My wife and I plan to start cruising in the near future. Unfortunately we live in Birmingham,Alabama whick is not exactly a hub for cruisers. Anyway it may be possible to move to Charleston in a year or so. What we are thinking is work and buy a boat and get used to it for a year or so before moving aboard full time. My question is " What do you think about Charleston and sailing?" We have been there several times once we towed a trailerable sailboat and sailed on the harbor a couple of days. But we have no idea about marinas sailing conditions etc. Crusing world recently had an article on Charleston. We aren't stuck on Charleston. We've considered Galveston,TX and Norfolk,VA. We have mothers in East,TN would like to be reasonably close in case of illness and the Carolinas and Virgina are about the same distance as Birmingham. Any advice or comments will be considered. Thanks Tom
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Jim Cook
How about spending paradise in Corpus Christi, TX?
I've got friends in Charleston who say it is great, but I don't know about marinas. If you are considering Galvaston, why not think about Corpus Christi? We are just a little further south. We have a large bay and access to the Gulf. Marina prices are good. City marinas for 27 ft length run about $134/month and Port Aransas (between the bay and the gulf) allows live-aboards. There are several private slips available on Padre Island starting around $75/month (includes water & electric). Corpus is a great location with 250,000 people but a small town atmosphere in many ways. I once read that it has the highest average "sustained wind speed" of any city in the country. Great for sailing YEAR-AROUND. Used boat prices in CC are often a few thousand $s cheaper than Galvaston and points north or east. Jim Cook "Dream Chaser", O'Day 27
I've got friends in Charleston who say it is great, but I don't know about marinas. If you are considering Galvaston, why not think about Corpus Christi? We are just a little further south. We have a large bay and access to the Gulf. Marina prices are good. City marinas for 27 ft length run about $134/month and Port Aransas (between the bay and the gulf) allows live-aboards. There are several private slips available on Padre Island starting around $75/month (includes water & electric). Corpus is a great location with 250,000 people but a small town atmosphere in many ways. I once read that it has the highest average "sustained wind speed" of any city in the country. Great for sailing YEAR-AROUND. Used boat prices in CC are often a few thousand $s cheaper than Galvaston and points north or east. Jim Cook "Dream Chaser", O'Day 27
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Joe Boyette
Check out Jacksonville, Florida...
You may be very pleasently surprised. River sailing on the St. Johns, ocean access, Bahamas are near...
You may be very pleasently surprised. River sailing on the St. Johns, ocean access, Bahamas are near...
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tom
Corpus Christi
Hi Jim; I've been to Corpus Christi several times. A friend owned a boat there and I used to windsurf there. A great place!!!! I have never been to Galveston but I work in research and there are jobs available at the University of Texas at Galveston. The same with Charleston as they have the Medical University of SC. Ideally we can find jobs and have a great place to sail. Tom
Hi Jim; I've been to Corpus Christi several times. A friend owned a boat there and I used to windsurf there. A great place!!!! I have never been to Galveston but I work in research and there are jobs available at the University of Texas at Galveston. The same with Charleston as they have the Medical University of SC. Ideally we can find jobs and have a great place to sail. Tom
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Rick Webb
Mobile
You have probably been to Mobile but I'll throw it in anyway the beach is very nice to the east and it is a big enough town to have Universities and the like.
You have probably been to Mobile but I'll throw it in anyway the beach is very nice to the east and it is a big enough town to have Universities and the like.
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Scott Heller
Loved Charleston
We live in CA now, but had a great time while in Charleston. The rivers and harbor offered plenty of short sail trips from a few hours to an overnight. We used to anchor just up the Wando, North of the I-526 overpass. Decent shelter and only a quick jaunt back to safety. As with any where in the South, there will be places to go swimming and other places to avoid (sharks/alligators... mostly at night). In the summer the water will be in the mid 80's and very comfortable. I never hesitated to dive on the anchor. The harbor is huge and scenic (Ft. Sumter, etc...), just pay attention to where the shoal water is. As for the inter-coastal, many people love it, although we only used it to get to a local boat yard. The downside of the ICW is plenty of shoal water and daylight only travel. Dataw made a nice 12 hr sail South, but we always went outside. Our parting shot, was a 3 week sail from Charleston to Panama City, FL prior to shipping our 376 to CA. The downside of using the ocean is the opportunity for rougher water. Heading North or South there are plenty of great places to stop at varying distances and protection. Just pick up a ICW guide and pick places. We sailed just about every weekend and often didn't leave the harbor (5-6 hrs). Our Marina was the Cooper River Marina on the old Navy base. As for Marina's, we went with Cooper River Marina. It is on the old Navy base and was the least expensive. Over a year ago it was around $6.50/ft. There are plenty of marina's in the area, but liveaboard costs can be pretty high. Scott
We live in CA now, but had a great time while in Charleston. The rivers and harbor offered plenty of short sail trips from a few hours to an overnight. We used to anchor just up the Wando, North of the I-526 overpass. Decent shelter and only a quick jaunt back to safety. As with any where in the South, there will be places to go swimming and other places to avoid (sharks/alligators... mostly at night). In the summer the water will be in the mid 80's and very comfortable. I never hesitated to dive on the anchor. The harbor is huge and scenic (Ft. Sumter, etc...), just pay attention to where the shoal water is. As for the inter-coastal, many people love it, although we only used it to get to a local boat yard. The downside of the ICW is plenty of shoal water and daylight only travel. Dataw made a nice 12 hr sail South, but we always went outside. Our parting shot, was a 3 week sail from Charleston to Panama City, FL prior to shipping our 376 to CA. The downside of using the ocean is the opportunity for rougher water. Heading North or South there are plenty of great places to stop at varying distances and protection. Just pick up a ICW guide and pick places. We sailed just about every weekend and often didn't leave the harbor (5-6 hrs). Our Marina was the Cooper River Marina on the old Navy base. As for Marina's, we went with Cooper River Marina. It is on the old Navy base and was the least expensive. Over a year ago it was around $6.50/ft. There are plenty of marina's in the area, but liveaboard costs can be pretty high. Scott
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Joe Newman
Try the pamlico sound
Tom, I bought my boat in charleston and brought it up to jacksonville, nc on the icw. SC, north of charleston, is desolate. Myrtle beach has a few marinas, but at this point the icw is little more than a glorified ditch. If you want to stay close to east tennessee I suggest the nc coast. I live in hickory, nc and keep my boat on the coast. try calling or check into some marinas on the pamlico sound north of morehead city, nc. from there you can sail to cape hatteras, ocracoke, cape lookout, there are all kinds of possibilites. the pamlico is BIG, you can go out and not see the shore and still be in 20ft of water. or you can cruise down to beaufort, nc. lots of possibilities. good luck.
Tom, I bought my boat in charleston and brought it up to jacksonville, nc on the icw. SC, north of charleston, is desolate. Myrtle beach has a few marinas, but at this point the icw is little more than a glorified ditch. If you want to stay close to east tennessee I suggest the nc coast. I live in hickory, nc and keep my boat on the coast. try calling or check into some marinas on the pamlico sound north of morehead city, nc. from there you can sail to cape hatteras, ocracoke, cape lookout, there are all kinds of possibilites. the pamlico is BIG, you can go out and not see the shore and still be in 20ft of water. or you can cruise down to beaufort, nc. lots of possibilities. good luck.
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