, the charter team did get aboard to sort out a couple of issues we discovered and install the new boom car.

The last day we did another daysail, and with the new clew car back on the boom, the sail shape was sooo much better and reefing easier. It's surprising to me that we did at least 60% of our sailing over the week with at least one reef in the main. Having that car the whole time really would have been nice. Other than that, I was impressed with how nice the boat was and the attention paid by the charter group to their boats. They've got a nice fleet with a selection of monohulls, a Helia44 and a Lucia 40.

We kinda stayed around the Vinoy a lot, and at the beginning of the week decided to pay the $100 to have pool and Spa privileges at the resort across the street. This mean that the kids had a great outlet for energy, the parents could have a drink and soak up a little sun and we all could use the nice showers in the Spa. This really turned the trip into a relaxing vacation. I'm always striving to keep the family happy, and willing to go sailing again. That said, the showers on board the Jeanneau 44DS were actually really nice.

In regards to the boat, I'd say it was too big for the area where we were sailing. We couldn't make it to one of our intended destinations because of the height of the mast, and the draft limited our possible destinations. A catamaran would have doubled our space and trebled our options, but also would have increased the cost by 40% or so. I did appreciate the way the Jeanneau handled the seas and we never felt nervous, probably because the dodger was well designed and lines led aft made reefing simple: we would take in sail or let it out as we wanted so we never thought twice about adapting to conditions. The cockpit was pretty good, but I occasionally wished for another winch and dreaded the grab bar that ends with a hard edge. Ouch x3. The autopilot worked well, the anchoring system was excellent (the owner had two additional largish anchors in a lazarette), the engine had enough power and the sail were in good shape.

The cabins were fine, and storage (especially in the aft cabin) was considerably more than plenty. The pullman berth was close, but one of my boys loved it, the other preferred the dining table drop settee. We slept seven for most of the week, cooked and played cards, read books and only wished for a bit more kitchen storage. Refrigeration was excellent, since the boat had a freezer under the chart bench and the reefer was enormous. Ventilation was really good, lucky since the A/C was schizo. I used 43$ fuel, rarely used the genset, pumped out twice (more than we needed to) and filled the water tanks once: the gauge said we only used 1/2 our tankage despite showers and fresh water flushes.

I'd like to do this again, but with greater confidence, try to make Key West and the Marquesas. My wife really preferred the Helia we chartered previously, and so we've got to figure out which platform is the best. But we really made some good decisions and had a great time as a result.