DestinSharks.com

Emerald Coast Boat Week and Poker Run 2009

vzett — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:53:51 +0000

The Emerald Coast Poker Run and Boat Week are summer favorites in the Destin/Fort Walton area. Events kick off Wednesday the 12th with Ladies Night at Helen Back cafe and run through the Ski Show at 5pm on Sunday at Scully’s on the Bayou in Fort Walton Beach. In between are the Bikini Contest (Fudpuckers in Destin) on Thursday, Captains’ party and Boat-In Movie on Friday, and of course the breakfast, Poker Run and party on Saturday and the Sunday raft-up at Crab Island.

We’ve put together a map of the events combined with the boating charts for the local area courtesy of EarthNC.com.

It’s Pirate Time Again - 2009 Billy Bowlegs Festival and Map

vzett — Fri, 22 May 2009 14:35:51 +0000

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.

2009 ABWA Billy Bowlegs Poker Run

vzett — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:34:49 +0000

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.

Introducing the Tahina Expedition

vzett — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:11:52 +0000

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.

4th of July Fireworks Displays for Fort Walton Beach and Destin

vzett — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:54:23 +0000

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…

Hurlburt Field Sound of Freedom Fireworks Display

vzett — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:23:30 +0000

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...

Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic Kicks Off Tomorrow

vzett — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:13:55 +0000

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.

December Holiday Lighted Boat Parades

vzett — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:00:57 +0000

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.

Saturday Offshore Racing Photos from the Destin World Championships

vzett — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 02:55:49 +0000

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.

Offshore Racing Returns to Destin on October 29th!

vzett — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:30:53 +0000

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.

Monster 844lb Mako Shark Caught in the Destin Fishing Rodeo on Sunday

vzett — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:10:54 +0000

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.

Spectacular Semptember Evenings on the Gulf Coast Intercoastal Waterway

vzett — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:35:41 +0000

While the traditional North American boating season runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, September and October mark one of our favorite times on the Gulf Coast. Daytime temperatures are ‘moderating’ into the mid-80’s and nighttime lows on the water finally get to the low 70’s.

When the weather so beckons, we usually find ourselves running down to Spectre Island, a small island in Santa Rosa Sound on the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway about 5 miles west of Fort Walton Beach. Spectre offers a deep water harbor off the ICW and quiet beaches for the kids. Evening during the summer, we usually have the island to ourselves if we go out during the week. Click on the photo to see some highlight pictures from one of our trips out.

New Boating Maps and Guides at EarthNC.com

vzett — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 02:51:07 +0000

Our partner website EarthNC.com has been scouring the web for user-generated Google My Maps of interest to boaters. They’ve started posting their finds in their ‘Featured Maps‘ section. Even better, with EarthNC’s new TakItWithMe My Maps Embedding Tool you can paste any My Map on your own website with easy links to Google Earth, a large map, and even download to GPS in some cases (see our example below).

Just some of the maps include:

and many more.

Trent Severn Waterway Map by theWaterway.ca

Aerial Video of Destin Pass Boating Accident after Emerald Coast Poker Run

vzett — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 02:20:23 +0000

We missed the Emerald Coast Poker Run this year due to conflicting schedules with the Offshore Super Series powerboat races over in Orange Beach. By most accounts the poker run was a big success this year, but it was tempered by an accident in Destin Pass during aerial filming (not part of the official event). Fortunately no one was killed, but some of the passengers did receive major injuries.

The accident victims were gracious enough to release the video of the accident to help promote boating safety. As the video shows, the boat was driving mostly south at high speed into the mouth of Destin Pass were it ‘hooked’ after landing from a big wave jump. Destin Pass, like most passes, is subject to unpredictable wave patterns due to tide/wind conflicts, shallowing water, and busy boating traffic by vessels of all sizes. To help provide context to the video, our sister website EarthNC.com - Marine Charts for Google Earth put together the simple map below with the approximate boating path. They’ve also posted a link to their online Google Earth marine chart for Destin Pass here.

Approximate Accident Path and Location

OSS Racing Video from Turn at Orange Beach

vzett — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 01:38:12 +0000

We put together a short video clip from the Sunday afternoon Offshore Super Series race at Orange Beach. The sound doesn’t really do the race justice, but it does give a good sense of the action as boats got plenty of air time in the 2-4′ seas. Be sure to check out our Offshore Racing Category for more photos and video.