hudson florida with 31te

[got2dive]

looks like i will be moving to the tampa/hudson florida area at the end of the summer.i have a 2001 albin te with single yanmar wondering about water depths in area i draw close to 5 foot. hear area is very shallow. love the boat but dont want to be touching bottom everytime out boats in new york and dont want to spend money to transport down then find out its to shallow any info would help

[jleonard]

http://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/11409.shtml

Here is a link to the chart of that area. You should look and decide for yourself.

I boat out of the Tarpon Springs area (Anclote River) with a 17 ft center console. It's shallow until you get out a ways, and "assuming" you keepp your boat in a marina or behind your house that has a good channel, you will be ok.
The Gulf ICW is there and I see big boats and sailboats cruising thru so there IS water. Also a couple of good anchorages nearby.

But there are a lot of sandbars and very shallow areas, places I won't go even with the outboard trimmed all the way up. I draw about 18 inches in that mode.


I hope this helps your decision. The key is STAY IN THE CHANNELS until you get a mile or two out.


edit: Have you been to Hudson? When you go stop into Sam's Beach Bar http://samshudsonbeachbar.com/ for lunch (worth the stop) and see the channel there. It goes right past Sam's only a few feet from the shore, but you'll be able toget a feel for the shallowness of the water there.

[rcwhite]

The shallow waters take some getting used to. When we leave the harbor in Maine we are in over 100' of water. When we leave the trench here, we only see around 15' or so. Up north we don't anchor in less than 20' typically so it is a bit of an adjustment. When we first starting coming down we brought a 17' Whaler which gave us a chance to adjust and learn the waters, markers etc. Depends on the boating you like to do, the smaller boat is perfect for day trips and beaching but 40 miles from the dock is about the limit and it is a big area.

[DesertAlbin736]

Nothing to do with Florida, but having grown up on Barnegat Bay in NJ, which also is mostly shallow water I agree, STAY IN [DREDGED] CHANNELS is good advice.