New Port Cove Marina (Statute Mile 1017)
New Port Cove Marina is owned by the same group as Old Port Cove Marina and North Palm Beach Marina. All three of these facilities are first-class operations!
1 May 2010.
We elected New Port Cove Marine Center because it was close to the Fort Worth Inlet and with a Boat US discount, bringing the per foot rate down to $1.75, reasonable for the area. Based on a Waterway Guide ad, New Port is part of a `family of marine businesses’, consisting of three marinas in the area, with New Port nearest the inlet, all with the same rates.
As an overnight stop while inlet hopping up the coast, it was a good place to stay. The busy ‘“ we were there on the weekend – stacked dry storage operation near the transient docks would encourage one to go further up Lake Worth for a more pleasant longer stay.
The minimum charge for electricity hit an all-time high, at $12/day, but the manager saw the logic of this not being a feasible cost for a small boat with an ice box for refrigeration and offered it at half price, saying he doesn’t usually do deals. He was rewarded for his wisdom by making a $5.70 profit on what would cost him $.30 based on our kilowatt usage. I agreed to pay as we were mostly sailing outside and inlet hopping and my batteries were low. The alternative was to motor in the slip to charge batteries, something neither the manager or I wanted.
As with other marinas, he attempted to justify the gouge by saying the fee was for all marina facilities, not just electricity, despite being labelled a charge for power in their rate sheets. The Loggerhead Daytona manager sympathized with why I objected to the fee but said it was an `industry standard’. I said I could understand why the industry wanted to create such a self-serving standard but I was adhering to my personal standard of paying a fair price for what I required.
We entered and left Lake Worth Inlet, a class A inlet, at near slack water, headed for Fort Pierce, another class A inlet, avoiding the up to 4-kt current possible at max velocity in both inlets. NOAA provides times for slack and max and current strength at max for Ft Lauderdale, Lake Worth and Fort Pierce on their website: http://co-ops.nos.noaa.gov/currents10/tab2ac7.html#79
Fair winds and following seas,
Austin Whitten
S/Y `Discovery II’, Vancouver 27
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