channel living in florida

It really depends on the area. My flood is roughly $2600 per year and HO insuracne is roughly $2800. I'm a ten minute ride into open Tampa Bay and 30 minutes to the open gulf.

I'm trying to load a picture but i just noticed that my sponsorship ran out. Time to re-up and pay the man.
 
Over the Gulf of Mexico right now on my way to Miami. Blue as can be but looks pretty rough from up here. I could get used to this water...
 
I heard you were getting snow today. It was 28* and we thought it was nice. 1st day over 10* in a long time. How are things going with your place in florida? We have family there thats one reason we have picked that area. We have not been out in a boat to see it from that direction but we liked the beaches , people and the weather. It looks to be a great place to boat. a lot to do in that area. also can go north south and east. The more snow and cold we get the more anxious we get
 
No more snow! Just looking at those pics I felt my shoulders drop a foot!


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Lucky's said:
Here's a few shots out my back door. You can see the white poles from the boat lift in the background






In this shot you can see the SR and the pursuit in the background.


Of course we're on the east coast, but we're a 45min boat ride to the ocean, have one fixed bridge with a 20' clearance and 2 with a 70' clearance. We have a minimum of 5' depth at the lowest tide and that depth is at our dock. The rest of the river to the ocean is an average of 10-16'. It all depends on where you wanna live I guess.
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Lucky, what city are you in?
 
Having made the decision to buy property in Florida several years ago, and now live there part time, one thing was true then and is true now........you need to know the local area before you invest. A lot of the canal homes in Florida are on man made canals where the priority was just building water front lots. For that reason, some of the canal homes, while on the water, are a long, long way from real water. In some places it can be an hour or more to get to open water because you are at idle the whole way. The other thing we realized is that living on the water brings with it some overhead you might not expect. You are responsible for everything...the sea wall, the dock, etc. And this stuff seems to have a relatively short life in the Florida sun and with tidal changes. For us, the better approach, because there are limited homesites with deep water access near the Gulf, was a house on the beach and the boat in a marina 10 minutes from the Gulf of Mexico with 24 hour security and haul out capability. Now, with kids and grandkids, everyone has beach access all the time, whether or not the boat driver is along on the trip.

Good luck with your search.
 
Good points Frank. When I had my marine contruction company I would be called out after a storm to give a bid for dock replacement. Too mnay times I heard that they would turn it into their insuracne company. They were not happy when I told them it's not covered. Seawalls are running near $300 a linear foot in my area ( a typical wall is 75' around here) and docks/boat lifts can run $10k and up. Also, paint, roofing, A/C units and everything else is subjected to the sun and salt water daily so things tend to diminish must faster than normal.
 
Frank and Bucit, I agree with both of you on the above posts and the key comment Frank made was "you need to know the local area". In Punta Gorda things are a little different. The area was carved out of a swamp like you said many are but the canal system is made up of concrete sea walls that are maintained by the city. If my sea wall was to fail and collapse into the canal the city would replace it. They are very responsive if you call them with any reports of cracks, or depressions in the ground behind the wall and they come right out and address them. They are also responsible to maintain the canal depth at 12'. As for the dock, my house doesn't have one so I'm getting quotes now to have this done. I'm required to install a concrete dock so I have no choice in materials but the going rate for a standard 8' x 15' dock is about $3100 complete. I'm going with 8' x 30' for $5800. Hopefully I won't have to worry too much about storm damage with everything being concrete. Just thought I'd offer a scenario from different area. Mark
 
Another thing you might not be aware of: You cannot just build or add to a dock in Florida. The state owns the land under the water so you lease the area covered by the dock and must have DEP approve your plan. YOU also cannot dredge a slip or approach to a slip without DEP approval. I don't know about South Fla, but in NW Fla, DEP will not allow any covered slips or docks. The will allow you to rebuild or maintain an existing one, so the only way to have a covered slip or dock is to have one that is grandfathered. We can move a piling, but we cannot add one without DEP approval. All this government oversight is another reason that keeping a boat in a full service marina works best for us.

And, while I'm thinking about it, and perhaps this is a local situation, but I cannot re-roof my house or rebuild a deck or do any single project (repair or addition) with a value over $25K without a building permit and codes inspections, and the work has to be supervised by a licensed contractor, architect, or Professional Engineer. Well, I am a P.E. but I cannot supervise my own work, even though my license is reciprocal with the Sate of Florida. Florida is a great place, but it pays to spend some time here exploring the local conditions before jumping off the dock.
 
We have boated all up and down the west coast of Florida and found the Dunedin/Clearwater area the best for boating. 3 rooker island, Anclote key, great places for anchoring out and relaxing or partying. Plenty of restaurants up and down the protected intracoastal to dock and enjoy lunch dinner of Sunday brunch. Calladessi island voted best beach for spring winter and fall overnights on the floating docks with water and electric.
plenty of homes and condos in deep water canals with docks and lifts that have you in great water in minutes. Plenty of awesome marinas minutes from your home if you chose to have full services for your boat.
before you settle in on Port Charlotte, or what we call the Elephant grave yard, you might want to check out this area first.
Good Luck.
 
More apt to get hurricanes further south than Clearwater. Knock wood for some reason they don't hit this part of Florida very often if at all.
 
JimT said:
i guess you weren't there for Frances and Jeanne.
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Actually was hear for both. They hit 10 years ago in 2004. Frances and Jean both came out if the Atlantic side and had to cross thru the middle of Florida, both hit just a little north of the Tampa Clearwater areas on almost the exact same track 3 weeks apart. By the time they got to us they were tropical storms with rain and winds. Did some damage to signs and trees, a few marinas had a couple of boats lost and some covered slips lost their roofs that fell on boats, but nothing like if a full strenth hurricane hit. In the last ten years the only really close call we had was from Katrina but that turned and we know what happened there. All in all we seem to be pretty lucky in this area. But hurricanes non withstanding anywhere in Florida is Paradise. And were we live boating is pretty much all year long.
 
If you are interested in Charlotte Harbor area, I think you can't go wrong with PGI (Punta Gorda Isles). I have a home there. In fact, my signature picture is taken from my back yard in PGI. Anyway, plenty of deep water canals, beautiful community, and reasonably priced homes. I have a "sail boat ready" lot. Most of the stuff in PGI is just that.
 
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