You deserve a break!  

 “You deserve a break, go to Florida to check out the boating there – fly Business Class just spend what ever you need to” ….. okay the Sportsboat budget doesn’t stretch quite that far so a family holiday to the States had to suffice and gave us a great opportunity to look at the way they boat in the States.

 If you’ve been to the States you’ll know that everything they do they do bigger, you get a feel for it from TV programs but nothing prepares you for the scale of the difference. The pickup trucks are huge, even the minor roads seem to be dual carriageways and every other person seems go own a boat. Hardly a great surprise really given that Florida is the State of 30,000 lakes, thousands of miles of canals - so you can moor your boat up at the bottom of the garden – and they’re huge on fishing. On the Gulf of Mexico coast, where we were to stay, there is also the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway which stretches from Texas in the north 1300 miles down to the Florida Keys allowing craft to travel the length of Florida without venturing out to sea – Florida truly is a boaters paradise.

 Our base was to be in the Charlotte Harbour area which is a 1.5 hour drive down from Tampa on the west side of Florida. After the long BA flight from Gatwick we picked up our car (a very trendy Chrysler Cruiser – that new American 1960s style retro car you see over here occasionally) and headed off. We were soon cruising down I41 across some very impressive bridges (one was 3 miles long) that took us across the bay down towards the Englewood area..

 Below Tampa there is a string of long thin islands facing the Gulf of Mexico that stretch from Venice in the north to Fort Myers further south (some 25 miles).  Behind these Islands there is what in effect is a huge lagoon through which the Intracoastal Waterway runs, at its widest it is a few miles from the islands to the mainland whilst elsewhere it is a few hundred yards.  This area is the other side of Florida from Disney and so is not really ‘touristy’ in the way that some of the eastern shore is. In many ways this is a big part of its appeal as flying 10 hours to sit alongside others from the UK has never really been my idea of a holiday.

 When we think of US craft we probably all tend to think of craft like Searay 20ft cuddies or bowriders from the Bayliner stable. Whilst these craft are plentiful it really is fishing that dominates this area of the US and the vast percentage of the craft are aimed at the fishing market. They tend to divide into flat hulled boats with very shallow draughts which venture into the swamp type areas or those with fairly serious deep V hulls that are designed for the offshore fisherman. Fairly typical too was the hybrid 20ft boat we hired which was a bowrider with a deep V but a large open area towards the rear of the boat for fishing from. What really surprised me (shocked would be more appropriate perhaps) was the dominance of outboards over inboards and more particularly Japanese outboards over the yank versions. Both of the hire companies we used had fitted their fleet with Yamaha 4 strokes rather than any of the US options. A great testament to the Yamahas but perhaps worrying for Mercury/Mariner etc.

 The area is so dominated by boating that waterside restaurants and bars abound each with their own jetty areas  - can there be anything more relaxing in February than cruising up in 75ºF with dolphins in your wake, tying your boat up then slowly downing a beer or cocktail while watching over a beautiful sunset? There are plenty of places to cruise to and explore with narrow shallow inlets affording glimpses of a Manatee (a ‘sea cow’) or the canals (not quite like the UK ones) taking you along the bottom of peoples immaculately manicured gardens where their 20-30ft runaround hangs suspended in its boat hoist ready for action. 

The two weeks we spent cruising around this area was great, whether it was with the kiddies on the beach, wandering around a golf course, watching the alligators that came out of the lake at the bottom of the garden or out boating this is a lovely relaxed place to come that is not too touristy.  I’ve always found it difficult to get away overseas for long periods during the boating season so Florida in the winter was a great idea. Perhaps next year we’ll do the Florida Keys – Sue what did you say the travel budget was for next year?