Searching for a dock on the Great American Loop

[Howard888]

Our dream of getting back to cruising is starting to be realised.
We have just bought a Catalac 41 sailboat in Florida and we plan to start doing the Great American loop once we have the covid vaccine.
We still have our business in New Zealand so the plan is to sail for six months in the American summer and return to NZ to work at our Hostel during the Kiwi summer.
In order for that to happen, we need to find a safe place to store our boat during the American winter.
Ideally we would like to buy a house on the G.A.L. that we could rent out and keep the boat on the private dock while we were in NZ.
Does anyone know how best to search for Real Estate with a dock on the G.A.L?

[fourlyons]

This Is how I have done that; start by finding some towns or cities on the Great Loop that you think you might like, then go to Zillow and search that area. Filter for waterfront. If you find something that looks good, find it on a chart to verify the water is navigable. You can view or download American charts for free at NOAA's website. That narrows it down, but the only way to really verify what depth carries to the dock is to check it out in person of course.

Your best bets are likely going to be on both coasts of Florida up to Maryland, depending on what type of boat you want to keep. Remember though, it's all hurricane country to various degrees.

Just to get you started, you might search the town of Oriental, North Carolina, the area around Annapolis, Maryland, and the area around Baltimore, Maryland. The Chesapeake is rarely impacted by serious hurricanes.

Good luck, it's can be fun to look.