[Rhodes22-list] Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte

[Luis Guzman]

Dave,
   
  You should take a look at the Sarasota/Bradenton area. There are lots of Marinas, lots of sailboats, and lots of places to go without running aground.
   
  Luis

DCLewis1 at aol.com wrote:
  
Folks,

Back on Feb 9 I posted a request for input regarding sailing/retirement 
locales. A number of people responded. Several people suggested Punta 
Gorda/Port Charlotte (PG/PC).

We visited PG/PC about 2 weeks ago on a swing down the east coast and I was 
surprised.

- There was 1 power boat in the PG marina, no sail boats. For practical 
purposes it was empty.
- I asked at the Chamber of Commerce (CoC) about the lack of boats and was 
told the marina had been closed for 2 years. It has to be dredged. I was 
told the plan was to open it next year - but the lady didn’t sound convinced of 
that.
- We went to PG Isle to assess their beach and see the boating. The beach 
was minimal and clearly there was still a lot of debris from the hurricane 
that hit them 2 years ago.
- While at the PG beach we saw one sail boat (~30') motor out of a canal, 
appear to run aground, turn around, and motor back into it’s canal. As I 
recall we saw no sail boats off shore out to the horizon.
- We drove over to the PC beach. Same story. Somewhat bigger beach, but a 
lot of debris in the water. We saw 1 sail boat on the horizon.
- We asked the PG CoC people about keeping a boat at PG. They said that if 
you wanted to do it NOW that you’d have to go out to the Burn’t Store Marina 
- which is about 15 to 20 minutes out of PG. The marina may be in the next 
county, it’s sure not in PG proper.
- The Burnt Store Marina looked to be active, quite a number of boats and 
sailboats.

But my problem is PG/PC. This is their high season, I’d expect to see a lot 
of boats. We saw basically none. The PG marina is closed and has been 
closed for a couple of years.

Was the PG/PC sailing ground basically wiped out by the hurricane that hit 
them? It sure didn’t look active to me. What have I missed?

Dave
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