June 5th marks this year’s Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Key boating events are fireworks Friday night (June 5th) and the pirate invasion / on-water party on the 6th. The event is centered on the Fort Walton Landing park downtown. Boating traffic is always heavy during Billy Bowlegs so be sure to take it slow in and around the Landing and bring plenty of water and sunscreen to ward off the sun.

Click Here for a Fullsized Map of the Fort Walton Landing with Boating Chart.

For area boat ramps, we suggest the EarthNC Florida Boat Ramps Map.

The water’s still cold, but boating is heating up on the Emerald Coast. Coming up on May 16th is the 2009 ABWA Billy Bowlegs Poker Run which is a fun way to start the boating season. The ABWA Poker Run requires 5 stops - all in the great Fort Walton Beach, Destin, and Niceville areas so it’s easy on the gas tank and fun for the crew. Most of the participants finish off the morning in Destin Harbor and ‘drive-in’ to the evening dinner and party.

We last did the run in 2007 and are planning to do it again this year in our Regal 2760.

For official information visit the ABWA Website

We put together an interactive map of the poker run complete with stops, charts, and more at our sister site EarthNC.com.

While many of us dream of a circumnavigation, Frank and Karen Taylor are turning theirs into reality this summer. Frank, the author of the Google Earth Blog has been planning the trip since their last family adventure - a year-long Caribbean sail in their prior boat PatiCat.

Their new boat is a St Francis 50 Catamaran named ‘Tahina’ built in South Africa and equipped for blue-water sailing. Sarah and I had the pleasure to spend a few days with Frank and Karen on the boat during this spring’s Miami Boat Show and I’m sure boat will serve them well during their trip.

As an active advocate for Google Earth and Destin Sharks’ ‘EarthNC‘ line of Google Earth nautical content, Frank will be keeping an active multimedia blog of his trip at www.TahinaExpedition.com. He’s posted a rough draft of his circumnavigation plan below. We wish Frank and Karen the best as they start their journey and hope to meet up with them here-and-there during their trip.

Fort Walton Beach and Destin both put on their over-water fireworks displays on Friday night, July 4th this year. Both shows start at/after 9pm. The Destin display is held in Destin Harbor while the Fort Walton show is held at the Landing just west of Brooks bridge. Both shows can attract a large number of boats, so plan ahead if you’ll be using a public launch ramp and be patient and safe on the water. Read more for a local boating map…
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This weekend presents multiple opportunities for on-water fireworks viewing in the greater Fort Walton Beach and Destin area. Hurlburt Field Air Force Base kicks off the celebrations with their annual ‘Sound of Freedom’ event on Thursday, July 3rd. Fireworks start after 9pm and there is plenty of room for lots of boats to watch. Boaters should exercise caution south of the channel west of Spectre Island as depths can be quite shallow (<4 ft) in many spots. Read on for a local channel map...
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Tomorrow, June 24th, kicks off the 2008 Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic at San Destin’s Baytowne Marina. This year’s activities include Dockside Party, ‘mini-Gras’, and Fireworks on Tuesday at the Baytowne Marina and Village of Baytowne Wharf, another Party and the Captain’s meeting on Wednesday, Thursday fishing start and boat parade, Friday and Saturday weigh-ins, and final awards ceremony at 11:00am on Sunday.

Local Bouys and Markers

If you’ll be boating as a part of the tournament this year, here’s a quick reference map of the local area complete with main channel markers and lights, courtesy of EarthNC.com.

The Christmas Season is in full swing and the next few weeks will feature multiple Holiday Lighted Boat Parades in Northwest Florida.

The 1st up is the Fort Walton Beach Parade on December 2nd at 6pm at the Landing on Brooks Street.

Next is the San Destin Parade on Saturday the 8th at 6pm. The San Destin Parade is visible from Baytowne Marina and the Village at Baytowne Boardwalk.

Finally, the Destin Harbor Parade will be held on December 9th at 6pm.

Our partner website, EarthNC.com has posted a Google Earth Map with more than 50 Parade Locations across the U.S.

Light winds and cool weather combined for a great day of racing during today’s Destin World Championship Offshore races. After a 2 hour delay to replace our port engine raw water pump, we motored out to Turn 5 south of Henderson Beach State Park to watch the races and act as a volunteer Patrol Boat guarding the race course from spectator encroachment. Please click on the photo thumbnail to browse our photos from today. Besides the race boats, we captured quite a few spectator boats and of course the Angel Flight helicopters.

The Offshore Super Series returns to Destin for their 2nd annual Destin World Cup races on October 29th. The Race Village this year will be at the Destin Commons with racing to occur along the Destin waterfront east of the pass similar to last year. Official Race information can be found at DestinWorldCup.com. We’ve put together a simple map to show the various venues below.

Offshore racing is exciting to watch, whether from land or sea. We invite you to browse our past coverage, videos, and photos from last year’s Destin Championship and this year’s Thunder on the Gulf races in Orange Beach.

Nothing like a 844lb Shark to make your day when fishing. This has been a banner year for large sharks along the Emerald Coast. The story has been picked up by the national media.

Quoting the Kansas City Star:

Bruner and his fishing buddies were on a 52-foot charter boat with Capt. Robert Hill, about 70 miles southwest of this beach city in the Florida Panhandle.

The fishermen first noticed the big mako because it kept eating grouper and scamp they had hooked.

“It was like ‘Jaws,’” Hill said.

Hill hooked a two-foot amberine on as bait and tossed it out. The shark eventually hit it.

After the long fight, the shark was gaffed and eventually gave up after its tail was roped. But even then, the men could not get the big shark in the boat. They tied it to the stern with three ropes and made the four-hour trip back to land.

Be sure to link through to the article for more pictures.