[Rhodes22-list] Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte

[DCLewis1 at aol.com]

Julie, Bob, and Ed,
 
Thanks for your responses re the PG/PC sailing area.
 
Julie: I think we’re in agreement.  The area down by Burnt Stores  Marina 
seems to be an active sailing area.  My focus was PG/PC per se and  we didn’t see 
anything there.  Also, fwiw, as we drove down Burnt Store  Road, to get to 
Burnt Store Marina, we saw a huge amount of land clearing.   I gather the plan 
is to widen that road substantially ( I think the CoC lady  said 4 lanes) and 
build hotels, resorts, and condos on each side of the  road.  It’s going to get 
very crowded.
 
Bob: We did visit Punta Gorda Isle, that’s where we saw the one boat motor  
out of a canal, appear to run aground, and return to the canal.  Like you,  we 
saw bunches of sailboats, and power boats, behind a the houses on  canals - 
but we didn’t see any on the water.  And we know the marina  was closed.  It 
could be that the bigger boats are locked in until the  harbor is dredged.  
Clearly, we might have just hit a bad time - although I  can’t imagine why late Fri 
morning and Fri aft in Feb would be a bad time in  PG/PC, but it could be.  I’
m just curious, if that were a Fri aft on the  Chesapeake in high summer 
there would have been a small fleet out there.  I  may touch base with Tim Gower, 
as you suggested, but clearly, the PG marina is  closed, and if the PG CoC 
lady is vectoring visitors out of town there’s a  problem.
 
Ed: I caught your drift.  We plan to swing through the lakes.   One problem 
with the inland lake environment is that temperature is much more  variable.  
It can get cold.  Also, some lake areas are sort of  isolated, we'd like to 
have easy access to Class A health care facilities,  etc.  But lakes are on our 
list.
 
Incidentally, you suggested Amelia Island in an earlier post.  We  checked 
that out.  My impression is that area is pretty much a delta.   Often VERY 
shallow water except for canals that boats use for  ingress/egress.  There is 
likely good sailing off-shore, but it may take a  couple miles passage through 
canals to get there.  Also, there is the  Nassau river (I think that was the name) 
that looked pretty good, but it’s a  commercial shipping venue.  Finally, 
there is a smallish (~ 6mi) area up  around Brunswick that’s open water, but 
again there are those narrow dredged  sailing canals to deal with.  My sense is 
there is better sailing  elsewhere.
 
Our trip was interesting.  I think our bottom line with PG/PC was  there is 
good sailing, but it’s about 10 to 15 mi south of PG/PC around the  Burnt Store 
Marina area, not immediately adjacent to PG/PC.  Also, there is  a lot of 
development going into the area - even as older buildings damaged in  the last 
hurricane haven't been refurbished or torn down.
 
Dave