Fl. Circumnavigation Trip Pics

[DonV]

I can see you did't make your Bed

Capt. Chuck, looks like he makes a mean omlette though!!! Very nice trip Denny, thanks for sharing!!!

[NoBones]

AWESOME DENNY!
What a trip, glad you had fun!

This will put me into turbo mode on the 27..

BTW: There is no mention if some of that fine Kentucky
Bourbon was consumed on this trip??

See ya, Ken

[castalot]

all i have to say is

thank you

[cdavisdb]

Bushwacker has his seafari set up to BE the Hilton, you can't beat it. My 20 Seafari was a stripped out dive boat, two big coolers for fish and seats, storage for 10 tanks, add 3-4 divers, other gear, 150 lbs of ice, 16 gallons of extra gas and you are set to dive 30-40 miles offshore, which we did about 20 weekends a year off Bayport. Absolutely the best 20 ft dive boat in existence.(and no, it did not self bail with that load) Want to go camping in the Bahamas with the wife? Just strip out the tanks, load the cooking/sleeping stuff and go. That boat was the prototype for my "perfect" boat, a 25 Seafari.

[Bushwacker]

Dang Denny,
You make Conrad Hilton look like a street urchin.

Couple more questions:
1. What do you use your fore cuddy storage locker for, and does it have a liner or just the hull there?

2. Are those new stays on your bimini at the windshield?

Hey Gillie,

That Conrad Hilton crack is a good one!! Never heard that before!

1. My anchor locker does have a fiberglass gel-coated bottom in it. It's about 5-6" above the bunks. If you pull the bulkhead, there is an access hole for the bow eye in vertical surface aft of the shelf. I keep a lot of stuff in there: 300' of 7/16" anchor line and 20' of chain, a big 1M candlepower 12V spotlight, spare oil for hydraulic steering, and the barbeque grill, when it's not in rod holder. I may cram other stuff in there if there's room when I need the bunk space! The grill can be a problem because it gets in way of anchor line, so I only put it up there when anchored for the night when I need to clear out some room in the cabin. I had to put a mesh screen (an old nylon mesh dive gear bag) over the opening to keep the line/chain from falling out onto bunk after I moved the hawse pipe aft to center it over the anchor locker. It just hooks over some screws I put into fwd side of bulkhead.

2. I've had those side supports on the Bimini for years. Most Bimini's are pretty wimbly affairs, but mine is rock solid with those supports, and makes a great handhold when going around the side to front deck! The supports were just made from some short pieces of tubing and bimini top fittings. I posted some pictures of it some time back, but here they are again.




You'll notice I also braced the radio antenna off windshield with some turnbuckles. A lot of guys just cantilever it off the gunnel, but I'm sort of a "belt & suspenders" type . . . if you can easily support it, why not?!! What I did was slip a piece of schedule 40 PVC over the antenna, with a wood block and a couple of pad eyes attached to it with some fg tape and epoxy. The wood block rests against the outside of bimini frame, and the turnbuckles can be adjusted to pull it tight against the frame which is held away from the windshield by the bimini supports mentioned above. I used a couple of fast-pins thru the turnbuckle ends into the pad eyes, so they can be quickly pulled to lower antenna. I also replaced the screws in the bimini supports with fast-pins, so I can quickly lower the top when coming up to a low bridge, etc. The PVC pipe support works well because it's a "soft" support for the antenna which allows it to move around some inside the pipe but limits the motion. Sometimes if you try to support something too rigidly, you'll create a "hardpoint" stress concentration and cause it to crack at the support, creating the very problem you're trying to avoid! In other words, "Better" can be the enemy of "Good Enough" if you're not carefull! Denny

[Bushwacker]

BTW: There is no mention if some of that fine Kentucky Bourbon was consumed on this trip??

Oh yea, Harry didn't disappoint . . . showed up with a bottle of 15 year old Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve! Definitely fine stuff! It's hard to find because the Ky. natives know about it, so it sells out immediately whenever they release a batch of it. Harry found a couple of bottles up in Indiana during a bike trip and bought both of them! Was only 107 proof this year vs. 110 proof last year! (It varies from batch to batch; they never know exactly how it'll turn out!) We consumed a tolerable amount of it up at Terry's and at Skip's - it does have a kick to it! Still have a little left. I tried to talk Harry into swinging by Area 442 with it on his way home, but I think he was afraid you'd put him to work! I'm saving it for our next get-together . . . maybe mini-season in the Keys this year?! Denny

[gofastsandman]

Oh yea, Harry didn't disappoint . . . showed up with a bottle of 15 year old Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve! Definitely fine stuff! It's hard to find because the Ky. natives know about it, so it sells out immediately whenever they release a batch of it. Harry found a couple of bottles up in Indiana during a bike trip and bought both of them! Was only 107 proof this year vs. 110 proof last year! (It varies from batch to batch; they never know exactly how it'll turn out!) We consumed a tolerable amount of it up at Terry's and at Skip's - it does have a kick to it! Still have a little left. I tried to talk Harry into swinging by Area 442 with it on his way home, but I think he was afraid you'd put him to work! I'm saving it for our next get-together . . . maybe mini-season in the Keys this year?! Denny

Denny,
Thanks for taking the time to put on the show!

Big smiles everywhere. You only burned how much oil?

Did you have a cheeseburger @ Cabbage Key. How pretty. I`ve been told the same story. He has a small concrete block studio down in K.W. where he records. No signage. If cars are there so is Jimmy.

The water in the locks looked a tad questionable, but not the steaks on the grill. The Seafari is a great design and certainly multi-purpose, but I shouldn`t be walking around on small places. I have an old bimini frame that came to me a little bent,if someone wants to make forward stanchions like yours, they can have it.

Nice pics,
GFS

[uncleboo]

What an awesome trip!!! Thanks for all the photos. Now, you should plan a trip up the ICW and come see us Carolina and Virginia boys! Might as well continue up north to see some of the New England guys as well. Can you imagine the post? "Met all the east coast CSC nuts, uh, enthusiasts by water!" Your SC is beautiful!!!

[Bushwacker]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! It was indeed a great trip and we had fun visiting with all the CSC folks. Haven't made any plans for next spring yet, but it would be fun to haul it up to Edenton and explore the Albemarle Sound and maybe even the Chesapeake Bay area! Denny

[Snookerd]

Great shots and details Denny! Seeing that 25 next to yours is very cool! Glad to hear and see it was a good time. Thank you.