16' Wellcraft Airslot in St. Andrews Bay?

[saxrulez]

I have been a freshwater only boater for a while now. I have been wanting to take my boat into the St. Andrews Bay(Gulf, panama city). I have zero salt water boating experience. I am going to pick the calmest weather weekend I can to do it. I am a helicopter pilot so I am well acquainted with how fast weather can change and how much you can wish you were back on land after making a bad weather decision. It is only a 16' boat so I am going to be very cautious as to when I take it out.

Does anyone have good advice for other things I should look for or do? I have the basic safety equipment, life jackets, horns, automatic bilge pump.

 

[nlain]

Re: 16' Wellcraft Airslot in St. Andrews Bay?

Get a GPS and charts for the area, paper and electronic charts. The water there can be 20 to 30 feet deep and then almost no water, there is a grass that grows on some of the thin spots that you do not run through for legal reasons. The water there can get very rough\choppy, a lot of boat traffic, you can probably handle it, just go slow and keep the bow high. There are also a lot of big boats that throw a large wake when they come in through the cut. Shell Island is the beach area, wear some kind of shoes in the water, Sea Urchins hurt when you step on them and the bottom is covered. There is a state park there that has a boat ramp, you have to pay a daily fee to get in or if you are going to do a lot of Fl state park travels buy a year pass that works in all of them. It is a beautiful area, crystal clear water. I have never been fishing in the are so I can not say anything about that. I do plan to go back one day, been twice and enjoyed it all both times. Have a friend with a condo there so we stay with him and get guided tours so to speak, they know all the good places to go, see, eat at.