St. Pete Municipal Marina - Click for Chartview

St. Petersburg Municipal Marina – A SALTY SOUTHEAST CRUISERS’ NET SPONSOR! – lies west, northwest of Tampa Bay’s flashing buoy #3. Enjoy this very complete on-site description of this large municipal marina in downtown St. Petersburg.

Claiborne, as you asked a couple of weeks back as we left the Keys, here is a report on St Petersburg Municipal Marina. I will not recap the many published statistics on depths, etc, etc.
For the newbie to this area (us), it is important to understand that the entrance is just a bit tricky because this marina is located in the Central Yacht Basin between North Yacht Basin (known locally as Vanoy Basin) and
South Yacht Basin, where the St Petersburg Sailing Center is located. The St Petersburg Municipal Pier sticks a goodly distance into the bay between North (Vanoy) Basin and Central Basin; so there is little confusion about
the difference in those two basins. However, there is a “Y” in the channel as you enter the breakwater to the Municipal Marina which allows a right turn into the Central Basin or a left turn into the South Basin . The
sometimes noisy local small aircraft airport is located immediately to the south of South Basin but was not a nuisance at the transient pier.
By the way, the “upside down pyramid” which has long marked the end of The Pier is scheduled to close very soon and be demolished. A grandiose design has been offered up, but there is local dissention about what will ultimately grace this area.
Further confusing to the newbie is the fact that there are three separate landside marina entrances to their three separate piers (each with an office at the locked entrance), and the St Petersburg Yacht Club also resides in
Central Basin. The long transient alongside-tie pier is part of the North Entrance pier structure and is quite easily seen once you enter central basin. You just angle right about 30 degrees to enter the basin from the
breakwater entrance and then dogleg left about the same and look for the long pier.
Piers are fixed, and tide is a couple of feet. We had to step on the handrails of our GB-42 at low tide in order to get aboard. Power was adequate with 30- and 50-Amp plugs at each pedestal. A limited cable TV service was provided, but was essentially worthless due to the poor channel selection.
Potable water tasted good with no hint of sulfury “beach water” we encountered in marina near the coast.
The northern portion of the basin is subject to the effects of easterly wind. We had some light winds from that direction during a part of our stay and rocked gently. Strong easterly winds might make it uncomfortable.
We were not certain how long we intended to stay while awaiting a Gulf-crossing weather window to get home to the panhandle so we decided to sign up for a week, which the staff said they would rebate if we left early.
The weekly “slip rate” before taxes for our Grand Banks 42 was $283.08 or a bit less than a dollar a foot per day while the daily rate was about 2 bucks a foot. Since my wife fell ill with a stomach virus and was out of commission for several days, we ended up needing at least four days, and by the fourth night, we were ahead of the game had we been paying a daily rate.
The facilities are very clean and well kept without any of the usual rust and grime one so often sees in marina bathrooms and showers. The staff is friendly and helpful – ignore the one negative comment on Active Captain,
except for the warning about strong easterly winds the guy must have encountered.
We find the downtown area of this small city to be almost European in atmosphere with cultural, dining, and shopping clustered close to the marina amongst buildings in which people also live. The nearby college probably has something to do with this. In previous trips up and down the west coast of Florida, we were busy getting to some place else and ignored this place, but it really should be a destination in any trip by here. It is easily accessible from the ICW by simply running under the causeway of the Sunshine Skyway bridge to Bradenton and following the well-marked channel a few miles up the bay.
There is a trolley stop outside the entrance to the north piers of the marina and 50 cents (25 for folks over 55) gets you aboard. It connects with buses which will run you all the way to the beaches and even Tarpon Springs.
Rich Gano
Calypso (GB42 Hull # 295)
Panama City area, FL

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