Any marina or private live aboard recommendations?

Yes, get a list of marinas and make some calls. Get on their waiting lists and find out what their policy is about when they start filling slips that become available. Most places wait until this year’s snowbirds leave around April or May as those folks make their down payment for next year when they depart. Make a polite pest of yourself by calling around that time and if nothing comes up, keep calling every few weeks to them all as life happens and people are forced to cancel. Maybe consider shorter term stays at a few different places. There are tons of marinas in that area. If you find your self with some gaps to fill, the COE docks at St Lucie South at the lock on the St Lucie River can be easily booked online for up to 2 weeks in a 30 day period on the cheap and is in the area.

 

Interested in what you learn. I would like to spend a winter in FL on the boat in the next couple of years. Most likely on the gulf side.

Are slips that hard to come by? Are you required to notify the marina if you happen to be on the boat during the winter?

 

My experience has been that the gulf side selection of Marinas is a different animal than the Atlantic side. We were in between Fort Lauderdale and Miami for a few years. Now on the gulf side for the past 5 years.

Landscape is constantly changing on the gulf side. Short term quite a bit of compression in availability due to the recent storm, but that will change over the next year as marina's start to open up again.

 

Sunset Bay