[Rhodes22-list] Re: Bud: ICW depth

Jim White lemenagerie22 at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 10 09:33:05 EST 2006


Art:
  We pretty much sail in the south end of the Laguna Madre, as far south as one can go....it averages about 4-6 feet deep with some deeper areas. Of course there are lots of spoil banks and shoaly areas. We also sail in the open Gulf, out Brazos Santiago Pass. 
   
  We keep Menagerie in the water year round. Last year we hauled her out during an impending hurricane, and bottom painted at that time. Ramps are a real PITA, with few public ramps available. Most of the public ramps are shallow, silted, and dangerous, as they termiate in deep water and driving the trailer wheels off can be a nightmare....
   
  I am currently overseeing the implementation of a new ramp here on the extreme south end of the island which will give access to the Laguna Madre (deep area) and the Brazos Pass, it has been a permitting nightmare!
   
  I believe that Snoopys might be up in the Aransas / Corpus area...We have Louies, Palm Street Pier, Amberjacks, Wahoos and Tequila Sunset and others all along the "strip", an area called "Thompkins Channel" which borders the quiet back side of the island. We'll often sail over there from Port Isabel, eat and drink, then sail back. It's a fun trip.
   
  Spring Break (Texas week) begins today. Oh joy. A week of madness, traffic jams and trash....
   
  Cheers

"Arthur H. Czerwonky" <czerwonky at earthlink.net> wrote:
  Jim,

You mentioned the bay a while back, and I agree some kind of place for a sailboat. With the ICW so restricted, where do you take the boat, and do you keep it on the water. Do you have a problem with ramp access on Padre?
Have you been by Snoopy's on the ICW - excellent dinner menu with dock as well as car access.

I'm curious to ask the list also - has anyone found a really good bottom paint for in the water for a while, out for a while. The one part epoxy coatings are supposed to last 48-72 hours before peeling, VC Performance, a two part, is supposed to have unlimited endurance in or out, although no anti-fouling capability.

There are excellent ideas hatching on the good areas to sail like St Joe and Cocoa. I wonder that no one has replied to the option of planning outings during the year, like CFYC.

Art

-----Original Message-----
>From: Jim White 
>Sent: Mar 9, 2006 9:59 AM
>To: The Rhodes 22 mail list 
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Re: Bud: ICW depth
>
>Bud:
> The GICWW (Gulf Intra Coastal Waterway) here is less than 100' wide (16' average depth) for over 50 miles....bordered on both sides by water averaging <3' in depth....
> 
> Now THATS narrow and shallow!
> 
> jw
>
>Bud wrote:
> Dave,
>the ICW is at least a mile wide here, and is typically deep (8'-12') 
>and is a great place to sail anything in
>our class. I occasionally crew on a Lindbergh '28 (at times we've had 7 
>people on the rail!) and we have no
>trouble maneuvering around the course. Take a quick look on mapquest 
>and you will see wide water
>from Scottsmoor down to Stuart which is over a 100 miles, with Melbourne 
>in the middle. You will be
>suprised how wide and un-crowded this area is. If you want to see a 
>narrow ICW, take a look at Daytona
>on mapquest. If I lived in Daytona I would have taken up motorcycles 
>instead of sailing. Oh, if you use
>GoogleEarth, you can see just how sparsely populated the water really is.
>
>-Bud
>
>
>
>DCLewis1 at aol.com wrote:
>
>>Ed, We intend to look @ Hartwell and Keowee. I’m sure Rummy would welcome 
>>another Rhodes on his lake. At a minimum, it’s someone else he could beat - 
>>easily. Maybe he'd feel better about it if we arrived with a bottle of Mt 
>>Gay, or is it jar of Ben Gay?
>> 
>>Regarding Sen Russell, you’re right, I’d forgotten. Regarding Strom, I’m 
>>sure he did work hard for, and represent, his constituents, he was re-elected 
>>many times.
>> 
>>Art, Regarding Lanier, the Corps advertises 7.5M visitors/yr. Wow! 
>> 
>>Julia, I think you’re right, Hudson and Dunedin have survived on our list. 
>> To out knowledge, available marinas in that part of the world are at Tarpon 
>>Springs, we checked at Dunedin and Tarpon Springs, I don’t think Hudson is 
>>directly on the water. We were told that marinas in the area have been 
>>converted to waterfront condos or are wildly oversubscribed because of the 
>>conversion of so many other marinas to waterfront condos. As I recall, the guy 
>>running the Dunedin marina said it would take at least 2 years for a 22' sailboat 
>>to get a slip in their marina - if the boat were 30' or over he projected a 
>>4+ year wait - and we’d have to be residents of Dunedin to even be put on the 
>>list. There are slips available at Tarpon Springs. One issue with that 
>>entire area is the water is shallow water. We were told by a marina operator @ 
>>Tarpon Springs that if you sailed a mile off shore, the depth would increase 
>>by about a foot - you could walk home if something happened to the boat. 
>>The charts show a very extended shelf in that part of the world. The mean 
>>depth around Dunedin is about 2 feet, as I recall (could be wrong about the 2', 
>>but it’s shallow). So thin water is an issue in that part of Fla - but it is 
>>warm, so it’s still on the list.
>> 
>>BobF, Thanks for your post, I checked back and saw Tom’s subsequent post. 
>>It explains everything we saw. But his 2 posts also identify a substantial 
>>problem: marina’s are out, at least for the near term, because the Florida 
>>EPA won’t let them dredge, ramps are not great, so Tom recommends a waterfront 
>>or canal back home. Tom reports they start at about $1.2M - and we all know 
>>they can be blown or washed away by the next big storm. Actually, when we 
>>were there we saw several canal backed homes that were in the $700Ks, but they 
>>were older (I’d guess ‘50s) and pretty small - PG/PC has been around for a 
>>while and the part near the water likely developed first. So its getting 
>>problematic given PG/PCs storm history, boating infrastructure (or lack of 
>>infrastructure), and very near term development.
>> 
>>I’d thought PG/PC might be a good place for the snowbird trick, just get a 
>>condo/townhouse and rent a slip - limit hurricane risk by limiting investment. 
>> The problem is no slips, few ramps, and a tremendous amount of development 
>>that’s going to exacerbate the need for slips and ramps (as I recall there 
>>are at least 3 high rise condos going in on PG Isles in a relatively small area 
>>just outside the park entrance no direct water access with any of them - and 
>>that’s only one place in PG). I’m starting to think that making PG/PC work 
>>could be a challenge. 
>> 
>>Bud, Thanks for suggesting Melbourne. Can you really sail that part of the 
>>ICW? Except as the ICW transects various sounds, the parts of the ICW I’ve 
>>seen on the east coast have been relatively narrow. I concluded sailing the 
>>ICW entails some sailing and a lot of motoring unless the wind cooperates. I 
>>have no experience sailing the ICW, am I wrong?
>> 
>>Also, I can report that in the Palm Coast area, and possibly other areas ( 
>>i.e. Southport NC), developers have negotiated cut-outs from the ICW where they
>>’ve built marinas for a hundred or so boats at a site. I can see real 
>>traffic jams developing in those areas when the multitude of local recreational 
>>boaters take to the relatively confined ICW ditch. Does Melbourne have that 
>>problem? I’m ambivalent about recreational sailing in the ICW, as opposed to 
>>using it as a passage from point A to point B, do people sail 22' boats 
>>recreationally in the ICW (this comment applies only to “the big ditch” part of 
>>the ICW not the sounds, river mouths, behind keys, etc)?
>>
>>Our next trek is pseudo-local, Kilmarnock VA, Washington NC via Edenton (try 
>>to check on our boat), and New Bern NC (again). This is our 3rd trip to New 
>>Bern, it has a lot going for it (Neuse River & Pamlico Sound), but it can 
>>get cold. Not as cold as Northern Va, but a lot colder than Fla. Later this 
>> year it’ll be the lakes trek. 
>> 
>>Thanks again to everyone for your input. Your local knowledge is really 
>>helpful. 
>> 
>>Dave
>>
>>__________________________________________________
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>>
>>
>> 
>>
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>
>Jim White
>Le Menagerie
>www.lemenagerie.blogspot.com
> 
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