We're not coming

[ron6785]

As some of you know, we were relocating our boat "Bout Time" to the Tennessee River for the summer to get out of hurricane season on the Gulf.

I saw a video several days ago of a guy from a TV station in mobile in a boat between Daulphin and Sand Island dip his hand into the water for a few seconds and came up completely coated, that was enough for me. Can't imagine sucking that Glup into engine raw water intakes.

Excersized the hurricane rider on my insurance and will be riding out the hurricane season in Port Aransas, Tx. Of course it is just a matter of time til it gets here, as soon as the Mississippi current picks it up.

 

[Vincentc]

Fuel filter problems and related repair for the 25 Wellcraft and a boat ride checking out the just repowered Gulfstar 43 prevented my intended trip to Horn and Petit Bois yesterday to the barrier islands just West of Dauphin Is. , so I cannot comment first hand for this weekend.

However, my son and some of his friend and my brother in law went out yesterday at different times to both island and saw nothing in the way of evidence of the DWH spill, other than booms floating on the North side of Horn and a clean up barge moored at Petit Bois. They also saw an absence of other boats apparently due to oil spill fear and/or the fact that the booms prevent boaters from getting to the island.

I listened to the cited FL TV station's descriptions and watched the video, and they did not seem to correspond that well with each other. Tar balls on the beach are not unusual though the quantity is higher than I've seen before.


I do not think anyone yet knows the quatity spilled. The numbers presented in the oil odometer, strike me as incredible; they are based upon such criteria as the greatest conceivable rate. Reading past the headlines, reveals an utter lack of credible sourcing. There is a reference to USGS, I clicked it and it was not even a govt source.

Almost a month ago the authorities tried to bock off the Pascagoula Inner Harbor and effectively lock up my boat for the summer based upon hysterical and inaccurate assumptions. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed, we made the trip to the rondezvou and so far the only first had evidence of the spill is containment booms, air boat and the smiles of boat owners getting $1200 / day for their boats and $35 per person per hour from BP to stand around the dock wearing pfd's.

As long as the govt does not stop me I have and will continue go boating here, and hope we make it out today, although the forecast is 50% rain.

 

[Vincentc]

We made it to Horn Island Sunday, see photo.
The weather was not great but everything was fine, and any day on the water will, to me, beat out most other activites.. Although the island was as nice as ever, there was only one other boat there. Oil booms prevented access for most of the island and perhaps all the oil spill talk scared people away.

We went to the same anchorage we usually use and did not have the time to travel 20 miles or so East to Dauphin Is. and cannot provide any personal observations regarding oil on Dauphin Island or the AL/FL coastline, but did observe a newspaper article which showed the oil debris on the Perdido Key beach and rather surprisingly compared it to the problems we encounter with sea nettles and Portugese man o war. The oil trash was about the same size as naturally occuring "disasters" such as sea nettles and sea weed. While old crude is sticky and nasty, I doubt it will sting you like a sea nettle, and will BP pay people to come and pick up sea nettles?

I walked the East end of Horn island for about a mile, and found no evidence at all, of any problems caused by DWH except the presence of the oil booms. I saw a lot of pelicans and shore birds and while the pelicans looked dirty, like uh pelicans, none had any unusual difficulty flying.

If other boaters want to avoid the MS to FL gulf coast, that leaves more space for us, but oil spill fear and loathing seems like a waste to me.

We have a family vacation planned for 6/16-6/23 at Perdido Key, (Beach Colony Resort) and will be taking Lilly Marie and docking at Holiday Marina unless the authorities prevent our traveling via ICW. At present, my only regret is that the realtor would not give me an oil spill discount.

Regards,