Boat is coming out of the water 8/23/09

There are only like 5 places to store your boat on the island of Saint Thomas (real marinas and boat yards), 2 that are dry storage (meaning they have your boat in on a big rack out of the water until you want to use it) or a few marinas that have slips for your boat to sit in the water. Of course there are different things about all the places; how close they are to your home, cost, proximity to getting gas, how good it is for you boat to sit in the water vs. out, where your mechanic will work on your boat,  and they are all things to think about when you pick a choice of marina.

We waited 2 years to get a boat, then had our boat out of the water at a place called Tropical Marina (also where our mechanic was), then at a place called Compass Point marina (which was a slip in the water) and now we are back to Tropical again for dry storage. The thing about having your boat in a slip is that it is so easy to just hop on your boat at any time of the day vs. waiting for someone to pull your boat down but having your boat sit in the water 24/7 is also very bad for the engine and boat bottom. The maintenance on the bottom is substantially increased because you have to have the bottom painted every year and a half with bottom paint that cost $300 a gallon x 3 gallons plus the labor and haul out charges. It can really add up. Also, in the even of a storm, you have to secure your boat to pylons just in case of a storm surge or in the case that another boat breaks lose. The cost of an in water slip is also a lot more but it is, of course, much cooler too.

We got the bottom of our boat painted a few months ago and now we think it's time to pull it out for dry rack storage again to save the bottom again. This also allows us not to have to go boating each and every week just to keep the engine clean. Though we love boating, there are just some weekend that you want to stay home and do errands and rest.

I think we are ready to be back at our mechanics yard, out of the water and saving a bunch of money to boot.