Approaching ICW

[norumbega]

Happy Holidays!

We're in Vero Beach enjoying the use of a car for our provisioning expeditions before crossing over to West End.

Boat has been a pleasure to live on over these last 3 1/2 months, just the perfect size for two people and a dog.

 

[N4712]

Happy Holidays! We're in Vero Beach enjoying the use of a car for our provisioning expeditions before crossing over to West End. Boat has been a pleasure to live on over these last 3 1/2 months, just the perfect size for two people and a dog.

Good to hear! Don't expect much at West End, most boring place on planet earth. There restaurants suck, and the mosquitos are horrible at night. I recommend Green Turtle Cay if your going to the Abaco's there is also other great places like Hopetown and Man-O-War Cay.

 

[norumbega]

We stayed at the River Street dock....then moved to the Hyatt Regency dock. There is a bolt poking out of the dock at the Hotel that could do serious damage to your boat. I mentioned this several times, but the 'dockmaster' is also the hotel handyman and accounts payable person, so I think the docks are 'out of sight, out of mind’. River street also had no apparent Dockmaster, we signed in with the parking lot attendant. The security gate is very tricky, so get the parking lot guy to show you how it works. River Street was by far the most uncomfortable because of it's location and the wash from tour boats and water taxis. We accumulated a lot of garbage between our boat and the dock, it can smell pretty bad. We'd stay at the hotel docks again, but not ever at the River Street docks.

 

[norumbega]

West End

We're going to meet some friends in Green Turtle, so our plan is to check in at West End, then over to Great Sail Cay, then to GTC. We stayed in a cottage at Hope Town two years ago right between the two bars....I think they were competing to see who could turn up their speakers the loudest. It went on for the whole week, so Hope Town sadly might not be on our list.

We'd like to hang around the Exumas after we meet up with our friends.

 

[norumbega]

My message about the docks was re:Savannah...

 

[rwidman]

.............. River street also had no apparent Dockmaster, we signed in with the parking lot attendant. ............

The River Street Dock and the River Street Market Place Dock are owned by different companies but both managed (dockmaster) by a guy named Chaz. Call him on the phone for reservations or information.

The security gate may be difficult, but at least they have one.

You can get reviews of all these places on Active Captain.

 

[norumbega]

Yes, we did call Chaz to make reservations, our comment was that we never actually met him, we were only at that dock for two nights. And we were glad for the security gate although we didn't learn how it worked until our last day the trick is to make sure both handles are lined up, then punch in the code. We're still concerned about the bolt sticking out of the dock at the Hyatt....we hope they address this.

 

[rwidman]

Yes, we did call Chaz to make reservations, our comment was that we never actually met him, we were only at that dock for two nights. And we were glad for the security gate although we didn't learn how it worked until our last day the trick is to make sure both handles are lined up, then punch in the code. We're still concerned about the bolt sticking out of the dock at the Hyatt....we hope they address this.

My guess is that Chaz runs the two docks as a concession, much like the booths in the Market Place. As for the gates (we've stayed at both docks and both gates had problems), the other trick is to reach around and enter the code on the other side and use that handle.

On Active Captain and other sites, some of the reviews haven't been too nice, but you have to understand what you're getting - a dock, power and water in the heart of a major city. If you expect a team of uniformed dock hands to be waiting to catch your lines, if you're expecting tiled showers and heads and maybe a swimming pool and hot tub, you're going to be a little disappointed.

I'm not the most experienced operator in the country, but I have pretty well mastered the art of approaching a face dock (into the current) and putting the boat alongside so my wife can step off and handle the lines.

Savannah, GA jumps on the weekends and especially for festivals.