Terrapin in Fisherman’s Village Marina (this is before we changed her name)

Christmas in Fishville Marina

We looked at boats on line all over the country.  I had pretty much narrowed down the boat I wanted to the PDQ 32 (more about that in another post).  But where to locate the boat?  As commuter cruisers, we plan to maintain our home in Lexington Ky, and I will continue to work at the University.  We considered buying a boat in the Caribbean and keeping it in a marina there, moving it to  Grenada for hurricane season.  However, the logistics of getting back and forth to Lexington were formidable.  After spending some time in Sarasota and checking out the West Coast of Florida, we realized that we  have beautiful sailing grounds right in our own backyard, so to speak. The “aha moment” came when we realized that Allegiant Air flies non-stop from Lexington to Punta Gorda 5 days a week with really cheap fares.  So, it made perfect sense to locate the boat in Punta Gorda.  This narrowed our search to the East Coast of the US and the Gulf Coast.  If I found a boat in this area, I could easily sail it to Punta Gorda, although sailing from the Northeast would take some time.  As it happened, a boat came up for sale in Sarasota, and the sellers were happy to move it to Punta Gorda for us to inspect.  After going through the inspection, purchase, registration, identifying a marina, storage, etc, it was invaluable to be able to easily travel from Lexington to Punta Gorda in 2 hrs.  With respect  to a marina and boat storage, I think we were extremely lucky.  Punta Gorda has a fantastic marina called Fisherman’s Village Marina.  We were lucky enough to secure a slip for the season (November through May).  Then we located a great boat storage yard called Safe Cove, which is a 2hr sail across Charlotte Harbor in a freshwater canal system.  I can’t imagine trying to do all this in the Caribbean in a foreign country.  I know a lot of people  do  it, but I’m not sure everyone thinks it through.  Location matters!