Sailing at Panama City Beach

Jeremy,
I sent you a PM

Got it, thanks.

Jeremy,
Here is camp site 38

And this is the beach at the camp site.

You should be able to back the boat under that branch and then raise the mast. There is about 30 feet from the branch to the water.

edited by: skarr1, Aug 15, 2010 - 10:39 PM

skarr1 wrote: You should be able to back the boat under that branch and then raise the mast.

Electric chainsaws don't make near as much noise as the gas kind. Just sayin...

Thanks for the pictures. I dont think it will be a problem although I do like the idea of getting that branch out of the way... 😀 I think they would be rather mad to find out it was cut. I was hoping that I would be able to put the mast up on the trailer so I could use the winch due to a bad back but we will see. Maybe there is a campsites close to mine I could take it through to get to the water then walk it down to 38. Thanks again for the pics, this is an awesome forum.

edited by: av8erdunn, Aug 17, 2010 - 07:34 AM

Jeremy,
You might also want to be careful of root's.
we had about 7 or 8 GIANT ones...

TylerH wrote: Jeremy,
You might also want to be careful of root's.
we had about 7 or 8 GIANT ones...

I hope this isnt a dumb question but what will the roots hurt?

Did yall have a good time? Weather good?

edited by: av8erdunn, Aug 16, 2010 - 05:34 PM

Well, the grounds uneven and the hulls sit funny on it.
could scratch the hulls, but other then that,
you should be fine...

Yeah, we had an AWESOME time!
We covered about 40 miles, in about 3 hours.
We had South west winds, about 20-25 knots.

Wow I hope the winds are not that high next week. I have only taken this thing out 2 times and only one of them is with my wife and daughter. The other time was the Terry (golfdad73). I would not feel comfortable going out in winds that high only being on a sailboat 2x in my whole life.

The winds were only that high because of that tropical storm.

I can tell you from experience in that bay, the winds are usually 5-12 knots.

You should be able to back the boat under that branch and then raise the mast.

I meant back the boat on the trailer hooked to your van under the branch. The branch is at least 8 feet high.

Ah that will be great. I just hope it isnt storming the whole time. Is that bay a difficult bay to sail in? I would like to go over to sand island also. Is it sand island or shell island?

edited by: av8erdunn, Aug 16, 2010 - 06:00 PM

In the little channel its pretty shallow, but once your out into the bay you should be fine..

it's shell island but its not really a island anymore...

Shell Island

The bay at the camp site has some shallow places especially at low tide.

You might move the picnic table and get the mast past the tree

Steve, you should upload that video of us doing the spin run.

Oh yeah I dont think that will be a problem getting through. I cant thank you enough for getting the pictures. Maybe next time yall go I can meet up with yall and get you a beer. 😀 . If you like beer that is. In the shallow places will you run aground without daggers?

av8erdunn wrote: In the shallow places will you run aground without daggers?

Your rudders will pop up...
That's about it.

As Tyler said we had an awesome time. Here is a video of Tyler in action. He is the one setting down.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19415531@N08/4895843623/

Steve, you will be at juanas right?

The water is clear enough that you can see the bottom as it gets shallow. There is a small channel that runs North from about camp site 101 to the main channel. It is not marked but if you look on google earth you can see it.

That video is awesome.
Thanks for filming it steve!

That yellow N20 is faster than my 5.8 but not by to much.

Haha, nice pic.

Those boards look horrible.

edited by: TylerH, Aug 16, 2010 - 06:41 PM

Thats a good video and an awesome picture. What year is your N20?

The Story,

Josh and I arrived at St. Andrews at about 4pm Friday. After checking in we proceeded ti site 143 and set up camp. As we started putting the 5.8na together Tyler and his Captain arrived an also started assembling the N20.

In order to make more room I anchored my boat about 50 feet off shore.

When we finished rigging the 5.8 we sailed until dark.
After showering we went to The Captains Table for dinner.
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=ZiT&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=the+captain%27s+table+panama+city&fb=1&gl=us&hq=the+captain%27s+table&hnear=Panama+City,+FL&cid=0,0,14936360831659841332&ei=eL5pTJuvGYOB8gb2r-GyBA&sa=X&oi=local_result&ct=image&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQnwIwAA

The sea food was delicious and the service great. I think we were the last to leave.

Saturday morning at breakfast at the Blue Top Waffle Shop http://maps.google.com/maps?q=blue%20top%20waffle%20shop&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl we heard that our President was coming to Panama City Beach.

Upon returning to the camp ground we noticed helicopters flying all around. The President was staying just across Grand Lagoon from us!!

As we sailed out of the Lagoon the Coast guard stopped us and after a long discussion I was told to stay on the South side of the channel. The President was on the North side. The N20 was also stopped and told the same thing.

On the South side of the channel waiting for the N20.

When we hit St. Andrews bay we turned North and did a Spin/Hooter down wind run across the bay. My GPS recorded 19 MPH for a top speed on this run.
After running out of bay we turned around and close reached to the south. This was a gusty flying the hull against the waves run. Big smiles all around. The N20 had kicked my butt on the down wind run. He was still faster upwind but he did not leave me as far behind. After reaching the entrance to Grand Lagoon we turned East and did another Spin/Hooter reach to the end of the bay. About 5 miles. Here is the video link again http://www.flickr.com/photos/19415531@N08/4895843623/

At the end of the bay we stopped, rested and played in the water. Fiddler crabs were every where.

We could not go exploring inland.

From here it was a close reach back to the camp and lunch.

On the way I saw 6 to 8 Dolphins off the leeward bow. The were crossing our bow, but the bearing to them did not change. Has any one else ever hit a dolphin going 15 MPH!!
He surfaced just off the leeward bow and dove under the boat. I guess he did not see the dagger board!! The boat almost stopped. As Josh and I were on the wire, we both went about 10 feet forward on the boat before regaining control. We never did see any of those dolphins again.

After being chased by the Coast Guard again we made it to camp and ate lunch.

I will post about after lunch in a little bit.

edited by: skarr1, Aug 16, 2010 - 08:18 PM

Sounds like it was a great time.

Jeremy,
The N20 is not mine. I wish it was. Maybe Tyler knows.

av8erdunn wrote: What year is the N20?

I belive the N20 is a 2005 or a 2006.
It is an alter cup boat.

edited by: TylerH, Aug 16, 2010 - 07:48 PM

The rest of the story,

After lunch we ran the Coast Guard blockade and went to the beach in the pass.

Photo from a different trip.

We were going to pull up by the rocks, but there was a large church group holding a mass baptism. We decided to sail across the pass to Shell Island. On the way over I saw that it would only be two tacks to be in the Gulf and play in the large waves out there. A pilot boat came up to us and used his PA "some thing the Coast Guard could use" to inform us that a large freighter was coming in. We had one more tack to clear the channel. When we made that last tack the freighter captain, still about 1/2 mile away showed his displeasure by giving us on loud long blast of his whistle!! We cleared the channel and missed the freighter by a mile.

After rocking and rolling in the Gulf for about 15 minutes we headed in to Shell Island. We had the beach to our selves. Just before dark we ran the blockade back to camp.

Sunday look like rain and the wind was supposed to slow down. So not being able to top Saturday we packed up and left.

edited by: skarr1, Aug 17, 2010 - 05:57 AM

We definitely need to do this again.

edited by: TylerH, Aug 16, 2010 - 08:57 PM