It’s not what a marina has—but how it makes you feel—that matters most.
It’s funny but I’ve met a lot of boaters who obsess for years, sometimes decades, over what type of boat they want to buy. I’ve also seen the same people give so little thought to where they keep their boat and simply slide it into whatever marina is closest.
To me, where you keep your boat is one of the most important decisions a boater can make and is perhaps one of the biggest factors that contribute to how long you stay in our sport.
I’m extremely fortunate in that regard; as a kid I grew up in a great marina surrounded by people that I think of as family to this day. I learned at a relatively young age that I wanted to find something similar when I had a boat of my own. When I first moved to Connecticut to work for Power & Motoryacht nearly 8 years ago, I dreamed that one day I would have a boat at Essex Island Marina.
As a kid, we would visit Essex every few years. I’ve written about the nostalgia I feel towards the 13-acre parcel of land in a previous column. A picture hangs in my office of my brother and I dressed up like pirates on the island as part of an Egg Harbor rendezvous in…
