We just finished Step 1 in the Winterization Process, which is to trailer the boat to south Florida for a couple of weeks. We chose Moorings Marina at Longboat Key Club Resort and had a great time using Cat O' Mine as a floating RV while taking advantage of the resort amenities. It's a very well maintained, lush and expensive place with 24h gated security at both marina and Gulf hotel sites. $2.85/ft with a min 35 ft fee ($100/night) plus a mandatory $20/night resort fee. They honor the 10% discount advertised on Active Captain for Boat US members but only if you mention that. Marina has heated pool and hot tub as does Gulfside hotel site 3 miles south with free van transport on call (tip the kid) there or as far south as St Armands Circle. Boutique shopping and restaurants, for $28 at highly rated (Trip Advisor) Shore Diner I got 3 shrimp and 2 scallops. In Pensacola for that price we get 5-6 times the amount of food and 1-2 meals of leftovers.
The nearest ramp for a 25' is 3 miles south at Ken Thompson park (6am-11pm) and that's iffy at med tide. I had to get out and push...you can see on my Moorings subalbum I grated off the port skeg antifouling. Moorings won't allow boat trailers and no storage areas were willing to store short term, but finally one owner referred me to her employee who let me store it by his house 10 miles away for $5/night (he got a $30 tip). The logistics were complex...trailered to the ramp, disconnected the rig, drove the truck to check in at Moorings then back to the ramp to launch the boat, disconnected the empty trailer, Eileen drove the truck back to the marina while I drove the boat there, docked the boat and drove back to the ramp to tow the trailer to Skip's house...but it gave us our fav combo at a marina...the boat plus the truck for independent transportation. On the last day we explained how trailer boating works and Moorings sent the van for us at the ramp.
The resort gives a card to record all purchases at bars, the restaurants etc...no cash or credit cards...you pay at the end like a cruise ship (gasp, I didn't know beers were that much, although they came in a cute painted bucket of ice). Coolers/food/bev not allowed at pools or beach, but we discretely snuck in food/bev and the staff didn't say anything. There is a gourmet Publix 2 blocks away. We had big breakfasts out ($7-$9), Publix chipoltle chicken salad on crackers lunches and Publix seafood toaster oven dinners on the boat. Staff was shocked at checkout we had nothing on our card...I believe we were the first. Although we were about the only trailer boat in the marina, they put us right in front of the Portofino restaurant and close to the bath house. Marina is far from ICW wakes with minimal wind exposure. Lots of cool yachts including a 64 ft 2010 Nordhaven for sale for $2.5M, which sounds like a really good price to me. Ken35216 came in the day we were leaving and they put him next to us, so they're not pushing us to the back out of sight. Avoid H dock slips 1-5 where winds push the floating sea grass/debris. Call on arrival VHF channel 8 and the uniformed marina staff will come out (24h) and help you dock, secure your lines to the clean fixed docks (tides 24") and connect your shore power for you if you need that sort of help. We didn't, we just did it all wrong (our way) as usual. Super clean private showers. Resort fee covers tennis at both marina and gulf side, (not golf), bikes, 2 beach towels each per day, gulf beach lounges and umbrellas, fab fitness facility we didn't use, 1.5 mile gulfront uncrowded beach, power, cable, on-call van transport, pumpout at gas dock. Early checkout allowed. This is not an overnight good deal, plan on 3 full days minimum.
Every day was sunny with highs of 78 to 81 degrees. No guarantees on weather, but plan B was to move on to Marathon though that's another driving day. Grand total diesel fuel was under $300, boat gas under $6. 10 nights on the boat was our longest outing yet and we don't see any limit now except for our work schedules.
We felt this experiment went well, compared to renting a hotel there or flying to the Caribbean. Marina slips were widely available on short notice (even in Marathon and Key West Garrison Bight). You can change plans quickly at no charge. It's under 2 days tow for half the country.
We then completed Step 2 in the Winterization Process, which is to drop the boat off at a Yamaha 5 star dealer with a long list of the things I'm too dense to know how to do correctly and then Step 3, go back to work to pay for them.
Cheers!
John
