The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

This morning I awoke to pounding surf. Yesterday I had spoken to Jeff Halett & Ken Trelfa [ a couple of our Ft Myers Offshore group] and their wives who were on Stu's FPC run to Hawk's Cay Resort. They told me they were planning on running up the west coast from the Keys in Jeff's 42' Fountain and would stop and have lunch with me at Marco. When I saw how rough it was, I called to suggest that they not travel in the Gulf today, but to late. They left early this morning and were on their way.:eek: Just want to let everyone know they are home safe but took a beating. Ken said in almost 20yrs he had only been in bigger Gulf waters once. Glad they are all home safe. A couple of true offshore professionals.:D

Both couples will be participating in the Ft Myers Offshore Benefit Run to Naples this coming Saturday. They all have big hearts as well as big ........ !:D

Bob

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

looks inviting considering it is 10 degrees with a stiff North wind around here. . .

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

There is actually a lot more to the story and I hope Ken [OSO Trelfa ] will jump in and tell us about it. Briefly, they had circumnavigated around the southern half of Florida.
Left Ft Myers going east thru the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart, down the east coast to Miami, joining Stu and FPC for the run down to the Keys then back up the west coast today.
Ken thought roughly about 425 miles or more.
Lets hear all about it Ken, when you get showered and dried off !! LOL:D


Below is a pic of Jeff's 42' Fountain at our New Years Day Fun Run.

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

Boats? You meant big boats right? :p

Looks a bit like Lake Erie today

http://www.lakevision.com/navigate.php

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

Of coarse I was talking about boats, Dawn !! :evilb:

I was going to give you a clue by saying a five letter word that starts with "b" and ends in "s" but you got it with out any help ! Just like the skill testing last year !!

Bob

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

It seriously sucks to get caught in BIG water. I don't care what boat you have (some handle it better than others)...It just takes the fun out of boating and turns it into work!

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

Just left Sheppards and had lunch and the water was really nasty.

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Clearwater Pass can get rough on a nice day:eek:

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

Snotty weather aside, that sounds like a great way to spend a few days... always wanted to do that Okeechobee run.

just so everyone knows what you were tryin to say-- here's the original of that pic...

See you soon!

ps- those must be Canadians in the wawa in your first photo!

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

[QUOTE=jayboat;2007967]Snotty weather aside, that sounds like a great way to spend a few days... always wanted to do that Okeechobee run.

Jay,

Once when I was much younger and not so much free time, I flew in on a Friday, jumped in my Top Gun and got as far as Clewiston on L. Okeechobee by dark, Saturday thru to Stuart and down to Lauderdale, Sunday down to the Keys and back up the west coast in time to catch a 7PM flight back to Toronto.
In conversation with the guy sitting next to me on the plane he said to me , "and what do you do to relax ??" - but that's another story ! LOL:D
Bob

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

Yeah, but it always makes for good stories.
Some of my best boating stories happened by being caught in big water.
Buy me a beer sometime - I'll tell ya all about them:drink: :D

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

I would love to make that trip one day!

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

I have done it once each way. Okeechobee is not one of my favorites. Locking thru is a pain. Some of it is just a big ditch where you only see the banks. Okeechobee is muddy and shallow. :eek:
Interesting to do once, but there are much better places to go. Just my opinion.:D
Bob

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

I spoke to Trelfa to let him know about the thread. We will probably hear from them later this evening. They had a lot of cleaning including Jeffs boat to take care of. Salt water - I hate it and what it does to our equipment.
Bob

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

Brian, I REALLY want to take my boat down to Key West direct from Tampa. It's about a 5 hour ride in my boat. Spend a day or so in Key West then up to around Miami/Lauderdale for a few days then back down to Islamorada for a day and then back to Tampa from Islamorada. Spring or Fall would be ideal.

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

We're Here!!! Karen and I are finally warming up in the hot tub or should we say getting the kinks out LOL...We had a great ride across the bay, since we left at 7:30 AM (we knew it was getting bad) until we were about 15 miles outside of Goodland..Hit the back waters to Naples and dropped the crew off for lunch...Jeff and I took the boat back to FMB and YES IT WAS "BIG" WATER...Jeff's boat performed well, but that may have had something to do with the captain LOL...Wet was not the word for what condition we were in upon return we even had to salt away our pfd's we even did the dash...It was a great trip over the past 5 days with great company...It's great to be back on the West Coast and not have had to return via Miami and a multitude of no wake zones...Stu put's on the best events hands down..wouldn't have missed it no matter what the conditions...Cancellation is not a part of our agenda.

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I've been wondering how you spent your time before you got your current 'job'...:D

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That Can Be A Trying Ride .. Glad Everyone Is Safe.. In 2004 We Left Clearwater To Go To Kw For The Worlds..had Been Pulling Some Real Long Days Getting A 40' Skater Diesel Project Done,left At Around 7am With The Skater And My 36 Diesel Spectre..beautiful Ride Get Down Near Ft Myers.. Decide To Go Straight Across.not Realizing We Had The Wrong Way Point In The Gps.. We Accidently Set A South Wp Instead Of A North Wp..should Have Wondered Why It Kept Saying Like 3000 Miles To Destination.but Just Figured It Was Wrong..finally Reliazed Something Was Wrong When The Water Got Real Pretty Purple,and The Seas Got To Be A Good 6' Shortly After That Was When We Came Across A Huge ..and I Mean Huge Freighter..and We Thought That Shouldnt Be In Fl. Bay.about The Time We Seen The Lighthouse Off Of Cuba.. Is When The Coupler Went Out In The Port Motor Of The Spectre..mike Anderson And Mike Fosse Were In That Boat.. We Decided That If We Wanted To Get To Kw Before The Next Day , We Were Going To Have To Tow The Spectre Whic Only Had 1 Running Motor..so We Towed It At 55 Mph For About 60 Miles Through 6 Footers..anderson Was Having To Throttle The Boat..we Got Within Site Of Kw At About 8 Pm When The Skater Finally Ran Out Of Fuel.. It Was Agreat Trip Though One I Will Hopefully Never Forget..and A Great Story .. And Glad To Have Been Able To Share With My Friends....

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

:eek: :rolleyes:
A pilot friend of mine once told me "insturments are your friends. Listen to your friends & trust them".

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Plan a trip and I'm in. I've done Key West to Lauderdale and it was a blast. We're going to do a fishing trip this Spring from Jupiter Inlet to West End. Some friends of mine are bugging me to go! Spring is near!

Re: The Gulf is Naaaaaasty today !!
 

That's why I never rely on a gps when running out of site of land. A gps is just a radio reciever, which can and sometimes does fail, whereas, I've never had a compass go out on me. :)

A friend of mine and some other buddie went from Clearwater to KW in a Wellcraft 3200 Costal. They figures somethng like 10 hours for the trip. It got rough as hell, one of the guys on the boat almost started crying. My cousin was on the boat, and the last four hours or so, they were afraid of running out of fuel before they'd reach KW. They had the CG calling to check on them every half hour. They did make it, but I am so damn glad I missed that trip. The same guy once made the same run with his wife. He ran aground somewhere just off the Keys. His wife was freaking, asking him what they were going to do. He said he was going below and get in bed until the tide came up. :)

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Btw, the ten hour trip ended up taking something like 26 hours.:(

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It's nothing compared to Pass a Grille inlet. That's the roughest inlet on the gulf coast in my opinion. I know a guy that stuffed a 38 Formula coming through there, and they weren't hauling ass either. Broke the windsheild, knocked out the driver, and almost sunk the boat. The guy said luckily it was kind of cool outside, so they had windbreakers on, or they would have been a whole lot more cut up.

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I think I read in the St Pete Times last year about some guys from Hernando Beach who rode wave runners to Key West.

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A paper Chart and a compass can come in very handy sometimes.