West Palm to Ft. Myers

[Tom Neal]

This summer I'm moving my boat (a Hunter 37-c) from North Carolina to Ft. Myers Fl.We have been to West Palm and then on to the Bahamas but have never sailed/motored further south. I would appreciate any info from those who have made the trip and any suggestions, charts guides etc.ThanksTom Nealtneal@cybernet2k.com

 

[Pete Vente]

I did it ......

Tom, I have a 37c as well, which I bought in Miami and sailed it over to Naples. From Miami, It took 3 days, mostly due to there being a tropical depression giving us 30 knots on the nose mostly from the southwest. This also precluded us from taking Hawk's Channel on the outside of the keys. I took the inside route (we have the 4' shoal draft), and motored through the ICW until Islamorada/Upper Matacumbe area - there is one drawbridge at US 1 to go through. We left Islamorada at 10:00 AM and overnighted to Marco Island (we arrived at 5:00 AM in the dark, unfortunately). You have to follow some marks until about 5 miles (guesstimate) north of Lower Matacumbe, then it's a straight shot up to Marco. If you have the deeper draft version of the 37c, you may run into problems if you catch low tide in the wrong area, but otherwise it should be fine. Another note, however, is that there aren't too many marinas on the inside route. E-mail me if you need any more specific info, and I'll dig it out of my logs....Pete

 

[Robert Cooper]

low fixed bridges

Can you believe there is a 50' fixed bridge coming out of the Caloosahachee River into Ft. Myers?

 

[red coles]

Bridge height

There are four fixed bridges at 50' on the Caloosahatchee. I believe this is the controlling height on the west coast of Florida. Good luck red

 

[John]

been there, done that

I bought my H40 in Ft Lauderdale and sailed it around thru the keys and up. Because of bridge clerance I had to sail outside to Miami and then stayed inside to Long Key and north from there to Venice. My 40 has a 5ft draft and did bump the bottom once. The ICW in the Keys in a lot of areas only has about five feet of water. And yes there are very few marinas along the inside route. I had to go outside at Long Key for fuel before heading north. The inside route is beautiful with lots of great anchorages.Get a good cruising guide and have a great trip.