June 7-10-2007 Panama City Beach Rendezvous

[STIHLBOLTS]

OK now that we have made it official. No since in burying all the great details of this fabulous extravaganza in the 6th or 7th page of the other thread we are now going to need to do some planning.

1. Arrival - Thursday- Friday.
2. Thursday - Your on your own. I won't be there to hold your hand
and keep you out of trouble till sometime Friday. :smt018
3. Friday - 1800 hrs - I arrive...now the party starts. :thumbsup:
4. Friday - 2000 hrs - Meet and Greet at "Hooks" Bottom of the Pirate ship, outside. (Frank's Job - Get large set of tables arranged though local contacts. Yea, Frank knows a lot of people.) :wink:
5. Friday - Hang out as long as you can at "Hooks" Talk till you can't any more and just need to take the kids home or go to bed.
6. Saturday - TBD - Meet at Shell Island (East of Tyndell Pier) first and see if anyone wants to go to Crooked Island. (Weather Permitting for smaller Sea Rays.)
7. Sunday - TBD - Meet at Shell Island. Hang till those who have to go home early leave as we wave a fond farewell. :smt089

Ok folks - Fill in the blanks. Those of you who need or want phone numbers directions PM me and I will do all I can to help you make your plans. :grin:

 

[midway]

1. Arrival; Wednesday PM or Thursday AM, I will get that closer as time get closer.

2. Thursday/Friday on my on, I have charts of the area for gps, we will see what happens.

3&4. Party time Friday at 1800 until.

5. Continue party at hooks.

6&7. TBD

 

[fwebster]

Richard,

On planning a trip to Crooked Island, are you sure you want to schedule a 14 mile run in the open ocean and entrance into a tricky unmarked cut for guys who normally don't boat in big water, many of whom are new to the area?

An alternative may be just East of the Tyndall pier of the on Shell Island.

 

[STIHLBOLTS]

Frank the whole plan is completely flexable till we say it's not. So I have amended it at this time. I was thinking about the same thing, reason I put TBD, we shall see how the weather is, and who is up for that kind of a trip. :thumbsup:

 

[First Born]

Count us in, thanks in advance for putting this together guys. Hopefully alot of the CSR crowd will be able to make the trip. It will be nice to put faces with names. :thumbsup:

 

[First Born]

Guys as far as place to stay looking at the website it looks like Harbour Villas is a good option (located within the Marina at Bay Point.) Is that a good option.

I have contacted them by email to see what rates they have. According to their website looks like one bedroom villa for $160 a night.

We are planning on arriving Thursday night and leaving Sunday to head back to Charlotte. :thumbsup:

Wesley

 

[Aarrhh & Aarrhh]

Just let me know if you need anything!

My slip is at the Tyndall yacht club, so that will make for short beer runs!!!

 

[SeaRide]

Uhm, Wesley does this mean you will be putting your boat in saltwater????? If so Rich will have to "shock" St. Andrews Bay with 150 Billion Gallons of Neutra Salt!!!!

 

[First Born]

No sir we will not be bringing first born. Frank has agreed to allow us to tag along with him. Thanks Frank :thumbsup:

 

[SeaRide]

Frank,

Our friend Wesley has saltwateritis.

Please confirm: Wouldn't all of the Canbotes in St. Andrews Bay act as a saltwater isolator thereby negating any ill affects on Wesley's boat?????

 

[First Born]

Our friend Wesley has saltwateritis.

That was suppose to be our little secret. :smt043

 

[chuck1]

Hey is Crooked Island the one that they do Live Fire training on? :smt017

I'm marking my calendar. Where would a good place be for transit slips for us? Richard are there units avl at your place and do they all have dock space now? Didn't you say you have a dock now?

 

[STIHLBOLTS]

Yes we have docks and there are rental units among ours.

 

[fwebster]

Yes, drone firing is another challenge with scheduling a trip to Crooked Island. The cut or entrance is directly under the drone range and it is closed during exercises. If you can get inside Crooked Island Sound before they close the range (can be as early as 9AM), you can stay until it reopens (can be as late as 4:30PM). However, once you are inside, you are there until it reopens, no matter how windy or stormy it gets. And this in one you cannot slip around. The Air Force stations a crash boat off shore to run down boats who enter the restricted area.

Tyndall is very good about announcing drone firings on VHF-16, but you won't know until 4PM the schedule or if drone firing is planned for the next day.

As far as canbotes are concerned, most of the rental guys know I carry a 5-gal bucket of throwing rocks on my boat in the summer.......I'm not worried.

Transient slips in PC are getting to be a challenge in the summer. All are expensive, but Bay Point, Pirates Cove, St. Andrews and the city marina all have a few that they rent and all are reasonably close to the Gulf, but Bay Point and Pirates Cove are about a mile from the pass.

 

[chuck1]

If it is too rough on the Gulf what is the ICW like south/east of PCB. Many slow or no wake zones? If not could do a trip south/east on the ICW and use the Gulf County Canal to St Joseph Bay?? I've noticed it on the map and it looks like it would be fun, not sure what scenery is really like??? :huh:

 

[Hampton]

I fly out at Tyndall AFB, and perform duties as Supervisor of Flying about once a week. The amount of actual drone flying is extremely limited. It's too bad that we can't get them to talk "Real Time" and allow boats to pass when there's Absolutely Nothing going on.

But when there is, you don't want to be in the way. Since I've been there, there have been two F-4 drones that have crashed on takeoff. Both ended up on land North of the water.

I'll look into more flexible boating, at least on a pre-planned, once-in-a-great-while basis.

 

[Hampton]

Also, if you have a military ID card, you can use one of four "Courtesy" slips for a small, nightly fee. The marina is about 5 miles SE of the pass, just inside of the barrier island on Tyndall AFB.

 

[SeaRide]

Another question for the locals. One of the other options we were considering is staying a week at Pinnacle Port, pinnacleport.com. The kids would have easy access to the beach, pool and etc. It's located on the extreme west end of PCB and it has its own marnina on Lake Powell I believe. I spoke to Rich and it does not have direct access to the Gulf. However, does Lake Powell have easy access to the intracoastal and St. Andrews Bay?

FYI, the individual working the desk said they have a great time on Powell with their 25' canbote, which leads me to believe this is no place for a 23' SR.

 

[fwebster]

In June, the weather is not likely to be bad for very long. In fact, the time Richard selected is usually "chamber of commerce" weather.

But if the Gulf is choppy, look at your chart. Panama City has a 12 mile long barrier island protecting St Andrew Bay from the Gulf. The bay behind the island is a mile wide and provides a long protected anchorage where you can back up to the beach and anchor then if you chose , walk across the island to he Gulf side for surf, shells, etc.

St. Joe Bay is big and open on the west/SW side which is where our weather comes from. I think you'd be swapping for worse conditions by going there. Additionally, East Bay to the Gulf County canal is my least favoorite part of the ICW....borong, shallow and some long reaches where good navigation skills (or a plotter) are needed.

Be sure to bring along 2 anchors................

 

[STIHLBOLTS]

Ah :smt017 , what slow zones? Frank do we have slow zones? :smt043

Man please, you had better not stand still, you will get run over in the cut. They don't call it the washing machine for nothing. :smt021 There are times I would rather be in the Gulf than trying to cross the cut! :smt013

The ICW is not a slow zone, but your better off slowing at a approaching boat, and once past you can put it in the wind.

The Grand Lagoon from just past Bay Point into Treasure Island and Captain Andersons to the other side of the Thomas Drive bridge is the only slow zone. Once past the rental canboats you can open it up again. Lots of folks go back there for tubeing and skiing. It's about 5-7 ft deep back there so not really the place for a large boat.