Late March boating?

[BigAbe75]

So, I just discovered that I’ll have a week off work at the end of March.

How far south would I have to go (from IL) in order to find good boating/swimming water? Is it still too cold in GA, LA, MS?

I’m not up for a 20 hour tow to S Fl. But, I might be willing to go 10 hrs.

Any thoughts?

 

[robert843]

I know here in South Carolina the weather is usually in the low 80's around then but the water is still usually cold so I would say further south then SC.

 

[Julian]

Lake Lanier ave march water temp is 56 degrees - high is 67, low is 45.....so probably a little too cold for swimming. Might be warm enough to use a wet suit...but only if it is a warm spring. Even down in Tampa in March it can be cool....

 

[BigAbe75]

Hmm, might be good for cruising and floating. Just afraid kiddos will get bored if they can’t get in the water at all.

Will have to think about this some more. Was just excited to find I have some time off, and thought it would be a good excuse to get the boat out a solid month or two early.

 

[robert843]

The panhandle of Florida has air temps in the 70-80 degree range that time of year and water temps prob around 68 so you would need to get that far south for swimming to be possible but that is still fairly cool. South Carolina is good for boating that time of year but not really swimming even NC has some really nice days in late March but they have some cool ones as well. Spring is weird down here one day it can be 85 degrees the next it will be 55 degrees its hit or miss.

 

[BigAbe75]

Spring is weird down here one day it can be 85 degrees the next it will be 55 degrees its hit or miss.

For that matter, this has been a crazy winter... 70s at Thanksgiving is crazy up here. We've been wishing we hadn't winterized. But, I'm too lazy to get it out and waste the fog treatment, etc.

Of course, I haven't run any of this past my wife. I suppose she might be looking forward to a week of me doing projects around the house...