stevek185

On the plus side - might make less traffic at my favorite ramp. Bad side - adds about 30 minutes on my trek to West Palm unless I run to Jupiter and run on the outside.

I know that there are a fair amount of us from North Palm Beach, Jupiter area on this forum. Just saw this on WPTV here. LAKE WORTH, Fla. - Construction is expected to get underway as soon as Tuesday to install special new signs along the intracoastal in northern Palm Beach County. The signs will mark a new boating safety zone in the waterway that will extend from the Donald Ross Road Bridge, south, to the Parker Bridge where the intracoastal enters the Lake Worth Lagoon. If you boat in that zone, you'll have to watch the new slower speed and no-wake rules. For those of us who boat here, not sure why they are adding this. There are no docks, no houses and no boats in the area where they are extending the current No Wake zone. Any speculation as to why they are making the change? Granted - it's not a long run, maybe 1/2 mile or so, but I'm wondering if the North Palm Beach golf course had anything to do with it. Just read the update here : http://myfwc.com/docs/RecreationActivities/Boat_PalmBeachCounty_68D-24-017.pdf It's from Donald Ross Road all the way to Lake Worth.

Went to 4th on Flagler in West Palm Beach as planned. Got there maybe a little too early (12:00) as I know dock space was a premium last year. I think the rain held a lot of people off as Peanut Island was dead when we passed at 11:30. Rain off and on throughout the day, but for the most part, the rain stayed away. We kept an eye on the radar and went to Bradley's when the rains came. Only exciting thing that happened was the fantail watch of the USS Carr (FFG-52) pointed their .50 cal in our direction and PBSO armed with what looked like an AR-15 yelled at us and told us to stand off as we were too close to the car. Would have been nice if they would have installed a buoy line to instruct vessels where to keep back. As a former sailor myself, I understand the concern, but a little bit of information goes a loong way. The good thing is that it wasn't the US Navy that over reacted, but PBSO - but then they were just doing their job. All in all, an enjoyable 4th by boat. It seems that most of the inexperienced captains stayed in port due to the threat of rain. It really made for an enjoyable trip back to North Palm in the dark with a light mist. Only other things I encounted was a guy running too fast with no nav lights. I saw his silloutte coming up behind me and flashed my spreaders at him, but he still didn't get it and didn't check his nav lights.

Who passes out on a pool float WEARING a life jacket?? Almost sounds like a college prank. Buddy gets drunk, put him in a life jacket and set him on a raft at the beach. At least he's ok.

I was there last year and got lucky with a spot at 4:00 pm. It filled up pretty quick. I was also there for the waterfront opening and it was a disaster. No planning for the waterfront opening. North dock was closed until about 5:00 pm and then they opened it. I'm thinking of getting there pretty early this year and hanging out on Clematis instead of at Peanut like I did last year. It was jam packed last year at 4h on Flagler, but the nice thing was that they issued wristbands to the boaters to keep everyone else off the docks. When I spoke to the city, they didn't know they did it last year and didn't know if they were going to do this again.

From my experience in the Navy (destroyers) I would go amidships. In rougher seas the ride always seemed better amidships than in the bow or stern. The ship tended to piviot from the center in the fore/aft motion. Can't do much about the port/starboard motion. BTW - the destroyers that I were on 133m x 14m and 154m x 20m. We went through some rough stuff in the North Atlantic.

When you say ship - how big are we talking? This would make a big difference in my vote. Can you give is the LOA and beam that you are considering?

Interesting story. This makes no sense, what so ever... http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-gov-bobby-jindals-wishes-crude/story?id=10946379&page=1

Well - I'm going to get on my soapbox. Here we go again. Called the dockmaster for the City of West Palm Beach docks and they transferred me to Parks and Rec. Parks and Rec transferred me to events. Events asked me to leave a message. So I just got the call back. For anyone interested, the docks will be open for 4th on Flagler. Boats cannot move after 7:00 pm until after the fireworks show. They don't know if they will issue wristbands to boaters this year like they did last year. The fireworks barge will be set up on the south side near the bridge again. If the test shot indicates shell fallout on any dock, they will ask you to leave your boat OR move your boat to outside the bouy line. They usually have you stay north of the Slow Speed sign and outside the channel on the northeast side of the ICW. Hope this helps for anyone making plans. Also - remember that rafting at the docks is not allowed for some unknown reason...

Here's mine:

My dealer puts Sumitomo HTR sports on my 2006 Tundra. Of course, I get free tires from the dealer. Anyway, they seem to be good tires. My Tundra does seem to chew through tires though. I'm on my 5th set of tires after 106K miles. I had generals when I bought the truck and barely got 25K out of them. They put on one more set and then switched me to the Sumitomo's. I've had good luck with Nitto's, but they were a sport tire on the Cayenne.

Shhh!! That's my private ramp. Probably seen you there on the weekend. If you are going during the week, don't sweat it. It's like a ghost town there during the week because most of the hardcore fisherman don't want to run that far to the inlet. Me? I enjoy the ride too. What kind of boat do you have?

Call me. I live in Jupiter. I'll got with you. J/K! Anyway - I'm assuming that you are launching at Burt Reynolds Park, west side. I tie a line to my bow and a line to my stern. Make sure that you leave enough slack in both lines for the boat to slide off the trailer. Tie one line to the bow post and the other to the dock. Back down and give it a good jerk and it should slide off or mostly off the trailer. I try to get as close to the dock as possible with mine because it doesn't come off the trailer all that easily. Tie the lines to the dock and pull the trailer out. Snug up the lines and park the trailer. Not a lot of traffic there oduring the week so it shouldn't be a problem. When recovering - tie up at the courtesy dock. Back trailer in to your normal depth - as close to the dock as you can. Get in boat and drive up on the trailer. I get very close to the dock so I can step from the gunnel to the dock. Winch her up, and you're good to go!

Wow - Got a few. 1. The A-holes that blow through the "No Wake" zone at my ramp while I'm loading or unloading. Granted there are a lot of them on the ICW, but some are there for a reason. 2. The guys that insist on fishing at the end of the ramp on a busy weekend. It's a boat ramp. Not a fishing pier. 3. Pulling tubes, skiers etc. in the skinny parts of the ICW.

Our party was a success! We had a total of 6 boats show and 2 of the larger boats couldn't make it. We got there early enough to find a nice area of water and only had to ask 1 boat to stand off a little as it wasn't that crowded.

I guess everyone is in the same "boat" as me?

Thanks guys! We plan on being there about 9:00 at the latest. We have 4 boats confirmed but may have a few more. If anyone wants to stop by and say hey we'll be at the northwest side of the island near the rocks.

Depends. If you only operate during the day in non-Federally controlled waters (ICW), then the short answer is no. If the coasties stop you for a safety inspection, they might think otherwise.

So I've got a party planned at a public sandbar (Peanut Island) here in West Palm Beach. It's a pretty popular spot on the weekends, as those of you who live here know. Right now, I've got 6 boats slotted to attend and the plan is to raft up together. What is proper etiquette for holding enough space to accomidate all of the boats? If you were coming in to anchor near me, would you be offended if I asked you to stand off a little from me to accomidate the rest of the boats that are coming? It's kind of like saving seats in a theatre. You don't want to do it, but sometimes you need to. It will be an outbound tide and it will be easiest for all boats to raft downstream of me as I will be there first. I'll have 2 anchors deployed. Thoughts?

Having my wifes birthday party at Peanut Island in WPB on Sunday. Does anybody know the rules for the grills on the beach? Are they first come/first served?

Fishing in the Lantana Derby, but might make it down Sunday. One of my favorite things to do is go to Sunfest by boat, especially for the fireworks on Sunday.

Thinking about making a run from Jupiter to Islamorada and then on to Key West this summer. I haven't put it in my plotter yet, but anybody make this run? Any ideas on time frame? Is it best to run on the Atlantic side or cut over at Florida City and run on the Gulf Side? Looking for tips as I'm just now starting to plan this trip.

Let's see if I did it right. Instructions were easy enough to handle.

You are correct - the boats were allowed to stay at the dock, but people were not allowed to remain on their boats. They were asked to leave their boats by 8:30. We chose to untie from the dock and anchor in the intercoastal to view the fireworks show.

I have to disagree about how great the docks worked at the waterfront opening. They had the north dock closed and would allow any docking there until after I left that dock. About 15 minutes after I approached it and they told me it was closed, they opened it. Finally found a spot on the south dock. They would not allow rafting at the dock either. In the middle of the main act, they closed the south dock and asked all people on their boats to leave their boats until after the fireworks. Now with the restrictions for SunFest, it appears that the City of West Palm is doing all that it can to discourage boaters from using the docks during high traffic events. I also went 4th of July in 2009 and used the docks. This system worked the best. They closed the docks to pedistrians (imagine that) and gave wristbands to boaters who docked. Boaters were the only ones allowed on the dock. Solves a lot of problems, doesn't it?