We are going to Panama City beach for 2 weeks in June. We always rent a pontoon to go to shell island for the day. This time I decided to tow down our 21 ft bayliner runabout. We always go to the bay side of shell island however I would like to go out into the gulf and explore as well as go visit friends in destin and hit crab island. My question... Is a 21 foot runabout safe enough to go into the gulf in?
Vacation help PCB
- Thread starter hackalar
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Keep a weather eye for thunderstorms (not too bad in June, but they are around) and be prepared for a heck of a ride, scare of your life if you get caught near one. Not much to see offshore Panama City unless you are fishing or diving. IF you are lake boater I would be reluctant to go too far outside of the bays. Destin is a long ride offshore from P.C., then you have to deal with East Pass and tons of wild a$$ marine traffic when you get there. If there is a hard S.E. or S. wind with a falling tide, East Past is sporty. The ICWW would make more sense than an offshore transit in that small of a boat, too much distance between safe harbors if the weather kicks up. If you use the ICWW, there is commercial traffic and you need to talk with the tow boat operators to make passing/overtaking arrangements. Crab Island??? Only in Florida would a thousand people standing around in knee deep or deeper water be called an island. Calling a submerged sand bar an island is just another Florida land scam. You may want to trailer between P.C. and Destin.
Thanks guys. Sounds like I need to take the icww or trailer. Most likely trailer.
Crab island... Funny right. There is no island there lol.
Any must see or dos from water in that area? I was born and raised In pc but never spent much time on water there as a kid.
And yes I a river boater. All this is new to me on the bay / gulf stuff. And believe me I'm not going to far from shore. I have seen those storms thousands of times!
Crab island... Funny right. There is no island there lol.
Any must see or dos from water in that area? I was born and raised In pc but never spent much time on water there as a kid.
And yes I a river boater. All this is new to me on the bay / gulf stuff. And believe me I'm not going to far from shore. I have seen those storms thousands of times!
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We take our 18' boat to Key Largo for 3 months every winter. Our rental is on the bayside. For me to go out in the ocean to fish the wind has to be 5 mph or less. Then the seas are less than 1'. Winter of 2012 we got out offshore about twice a week. Last winter we made it 5 times in 3 months. Too much wind. You must watch the weather. Check the radar before you go to see if anything is coming.
It's a great ride over there on the ICW. Every time I go out on the gulf side to Destin, I have regretted it -unless it is clearly flat seas. The ICW is just as interesting, with a long canal out of Panama City and then that big Choctawhatchee bay.
It can be fun to explore. When I tow the 20 foot bow rider we spend about 2-3 days in Panama City and then dock near Destin in Shalimar. IMHO Destin is more of a boater destination with places to explore than PC. We just put it o the trailer in PC and drive to Destin. I imagine you would waste so much time driving from PC to Destin by boat and you will not see anything good. As others say the wind & wind direction will let you know where you can go that week.