You venture out into the Gulf yet? We went out, seen dolphins & a giant sea turtle. Nice to cruise down the coast & see different scenery other than the riverbanks were used to seeing every weekend.
Did not go out in the gulf yet. I want to, but need to see what the rest of the crew has planned as well as check weather. The boys LOVE the waves and the beach, so I'm sure we'll burn up another day doing that.
Side not about the beach. The AnchorShade2 that a lot of us have for the boat works REALLY REALLY well with a screw in sand spikes and being tied off to the cooler and beach bag on the windward side!
We ventured over, docked, and walked through the harbor walk after spending about 4hrs at Crab Island. Was neat to see them cleaning fish and what not, otherwise pretty touristy stuff. Rest of the family on the other boat was sunburnt and ready to head in after the Harbor Walk so we headed home.
Definitely nice to see something new and different on the boat. Little bit of nervousness in not knowing where the heck we were most of the time. The bay there in Destin is easily the largest body of water I've ever piloted a boat on. I can see where on a rough day it could get out of hand quick. Especially if dark clouds rolled in and you couldn't see shore.
The channel markers down here are nuts. So frequent and easy to read/understand. Previously I have only ever seen them on the Ohio near Louisville and Cincinnati. Really hard to get away from the channel unless you're just completely not paying attention.
Anchor was a non-issue at Crab Island as well. My trusty 22lb Navy Anchor held both boats (My AR190 and his 20ft Tracker) for a couple of hours when we realized the anchor he threw out had a slack line. Crazy to think that I actually had proper 5:1 scope payed out with only ~15ft of line.
I did get a couple compliments on docking around the Harbor Walk. I was the second boat in on a line of about 6. Both side lined with just enough room to squeeze through (4ft each side maybe). I wasn't about to try and reverse a jet out of there, so I spun around in the lane and where I was previously and headed out forward. Couple of guys in a deck boat asked how I was able to spin line that. Told them they had to lose the prop to make it happen. That was neat.
The ramps were steep and dropped off quickly. Docks on both sides made the wife a little nervous to trailer, but she did great as always. I winched it 99% of the way on, and it was really no big deal. The trailer parking was dumb with all the spots being "back in" style. Never seen that before, although I get why they did it due to space restrictions on the park.
Fuel usage was absurdly low. Less than an 1/8th tank from Liza Marshall park to Crab Island the Harbor Walk and back to the park. Good chance unless we cruise a ton another day, we'll be towing some Florida fuel home with us.
I did leave the boat hooked up at the condo long enough to spray it down with the hose I brought. Then let it idle on the hose for about 15 min while I cleaned and wiped everything down. Didn't use Salt Away, but figure I'll give it a good de-salting when I get home and have it in the driveway for a few hours. It'll survive until then I'm sure.
Overall, so far, just a really interesting boating experience. So nice to see and experience something new and different with the boat. We are going to try and get out another day on the water (2 days left here), but even if we don't, I would say the 10hr tow was already worth it.
