Sea Ranch Marina: Last stop before the Banana Republics
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
Sea Ranch Marina, South Padre Island, Texas / Marina
by Jim W.
Sea Ranch Marina, South Padre Island, Texas (Marina) / United States > Texas
We do Sea Ranch Marina in the summertime. It is located at the very tip of Texas, about 5 nautical miles from the US-Mexico Border. It is pretty protected from most wind directions (well, as protected as any barrier island marina could be), but god forbid the wind comes from the north….it can get pretty brutal then!
At $300 / month Sea Ranch Marina is rather expensive, but one does get to share a County Park public restroom that has toilets that sometimes flush and even has hot water once in a while. Other than that the only other marina attraction worth mentioning is the fact that it has locking gates, which helps reduce theft.
But
This marina is probably the closest in proximity to the open Gulf of Mexico in all of Texas. I can be offshore in less than 30 minutes, heading on a broad reach up or down the coastline
....and it also provides excellent access to the nightlife on South Padre Island, so we treat our boat as a floating summer home during the sweltering season. While the tourists pay anywhere from $750 to $1500 per week during the peak of the season, we feel pretty lucky to only pay 300 bucks for mooring…
Finally, there’s Dirty Al’s restaurant directly adjacent to the marina…they serve up some of the best (albiet greasiest) seafood this side of Tampico!
All and all, I can justify the exhorbitant cost, for a couple of months anyway.
We do Sea Ranch Marina in the summertime. It is located at the very tip of Texas, about 5 nautical miles from the US-Mexico Border. It is pretty protected from most wind directions (well, as protected as any barrier island marina could be), but god forbid the wind comes from the north….it can get pretty brutal then!
At $300 / month Sea Ranch Marina is rather expensive, but one does get to share a County Park public restroom that has toilets that sometimes flush and even has hot water once in a while. Other than that the only other marina attraction worth mentioning is the fact that it has locking gates, which helps reduce theft.
But
This marina is probably the closest in proximity to the open Gulf of Mexico in all of Texas. I can be offshore in less than 30 minutes, heading on a broad reach up or down the coastline
....and it also provides excellent access to the nightlife on South Padre Island, so we treat our boat as a floating summer home during the sweltering season. While the tourists pay anywhere from $750 to $1500 per week during the peak of the season, we feel pretty lucky to only pay 300 bucks for mooring…
Finally, there’s Dirty Al’s restaurant directly adjacent to the marina…they serve up some of the best (albiet greasiest) seafood this side of Tampico!
All and all, I can justify the exhorbitant cost, for a couple of months anyway.
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Caribsailor February 10, 2008 at 12:57 PM
Thanks for the info.
Cheers, Caribsailor