[Rhodes22-list] Punta Gorda/Port Charlott ate

[Arthur H. Czerwonky]

Dave,
Thoughts on lake sailing, very different from coastal with winds.  We have Lake Lanier in Atlanta, actually Gainesville, 30 miles away.  Hartwell is 60 miles from Lanier along I-85.  Even though a more crowded venue, the level of sailing activity is higher at Lanier.  
Art

-----Original Message-----
>From: DCLewis1 at aol.com
>Sent: Mar 5, 2006 2:45 PM
>To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
>Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte
>
>
>Julie, Bob, and Ed,
> 
>Thanks for your responses re the PG/PC sailing area.
> 
>Julie: I think we?re in agreement.  The area down by Burnt Stores  Marina 
>seems to be an active sailing area.  My focus was PG/PC per se and  we didn?t see 
>anything there.  Also, fwiw, as we drove down Burnt Store  Road, to get to 
>Burnt Store Marina, we saw a huge amount of land clearing.   I gather the plan 
>is to widen that road substantially ( I think the CoC lady  said 4 lanes) and 
>build hotels, resorts, and condos on each side of the  road.  It?s going to get 
>very crowded.
> 
>Bob: We did visit Punta Gorda Isle, that?s where we saw the one boat motor  
>out of a canal, appear to run aground, and return to the canal.  Like you,  we 
>saw bunches of sailboats, and power boats, behind a the houses on  canals - 
>but we didn?t see any on the water.  And we know the marina  was closed.  It 
>could be that the bigger boats are locked in until the  harbor is dredged.  
>Clearly, we might have just hit a bad time - although I  can?t imagine why late Fri 
>morning and Fri aft in Feb would be a bad time in  PG/PC, but it could be.  I?
>m just curious, if that were a Fri aft on the  Chesapeake in high summer 
>there would have been a small fleet out there.  I  may touch base with Tim Gower, 
>as you suggested, but clearly, the PG marina is  closed, and if the PG CoC 
>lady is vectoring visitors out of town there?s a  problem.
> 
>Ed: I caught your drift.  We plan to swing through the lakes.   One problem 
>with the inland lake environment is that temperature is much more  variable.  
>It can get cold.  Also, some lake areas are sort of  isolated, we'd like to 
>have easy access to Class A health care facilities,  etc.  But lakes are on our 
>list.
> 
>Incidentally, you suggested Amelia Island in an earlier post.  We  checked 
>that out.  My impression is that area is pretty much a delta.   Often VERY 
>shallow water except for canals that boats use for  ingress/egress.  There is 
>likely good sailing off-shore, but it may take a  couple miles passage through 
>canals to get there.  Also, there is the  Nassau river (I think that was the name) 
>that looked pretty good, but it?s a  commercial shipping venue.  Finally, 
>there is a smallish (~ 6mi) area up  around Brunswick that?s open water, but 
>again there are those narrow dredged  sailing canals to deal with.  My sense is 
>there is better sailing  elsewhere.
> 
>Our trip was interesting.  I think our bottom line with PG/PC was  there is 
>good sailing, but it?s about 10 to 15 mi south of PG/PC around the  Burnt Store 
>Marina area, not immediately adjacent to PG/PC.  Also, there is  a lot of 
>development going into the area - even as older buildings damaged in  the last 
>hurricane haven't been refurbished or torn down.
> 
>Dave
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