# South East Coast Sailing



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

We currently live and sail in the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands. My wife is possibly relocating to the east coast.....NC, SC, GA or FL......as part of our decision making, and since I have no sailing experience on the eastern seaboard, I am looking for general feedback on the best areas to consider.......Portsmouth, VA, Wilmington, NC......Charleston, SC......Ft. Lauderdale, FL.......Punta Gorda, FL.......best access to trips to the south. Also, are insurance policies an issue.....needing special insurance binders due to weather? Thanks


----------



## emcentar (Apr 28, 2009)

Welcome!

I'm somewhat north of your intended location, but if you are thinking of the east coast for sailing, I would add some places further north in the Chesapeake (Annapolis and Baltimore are the big towns, lots of smaller town options) to your list as well.

This list of best yachting towns seems to be pretty comprehensive, although I can't vouch for the ones I'm unfamiliar with:








50 Best Yachting Towns


We've tallied the votes and now present our list of finalists.




www.yachtingmagazine.com


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

Thank you very much.......I did stumble across that article as well. I've had a good day of research, including a call on boat insurance differences/limitations to expect. Currently, my top picks are (considering my wife's work relocation options).....Wilmington, NC......Beaufort, NC........Wrightsville Beach, NC.......Charleston, SC.......St. Augustine, FL........and St. Petersburg, FL. But I will see if she has opportunities further north. Thanks again.


----------



## skipmac (Oct 31, 2007)

Florida east coast sailing 99% is one of two options you go out, sail around, go back to starting point OR go out, sail up or down the coast to the next inlet go in. The ICW does run the length of the state but most of it is narrow and not really a place for cruising. BUT south east Florida 50 miles away are the Bahamas. Some of the most beautiful cruising in the world.

Farther north you do have the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays or even farther New England, Long Island Sound, Maine, Cape Cod. New England also great cruising but very seasonal and high cost of living. The Bays are nice but not my kind of cruising and also pretty seasonal. 

Hard to beat the year round sailing in south FL as long as you are prepared to duck and run from an occasional hurricane.


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

Great feedback, very much appreciated. I know that sailing along the coast will be completely different from what we are used to here......our main goal is to get to the Bahamas, and eventually head to the Mediterranean once we've both retired. For now, just looking for the best place to moor a sailboat with good access to the ICW. Thanks again.


----------



## skipmac (Oct 31, 2007)

M&D Legacy said:


> Great feedback, very much appreciated. I know that sailing along the coast will be completely different from what we are used to here......our main goal is to get to the Bahamas, and eventually head to the Mediterranean once we've both retired. For now, just looking for the best place to moor a sailboat with good access to the ICW. Thanks again.


From a long term FL sailor a few comments.

First the farther south you go the more expensive the docking costs. Also more restrictive anchoring. Minor changes when you get to the keys where it can be a bit cheaper than Miami/Ft Lauderdale/Palm Beach,

To reach the Bahamas is only 50 miles but the main cruising areas are another 100-150 miles farther so plan your trips accordingly.

Med. Was my 2020 plan but guess you know what happened to that.

ICW easy access from most coastal FL. The tricky part is some stretches of the coast it's a long way between inlets.


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

Awesome.....I'm currently working on my International Sailing License needed for the Med......and I've confirm with Boat US/Geico the insurance requirements to head farter south. I think we will look at Charleston (since my wife's career opportunities are more favorable there).........but I hear St. Augustine is nice, but......possibly not affordable for us. Thanks again.....


----------



## skipmac (Oct 31, 2007)

M&D Legacy said:


> Awesome.....I'm currently working on my International Sailing License needed for the Med......and I've confirm with Boat US/Geico the insurance requirements to head farter south. I think we will look at Charleston (since my wife's career opportunities are more favorable there).........but I hear St. Augustine is nice, but......possibly not affordable for us. Thanks again.....


I have only heard of two places in the Med that ask for any kind of license or certification. One is Croatia where they want to see some kind of training certificate, the other the European Canals that I hear require CEVNI which as a prerequisite requires the ICC.

St Augustine I believe is one of the more affordable places in Florida. Haven't kept a boat there but friends have and they were on a low budget. Last I heard there is a city owned mooring field that is quite affordable.


----------



## JustJosh (Oct 7, 2020)

I'm very new to sailing so don't weigh my advice too strongly  but if you end up landing in North Carolina there are some nice sailing communities around Oriental, Washington, New Bern, Beaufort areas of NC. I'm out of Raleigh but I'm chartering at the moment and purchasing a boat in the spring but I've been exploring these areas to be my sailing home and I've been impressed with them so far. They also seem to have some great weekend sailing opportunities but also reasonable passages north to the Chesapeake and the outer banks or south to Charleston or Hilton Head. Washington and Oriental although not free of hurricane/flooding risk tend I think to be more protected (at least my sense from my reading is).


----------



## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

M&D Legacy said:


> Thank you very much.......I did stumble. Currently, my top picks are (considering my wife's work relocation options).....Wilmington, NC......Beaufort, NC........Wrightsville Beach, NC.......Charleston, SC.......St. Augustine, FL........and St. Petersburg, FL. But I will see if she has opportunities further north. Thanks again.


I have done one week charters, two separate times, from Oriental North Carolina. The Neuse River Sound is a lovely sailing area. And there is fairly easy access out to the ICW and the ocean. There are some lovely towns to visit, like New Bern, and Beaufort.

The wind is usually pretty good in the area and can provide some pretty excellent to sometimes challenging sailing.

The nice thing about sailing on the East Coast, on the Atlantic, is there are more ports and estuaries conveniently spaced up and down the coast, than there is on the Pacific coast.

The places you are thinking about are excellent because they are centrally located. From any of those places you can take week-long, or longer excursions North (preferably in the summer), and South (preferably in the winter) and have plenty of places to pop into, either for nighttime anchorage's, or protection from bad weather.

It is also possible to travel the entire East Coast through the protected inland Intracoastal Waterway ICW.

I just bought my boat and have it based on the Chesapeake, in preparation for being a snowbird making annual trips up and down the East Coast.


----------



## skipmac (Oct 31, 2007)

midwesterner said:


> I have done one week charters, two separate times, from Oriental North Carolina. The Neuse River Sound is a lovely sailing area. And there is fairly easy access out to the ICW and the ocean. There are some lovely towns to visit, like New Bern, and Beaufort.
> 
> The wind is usually pretty good in the area and can provide some pretty excellent to sometimes challenging sailing.
> 
> ...


Well you can't travel the entire east coast on the ICW. It officially starts in Norfolk VA and goes south from there. North from Norfolk you can stay in protected water by going up the Chesapeake, cross the C&D canal and back down Delaware Bay but after that it's open ocean until you enter NY Harbor and go up the East River to Long Island Sound. After LI Sound it's mostly open with occasional islands between you and Europe but no more ICW.


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

JustJosh said:


> I'm very new to sailing so don't weigh my advice too strongly  but if you end up landing in North Carolina there are some nice sailing communities around Oriental, Washington, New Bern, Beaufort areas of NC. I'm out of Raleigh but I'm chartering at the moment and purchasing a boat in the spring but I've been exploring these areas to be my sailing home and I've been impressed with them so far. They also seem to have some great weekend sailing opportunities but also reasonable passages north to the Chesapeake and the outer banks or south to Charleston or Hilton Head. Washington and Oriental although not free of hurricane/flooding risk tend I think to be more protected (at least my sense from my reading is).


Thanks, Oriental is one of our stops to check out. We are going to fly into Raleigh.....head to Wilmington, up to Beaufort.......then back to Wrights Beach on our way to Charleston. Unfortunately the Amel Super Maru we were looking at just sold. We have a Cheoy Lee 42 Offshore Ketch here in the Puget Sound.


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

midwesterner said:


> I have done one week charters, two separate times, from Oriental North Carolina. The Neuse River Sound is a lovely sailing area. And there is fairly easy access out to the ICW and the ocean. There are some lovely towns to visit, like New Bern, and Beaufort.
> 
> The wind is usually pretty good in the area and can provide some pretty excellent to sometimes challenging sailing.
> 
> ...


Thanks a lot......it sounds like I am on the right track. All the comments very much appreciated. We're going to visit and road trip late November/early December.......that will be very informative.


----------



## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

M&D Legacy said:


> Thanks, Oriental is one of our stops to check out. We are going to fly into Raleigh.....head to Wilmington, up to Beaufort.......then back to Wrights Beach on our way to Charleston. Unfortunately the Amel Super Maru we were looking at just sold.


I wouldn't hesitate to shop for boats all up and down the East Coast. There are some great boats from New England to Georgia and it isn't hard to get them to your final port of choice later. If you can't sail it there yourself, it's not too difficult to find delivery captains who will.

And a lot of New England boats have been stored and covered for three to four months out of the year, and many are in very good shape, if they've been properly cared for.

Before I found my boat (1980 Bristol 35.5) in Annapolis, on the Chesapeake Bay, I came very close to buying a boat in Warwick Rhode Island. There are great boats around Boston, Providence Rhode Island, along the Long Island Sound, New York, New Jersey, all around the Chesapeake near Annapolis and Newport News Virginia. There are lots of boats in Oriental and New Bern North Carolina.

Are you still working also, or are you free to sail for extended periods of time?

When I was boat shopping, I did not rule out boats located on the Great Lakes. Some of the boats on the Great Lakes even get stored inside boat sheds for the winter. At the time I was in a job from which I could take extended periods of time off in the summer. I contemplated sailing my new boat around the Great Loop out to the East Coast. It is something people have done. It expands your shopping area, if you would have the time to sail and motor around the route.

During my boat shopping, over the past five years, I found a number of Blue Water capable boats that had never left the freshwaters of the Great Lakes, from the time they were first delivered there new.

The Great Loop route provides direct access out to the Atlantic, for the person who has the time to make the trip. At the time I did.


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

I have 5 more years of work here in the Seattle area.....my wife is considering a move to the east coast next year and will work another 5 years after I retire. So we might sell the house now, I live aboard until I retire and join her on the coast and sell our boat here. Then, when she retires........we move to the Med with hopefully or Amel.


----------



## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

M&D Legacy said:


> We currently live and sail in the Puget Sound and San Juan Islands. My wife is possibly relocating to the east coast.....NC, SC, GA or FL......as part of our decision making, and since I have no sailing experience on the eastern seaboard, I am looking for general feedback on the best areas to consider....... Also, are insurance policies an issue.....needing special insurance binders due to weather? Thanks


One of the things I just realized, is that you are in for a real shock about the weather on the East Coast. The point on the East Coast, at a comparable latitude to Seattle, has single-digit temperatures in the winter time, and only about a six or seven month sailing season, depending on how hardy you are.

To find a place on the East Coast that has the seasonably warm temperatures you have in the winter time, you would have to go far enough South, that you'll encounter summer temperatures in the high 80s or low 90s, and stifling humidity.

It's why so many retirees on the East Coast make seasonal trips of nine hundred to a thousand miles just to get the seasonable temperatures you have, all in one place.

I posted a comparison of temperatures of the latitude on the East Coast that most closely resembles Seattle.

















Oh, and in the areas that have warm enough temperatures for year-round sailing and seasonable temperatures more like Seattle, everybody has screens on their sailboats to guard against the mosquitoes and black biting flies.


----------



## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

I've come to believe there is no perfect year round sailing grounds on the East Coast. Many of the reasons stated above. I love New England in season, given it's diverse and abundant sailing grounds. It's inhospitable in the winter. As mentioned, go far enough south for good weather in the winter and both high temps, high humidity and hurricanes are all in play, during the summer. If I was choosing a place to stay year round down south, it would be a priority that it was well protected and had haul out capabilities. 

I do love the Charleston area and have considered wintering there many times. I've not sailed in the Carolinas in the summer, but I've been there many times in July and Aug. It's like breathing water.


----------



## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

Minnewaska said:


> I've come to believe there is no perfect year round sailing grounds on the East Coast. ....
> 
> ....I do love the Charleston area and have considered wintering there many times. I've not sailed in the Carolinas in the summer, but I've been there many times in July and Aug. It's like breathing water.


Yes, if the OP and his wife are lifelong Seattlites they will likely wither in the 90-degree heat and 80% humidity in the summer, in the Carolinas. And then there are the black biting flies.

We have the heat and humidity in Missouri, minus the black biting flies. I'm always amazed at the people who come to Missouri, in the summer, from Arizona and complain about the heat. I always point out that they have summer temperatures above 100, and they always say, "But not with this humidity"


----------



## denverd0n (Jun 20, 2008)

Laughed my butt off, years ago, when I saw this exchange between Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon...

Johnny: It has really been hot here in Los Angeles the last few days, up around 100 degrees.
Ed: That's true, but the humidity is low, so it's a dry heat.
Johnny: You know, when I die I am going to end up in hell, and there will be some guy there saying, "yeah, but it's a dry heat!"


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

midwesterner said:


> One of the things I just realized, is that you are in for a real shock about the weather on the East Coast. The point on the East Coast, at a comparable latitude to Seattle, has single-digit temperatures in the winter time, and only about a six or seven month sailing season, depending on how hardy you are.
> 
> To find a place on the East Coast that has the seasonably warm temperatures you have in the winter time, you would have to go far enough South, that you'll encounter summer temperatures in the high 80s or low 90s, and stifling humidity.
> 
> ...


Great information to heed.....thank you for doing this. I know that we are spoiled by our relatively mild weather conditions here, which make for 11-months of comfortable sailing conditions, and no severe weather events that cannot be easily ridden out in a marina. And yes, I am a dyed-in-the-wool Puget Sounder....but I did spend a summer in Quantico, VA long ago, and the heat/humidity was as extreme as when I was an exchange student in southern Japan. Thanks again for doing this......and I will take a closer look at latitude in our decision making.


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

Minnewaska said:


> I've come to believe there is no perfect year round sailing grounds on the East Coast. Many of the reasons stated above. I love New England in season, given it's diverse and abundant sailing grounds. It's inhospitable in the winter. As mentioned, go far enough south for good weather in the winter and both high temps, high humidity and hurricanes are all in play, during the summer. If I was choosing a place to stay year round down south, it would be a priority that it was well protected and had haul out capabilities.
> 
> I do love the Charleston area and have considered wintering there many times. I've not sailed in the Carolinas in the summer, but I've been there many times in July and Aug. It's like breathing water.


I'm not too concerned about the humidity......my kin folk are from the Oklahoma/Arkansas/Texas region, so I have spent a lot of summers in miserable heat/humidity with no water for miles. I'm mainly concerned about having to annually put a boat on the hard, I'm sure that's not inexpensive task...coupled with still needing to pay for your marina slip? Thanks again.....


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

midwesterner said:


> Yes, if the OP and his wife are lifelong Seattlites they will likely wither in the 90-degree heat and 80% humidity in the summer, in the Carolinas. And then there are the black biting flies.
> 
> We have the heat and humidity in Missouri, minus the black biting flies. I'm always amazed at the people who come to Missouri, in the summer, from Arizona and complain about the heat. I always point out that they have summer temperatures above 100, and they always say, "But not with this humidity"


As I mentioned, I'm from the PNW and have southern roots......my wife is from Liverpool, England, so she struggles in the humidity a bit more than I do......


----------



## emcentar (Apr 28, 2009)

11 months of comfortable sailing conditions! I need to move to Seattle.

Chesapeake and south, you can leave the boat in the water year round, just get a bubbler in case of a hard freeze and try to live as close as you can so you can check on it when you aren't sailing as frequently.


----------



## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

M&D Legacy said:


> I'm not too concerned about the humidity......my kin folk are from the Oklahoma/Arkansas/Texas region, so I have spent a lot of summers in miserable heat/humidity with no water for miles.


You know what you're deal with, that's half the battle.



> I'm mainly concerned about having to annually put a boat on the hard, I'm sure that's not inexpensive task...coupled with still needing to pay for your marina slip? Thanks again.....


So this really depends. In seasonal locations, like RI, it's much less expensive to have the boat on the hard, for the winter, than in the slip for the summer. Ironically, I've heard Maine is a fairly expensive place to be on the hard in the winter, but that's from one buddy and could be his unique circumstance.

I would think, where temperature permitted year round sailing, storage on the hard would be less expensive than at the slip. Regional pricing is so different too. A buddy paid about the same to keep his similar size boat at a slip year round in Annapolis, as what I paid for the 7 months of in season and I still had to pay more for winter storage.

You'll figure it out. If you end up in Charleston, I'll be jealous.


----------



## sesmith (Jan 24, 2013)

Charleston is a great area. We have a house about 1/2 hour inland from there and a trailerable sailboat in the driveway. Sadly, haven't had a chance to sail down there yet yet as we spend summers sailing up on the Great Lakes on our other boat (not sadly) in the summer.

One other thing you may want to take into consideration, is the tax situation in the various states. South Carolina has a low sales tax rate on boats, which is more than made up by the boat unfriendly property tax that keeps giving year after year. Georgia and North Carolina are cheaper in that regard, but not sure by how much. Florida has the sales use tax but I don't believe has a personal property tax on boats.


----------



## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

sesmith said:


> South Carolina has a low sales tax rate on boats, which is more than made up by the boat unfriendly property tax


That could be enough reason to think about moving the boat, as a transient, between summer and winter ports. I haven't checked in a while, but thought SC exempted their use tax, for out of state residents, if you stayed less than six months.


----------



## sesmith (Jan 24, 2013)

Minnewaska said:


> That could be enough reason to think about moving the boat, as a transient, between summer and winter ports. I haven't checked in a while, but thought SC exempted their use tax, for out of state residents, if you stayed less than six months.


Yes they do. I believe the time in Charleston county is 180 days (varies by county). But if you live in SC, there is no exemption, even if the boat spends almost all of its time somewhere else. It does help to register the boat as a second home as the rate is lower (has to have a galley, etc).


----------



## sesmith (Jan 24, 2013)

Don't want to come across as complaining in the above. Just wanted the OP to know that the boat tax situation varies state to state, if that's a consideration. For us, property taxes on our house in SC are much lower than in NY state, where we lived until last year, so that more than offsets the personal property taxes we pay on vehicles.

A larger boat, though is a bit different as the rate on boats is higher. I'm not sure if we'll ever bring our Catalina 350 down there. We still have a lot of exploring to do up on the Great Lakes anyhow, but last I checked personal property tax on a 100k boat registered as a second home would be around $2500 per year, not exactly chump change for a boat you already paid the big sales tax rate up north for when you bought it. States have to get their operating cash somehow, though, and it's a great area to live (at least, to winter😎).


----------



## emcentar (Apr 28, 2009)

Not sailing related, but: If you buying a house, you should be aware that rising seas are impacting east coast towns much more than on the west coast. Some places may become uninsurable over the next few decades. For example, Charleston floods now when there's a very high tide, with lots of property damage. Here's a good article on 'sunny day floods' across the east coast with a graph the most impacted cities.









Flooding Hot Spots: Why Seas Are Rising Faster on the U.S. East Coast


Scientists are unraveling the reasons why some parts of the world are experiencing sea level increases far beyond the global average. A prime example is the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, which has been experiencing “sunny day flooding” that had not been expected for decades.




e360.yale.edu


----------



## M&D Legacy (Oct 13, 2020)

Yes, I noticed that......current Charleston flooding only to get worse. Since the Med is our ultimate destination, I'd probably look at renting only.....Thanks!


----------

