Florida Keys Charter?

[Waltthesalt]

I'll be in Key West in May and looking for a bareboat charter for two people. Plan A is to go out to the Dry Torugas alternatively gunkhole the Keys and Floirda Bay. Shallow draft could be importatn Any suggestions on a charterer?

[sailingSammy]

Try Treasure Harbor, they are located in the mid keys, their boats are a little older then you would get at Moorings but the prices can't be beat.

Another option is Key Lime Sailing Club, you get a cottage and your own 22' sailboat for a very reasonable price, starting at $140 per night I think. they are in Key Largo. I stayed there before and had a great time.

[bogdog]

We have stayed at the Key Lime (so called) sailing club. The "sailing" on they're 22' sailboats was, to say the least, basic. The boats were a Catalina 22 and an O'Day 22. Nether boat was fit to sit on, say sail. The rigging was flopping around, the companionway boards were dust, the sails were white bags. The cabins moldy and just filthy. They gave us a hand held VHF and told us if we got lost to call somebody, no charts, no dept meter. The running rigging was old with knots in the main halyard. The shore cabin unit had a basically outdoor shower (my wife was not too happy about that). The last night we were there they screwed up our reservation so someone else was scheduled to be in our cabin (shack), so they put us in the "captain" unit. It was at least a little more private. It's main bed was a fold out couch. The whole unit had only 2 working electrical outlets! The employees were nice enough, but didn't have clue. All and all the worst part was the crappy boats, we would never have dreamed taking out our 23 ft Santana back home in Wisconsin, out in such condition. We stayed there in 2004 so maybe they have improved, because they couldn't go down from there.

[garymcg]

We've chartered a couple of different boats from this guy:

Sailing Florida Keys - Pagan Fleet Offers the Best Experience and Rates on the Water

Price is reasonable and the boats are okay.

[edguy3]

I'll second that great experience with the Pagan Fleet. Although the boats were very dated at the time (about 5-7 years ago) the whole experience was wonderful.

/ed

[Waltthesalt]

Thanks for all the info. I'm set with the Pagan's Balboa 26 out of Marathon. This could be an annual spring thing for soggy, sun-starves Pacific Northwesterners.

[bakerha51]

Walt - would love to see a followup to your trip.

[gourmando]

I had found this company earlier and planed to check into a charter in Feb.
He has gone out of business and taken down his website. Does anyone else have a lead on a similar company? I am chartering with a group out of Key West for a week and wanted to go the week befor just with my wife. We have done Key Lime and the one on Conch Key both with cabins on land and had a good time. The Conch Key had better accomidations and boats. This time we would like to stay on the boat, something in the 26 to 30 foot range.