Just Curious ~

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 6:23 pm

What kind of boating do you do?

I often wonder how boaters spend their time on their boat. At our marina (600+ boats), many people leave the dock only once or twice per season and basically use their boat as a floating camper. Others seem to take their boat out for a short ride of 1-2 hours every weekend that they are there. Still others take theirs out to the beach nearby and drop the hook for the entire day and sometimes stay overnight. Many of the sail boaters seem to go sailing every day of the weekend for the entire day and then return at night. Still others are there only for the fishing and never stay on their boat. We even have several people who live on their boat at our marina in the spring and summer and then make the journey down the Mississippi and spend the winter in the gulf, never leaving the dock except to move from south to north and back.

What kind of boating do you enjoy and why?

aweimer · Post by **aweimer** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:15 pm

I enjoy the weekend at the boat tinkering on my new toy. Having it now for only 1/2 a season its still new and not where i want it to be. We usually go for a little put every weekend if the weather is OK. We planned a couple over night stays to Put in Bay which the first was fun, cannot wait until we go again.

Our docks are drive up meaning you car is at your dock. We all have 16x14 decks in front of our boats at our docks so the community at A Bank usually hangs out together and cooks, drinks and enjoys the sun. The inground pool is right at our bank and our kids are there all day if we are not out on the lake.

We have yet to go out and just anchor at the beach for the day, i see a few that do that out by our marina. I enjoy the weekends and usually putz on a project each weekend too. For me its a 4hr drive to the boat so getting there early on friday and staying late on sunday is the goal.

How about you?

Stripermann2 · Post by **Stripermann2** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 7:17 pm

Good topic.

I'll preface this by saying that I spend almost every weekend of the year on the boat, snow, rain, you name it...we're on the boat.

When we arrive on Saturday morning, we clean, take care of technical issues, fuel if needed and head to several of our favorite places. Sometmes to a restaurant 7 miles away,sometimes to a marina, 35 miles away. Mostly, just a quick 1 mile ride to a favorite watering hole. In the spring and fall, I fish. Too hot right now to comfortably enjoy ourselves with fishing...

Regardless, we do something with our boat throughout the year, almost every weekend. I only hope that others , do as well!

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:34 pm

I could go on a hour run or for 10 minute run after work .a 20 or maybe 150 mile weekend cruse overnight a 160 mile run up the bay in a day then spend a week getting back not knowing where the next stop is . I could be fishing off VB when its 30 degrees out in Jan or Feb. most every week end doing somthing with the boat

foofer b · Post by **foofer b** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 9:39 pm

We take ours out 2-3 times a month, when work or the kid's activities don't interfere. I often take buddies offshore scuba diving and spearfishing, here in Jacksonville. A few times a year we troll for kings or anchor and bottom fish. My wife and I frequently overnight in the cooler months, either on a small lake nearby or in Saint Augustine at the marina or on the hook. The lake is great as it has very limited access-you must have base privileges or live on the lake, so by 6 at night we are enjoying quiet solitude alone. 3 or 4 times a year we cruise the river to downtown Jax and lunch. Haven't been for fireworks yet but want to. Lastly, the past two years I have tied her up to my Dad's doch in Fort Walton Beach, near Destin and live aboard every other week in October, Nov., and Dec., diving, fishing and gunkholing during the beautiful fall weather there. Attached is a picture from Destin harbor last November and some fish we speared .

And one of my boat at his dock.

and one from the lake

and one morning when I woke up

a big grouper

and finally my best buddy

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:50 am

i'm on her every chance i can get, weekday or weekend. either washing her down, cleaning up stuff in the cabin, tending to the teak or engines winter, spring, summer or fall. sometimes i just go down, bring a bag lunch, and enjoy what i have. phil and i usually take her out for a spin once a month to get the schmutz off the bottom, but, with his contracting schedule, it's sometimes not that easy. i'll normally just bring maccabee down and the two of us will visit with others at the marina. parkside is like 'paw nation' on the water, 126 slips and about equal the amount of dogs (some on this forum do not agree that dogs and boating mix, but hey, they are entitled to their opinions/feelings) so maccabee likes to go visit his two and four legged pals while i tend to things on the boat. this also shows potential buyers that i am not an 'absentee boat owner' when they use the marina cafe on the weekends. since the marina is roughly 7 miles from the house, it's an easy trip down. will i miss her when she sells? yes. but, hopefully i will have a tri cabin to start learning about in the not too distant future..... then maccabee and i will probably never be at the house. fingers crossed.... for the sale of my f-32 and the purchase of a tri cabin.
aaron in baltimore.

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 4:53 am

foofer b wrote:We take ours out 2-3 times a month, when work or the kid's activities don't interfere. I often take buddies offshore scuba diving and spearfishing, here in Jacksonville. A few times a year we troll for kings or anchor and bottom fish. My wife and I frequently overnight in the cooler months, either on a small lake nearby or in Saint Augustine at the marina or on the hook. The lake is great as it has very limited access-you must have base privileges or live on the lake, so by 6 at night we are enjoying quiet solitude alone. 3 or 4 times a year we cruise the river to downtown Jax and lunch. Haven't been for fireworks yet but want to. Lastly, the past two years I have tied her up to my Dad's doch in Fort Walton Beach, near Destin and live aboard every other week in October, Nov., and Dec., diving, fishing and gunkholing during the beautiful fall weather there. Attached is a picture from Destin harbor last November and some fish we speared .

And one of my boat at his dock.

and one from the lake

and one morning when I woke up

a big grouper

and finally my best buddy

i LOVE the pic of your 'jack' on the bow!!! what a fantastic picture.... right now, maccabee's favorite spot is under a deck chair on the aft deck of our f-32. this way he can be near me, chomp on a nylabone or cuddle with his stuffed toy named 'boat buddy', and keep watch for ducks, people, and his buddies. would not mind meeting up with you the next time i have a long layover in JAX. the crew stays at a 'riverwalk' area hotel when layovers are longer than 16.5 hrs. it's rare, but sometimes it happens.

aaron in baltimore

foofer b · Post by **foofer b** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 8:36 am

Sure we can meet up, lemme know when and I will try to bring my boat to the Riverwalk for lunch or dinner. We go downtown a few times a year for festivities or a dinner cruise.

297Elegante · Post by **297Elegante** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:08 am

Being a new homeowner, and a new boatowner I spend less time on her than I like, but still manage to get there a couple times a week. As with some, I will head down after work and clean, fix or tinker. Every once in a while I like a nice evening cruise down the river. Less traffic, usually nice weather etc.

We have gone on a few decent trips, but less than I would have liked so far. Probably spent a half dozen nights onboard a few with the dog, a few without.

I have gone a couple weeks in a row not going down to the boat, due to other responsibilities, but usually try and get there whenever I can.

Brian

turtlem1969 · Post by **turtlem1969** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 9:09 am

I usually take the f25 offshore fishing and occasionally anchor overnight at shackleford banks or cape lookout. I visit and mess with the tri-cabin just about every day that I can, but, it will be a while before I putt around in her.

jddens · Post by **jddens** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:14 am

I'm at the boat at least 2-3 times a week year around. I'm semi retired so during the summer I try to do most of my boating during the week to avoid the crowds. Sometimes we overnight in the marina but are more likely to go out for a ride then anchor out in our favorite spot. While anchored, I always fish. In the fall the stripers run and I have many friends that fish so we are out several times a week just fishing.

And then there are the many days tinkering and maintaining.......any way you slice it it's all good. It helps that my boat is just 15 minutes away.

I am getting ready to take the motorcycle trip of my life time. No Ca to Kentucky and back. 5000 miles round trip, I'm going solo and plan to leave early Sunday morning......so I will be down cleaning the boat today so she won't be too bad when I return.....John

randyp · Post by **randyp** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 11:11 am

I retired the end of last year and my wife retired 3 years ago, so now we spend weekdays up at the boat and avoid the weekends. The lake where we keep the boat is basically deserted during the week, so it's quiet. We used to overnight out on the lake quite frequently when I was working because weekends used to be "boat time", but now we usually hang out at the dock and watch the loons (birds not neighbors). I'm always puttering around on the boat. When our kids or friends visit we take them out for a ride, or go to one of the restaurants on the lake. Recently we've been having the grandkids spend a night or two on the boat with us. They love it and so do we. We'll most likely take another 2-3 month canal trip in a couple of years. That's when the F-26 shines as a "couple boat".

k9th · Post by **k9th** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:49 am

Guess I forgot to list my favorite kind of boating.

We have a three hour drive to our marina and since we both still work, we are only there on the weekends and average about 8 days per month plus two weeks of vacation time.

We try to leave the dock every weekend we are there for at least a couple of hours but it doesn't always happen with bad weather or wind conditions, fixing this and upgrading that, but we enjoy being there just the same.

Our retirement plans include spending months at-a-time on our boat, whether this one or a larger one.

l7ty15 · Post by **l7ty15** » Sun Oct 31, 2010 6:03 pm

Well lets see......i bought her in Marblehead Ohio in April.......Drove there every weekend until she was ready and weather was right for the crossing to Turkey Point, Ontario...... Made the crossing May 24th,after that, we never missed a weekend at the boat until th 2nd week in September........Weekend criuses to Pottahawk to throw anchor and chill or short cruises down the erie shore line......

alexander38 · Post by **alexander38** » Tue Nov 02, 2010 5:29 pm

well we go out on weekend trips on the Mobjack bay and do 3 or 4 long weekend trips a season, this weekend we're going to do the N.C. loop and spend about a week doing it. We'll take the ICW and then take the sound over to Elizabeth City and come north thur the Dismal swamp canal. Might go over to Smithfield if we have time and weather.