Upcoming Meeting And Boat Trip Itineraries(RED COLORING INDICATES RECENT CHANGE)
A. August 9-15: Bahamas Trip #2 to Green Turtle Cay- Co-Trip Captains are Caroline Fallon and Carl Haas. Contact Caroline (storyteller.gw33@gmail.com) or Carl (carlhass@bellsouth.net) if you are interested.
B. September 9-15: Keys- Maximum destination is Marathon, but could be Islamorada or Key Largo. Possible continuation around Cape Florida to Naples and Lake Okeechobee to home-Captain needed. If no captain comes forward this trip risks being canceled.
C. September 30-October 3: Dockside Inn, Ft. Pierce: Captains are Henry Inserra and Ken Wright. Contact Henry if you are interested (hinserra@comcast.net).
D. ICW Impromptu(s): Informal raft-ups, BYOB, arranged on short notice (approx. 1 week). Captains are needed for these events.
Prior Events A. JANUARY 25, 2009: Peanut Island Rendezvous and Cookout.
Great event to start the year. 23 boats, over 60 people. All boats successfully rafted within the West Cove floating docks on Peanut Island. Henry Inserra and John Deal did the cooking with great results. No one went hungry. Also lots of goodies from Grady-White and Pelagic Gear for the raffle. Lots of hard work by Rob Robbins, Lee Potter, Rick South, Sr, and Rick and Brenda Phipps to get all the food and goodies on the island. A special treat was member Pandora Crippen on site to personally autograph any of her GGG cookbooks that were purchased.
B. March 1, 2009: Spanish River Park, Boca Raton Cookout.
An very nice first for us at this marvelous park in Boca Raton. While the weather was a little threatening, we did have several members participate. The floating docks were right next to our pavilion where we had a hamburger/hot dog cookout with delicious tuna salad by Pandora Crippen from our own GGG cookbook, Ken Wright's German potato salad, and oatmeal-raisin cookies from Costco. Several new members participated with this as their first GGG event, and it was great getting to know them.
C. March 28, 2009: GRADY FEST, Punta Gorda, Florida.
This inaugural event for state-wide Grady-White owners was held in Punta Gorda, Florida. The Tarpon Coast Grady Club sponsored the event with great support from Grady-White Corporate in Greenville, NC. Two concurrent symposiums were held, one for Captains, and one for First Mates. Both were full of valuable sessions by Grady-White business partners such as Garmin, and Yamaha. Our own Pandora Crippen was a presenter during the Dockside Dining session, and cooked up 2 fabulous recipes from our own "GULFSTREAM GRADY GROUP COOKBOOK" which were enjoyed by all. Bob and Pandora Crippen, John and Maggie Melson, and Ken and Donna Wright attended from our club. This was a wonderful event for updating ourselves on Grady-White topics and getting to know fellow Grady-White owners in Florida. Look for it to be repeated again next year. D. May 1-3, 2009: LAKE OKEECHOBEE TRIP TO ROLAND MARTIN MARINA, CLEWISTON, FL:
Three boats traveled from our east coast to Roland Martin Marina: Wendy and Brian Peroni aboad AAARRF; John and Maggie Melson aboard TRUE BLUE; and Bob and Denise Hopler and their guests Bill and Carol aboard BON BINI. They were joined by Ken and Donna Wright aboard DONNA-B who made the crossing the week before and were cruising the Florida west coast. The trip to Clewiston on Friday was nicely uneventful and smooth, but about 8 hours total from Jupiter. Managing the locks was a learning curve experience that all handled well. Saturday was spend doing whatever we wanted: some rented bikes and rode the hurrican dike trail, some went alligator sighting, and others went fishing with a guide. A "potluck" cookout was held on Saturday night around the pool with a wide assortment of fabulous food. Sunday all four boats traveled to Indian Town and then to Stuart with a stop at Pirate Loft in Manatee Pocket for lunch. All agree that this was a great trip and a future version might include the option of continuing on further to west coast locations such as Captiva, Sanibel, Naples, and Fort Myers.
E. Gulfstream Grady Group Bahamas Crossing June 26-18, 2009:
Fair weather and a following sea carried
nineteen boats from the Gulfstream Grady Group to Sunrise Resort in Lucaya, Grand BahamaIsland, in June. Fishing and snorkeling
the clear waters of the Bahamas,
along with great fun among Grady owners, was the order of the day.
The ‘Story
Teller’ with Jim and Caroline Fallon, captured the offshore fishing award with a 30 lb kingfish, although yellowfin,
blackfin and skipjack tunas and dolphin, as well as the ubiquitous barracuda
graced our lines.
Reef
fishing provided more consistent action. The ‘Off duty II’ with Joe Cory pulled in a 13 lb.
mutton snapper to take reef fishing award. Yellow tail snapper rounded out the
table fare.
The Group
also explored Peterson Cay, a BahamasNational Park accessible
only by boat and a fantastic snorkeling area.
Sunrise
Resort great accommodations, great food and spirits and a wonderfully attentive
staff. Thanks also go to Gwen at Grady-White for arranging T-shirts, hats and
other goodies for Club members on the crossing.
A tropical
wave gave us bit of a head wind for the return trip which brought out the best
in Grady ownership. Bigger boats took the edge off the head sea for smaller
boats. Two boats in particular deserve recognition. ‘True Blue’ with John and Maggie Melson, lived up to its
name for helping a smaller Grady which ran into engine trouble. And ‘Off Duty
II’ with Joe Cory came back on duty when they found and towed in a 17’ boat that had been
adrift alone in the Gulfstream since the day before.
Lee Potter, our membership chairman, deserves a lot of credit for the outstanding job he did arranging this trip.
F: FT. PIERCE TRIP, OCTOBER 9-12, 2009:
Brian and Wendy Peroni and Henry Inserra put together one fabulous event for many of our members. About 10 boats and over 30 people attended, with a great Friday night arrival meet-and-greet at the Dockside Inn's Tiki Bar Restaurant. Saturday saw the members split between fishing for fish and diving for lobsters for our Pot-Luck dinner that night, or going sightseeing into historic old Fort Pierce. The fishermen were quite successful with Great White (Bill and Valerie Walker) catching 9 dolphin; AARRFFF (Brian and Wendy Peroni and Ken Wright) dove a great reef just outside the inlet and produced 18 lobsters, all of which made our "Pot Luck" dinner quite "gormet", to say the least! And when you consider the fabulous job Henry Inserra did applying his lifetime of chef experience to cooking this bountiful harvest on the charcoal grill, and add in all the hors-doeuvres and salads our members provided and our Saturday night feast was outstanding. All who attended thought that the Dockside Inn facilities were great, although for shoreside power hook up you need a hubble-3-prong 110 volt adapter as all the outlets at the slips are 110 volt GFI sockets. This trip sure looks like a repeat candidate for future years.
G: NOVEMBER 15, 2009 PEANUT ISLAND FISHING TOURNAMENT AND COOKOUT:
Another fabulous fishing tournament and club cookout by our members!!! Rick and Brenda Phipps, Lee Potter, Brian and Wendy Peroni, Gene Waller, Carl Haas, all put together a great day for us. Henry Inserra and Jim Eslin sure did a great job cooking up the hamburgers and hot dogs.
In spite of rough seas the fishing tournament found several members with good results. Gene Waller took 3rd place with a 7 lb dolphin, Lee Potter 2nd place with a 9 lb dolphin, and 1st place went to Carl Haas with an 11 lb dolphin. $100 prizes to each of these fine efforts.
Approximately 20 boats and over 50 people attended which shows how popular these Peanut Island events have become. A great time had by all, with much thanks to all who helped prepare all the great side dishes and deserts, set up the site, do the cooking and clean up afterwards.
H. TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 2010: OLD BAHAMA BAY, GRAND BAHAMA. 14 BOATS PARTICPATING WITH APPROX. 30 MEMBERS HAD IDEAL FLAT CROSSING CONDITIONS. MEMBERS LEFT FROM 3 INLETS: JUPITER, PALM BEACH AND BOYNTON BEACH EARLY AM AND MADE THE CROSSING IN ABOUT 2 HOURS. AN ARRIVAL RECEPTION WAS HELD WITH LOTS OF GREAT HORS DOEUVRES AND GOODIE BAGS FOR EACH BOAT COURTESY OF SEVERAL GENEROUS VENDORS THAT RICK SOUTH, SR. AND RICK PHIPPS CONVINCED TO PROVIDE FOR OUR EVENT. WE HAD SEVERAL NEW MEMBERS AS WELL AS EXISTING MEMBERS MAKING THEIR FIRST BAHAMAS CROSSING WITH US WHICH WAS EXCITING FOR ALL. FISHING WED. WAS GOOD BUT THE FISH WERE SMALLER THAN EXPECTED. AGAIN GREAT SEA CONDITIONS (FLAT) PREVAILED. THURSDAY NIGHT SEVERAL OF US WENT TO LUCAYAN BEACH FOR FUN AT THE CASINO WHICH WAS ARRANGED BY KAREN REYNOLDS AND THE CREW FROM KARISMA. THE CASINO PROVIDED A DISCOUNT BUS TO TRANSPORT ALL WHO WENT TO AND FROM OLD BAHAMA BAY. FRIDAY SAW MORE FISHING, WITH SOME BOATS BOTTOM FISHING SANDY CAY AND THEN SNORKELING THE EDGE OF THE BANK. SOME MEMBERS DEPARTED SATURDAY TO BE HOME FOR FATHERS DAY, WHILE THE REST DEPARTED SUNDAY OR MONDAY. ANOTHER FABULOUS TRIP WITH FUN HAD BY ALL.
I: BIMINI JULY 9-12, 2010 6 GRADY-WHITE BOAT OWNERS TRAVELED TO BIMINI ON 3 GRADY-WHITES AND "TEAM FISHED" FOR 2 GREAT DAYS. KEN AND DONNA WRIGHT, BOB AND PANDORA CRIPPEN, JOE AND NADA CORY, GENE AND MARY WALLER, HENRY INSERRA AND OUR NEWEST MEMBER, HENRY FONG (HE JOINED LAST WEEK!). ON SATURDAY THE TEAM OF BOB CRIPPEN, GENE WALLER AND HENRY FONG, WITH A HUGE BARRACUDA, OUT FISHED THE TEAM OF JOE CORY, KEN WRIGHT, AND HENRY INSERRA. HOWEVER, ON SUNDAY THE TIDE WAS TURNED AND THE JOE CORY TEAM WON WITH A 250 POUND BLUE MARLIN HOOKED BUT NOT BOATED AND A 12 FOOT SAILFISH BOATED, DEHOOKED AND RELEASED ALIVE AND WELL. GENE WALLER AND HENRY INSERRA EACH RECEIVE A $30 AWARD FROM THE CLUB FOR THEIR WINNING CATCHES. JOE AND NADA CORY WITH HENRY INSERRA CONTINUED ON TO GREAT HARBOR IN THE BERRY ISLANDS AND HAD 2 DAYS OF GREAT FISHING, BOATING YELLOW EYE, YELLOW TAIL SNAPPER, BLUE MARLIN AND SAILFISH (AGAIN!) AND GROUPER. ALL HAVE SAFELY RETURNED TO HOME PORT AND AGREE THAT WITH THE IMPROVEMENTS TO BIMINI THAT A RETURN TRIP IS A MUST.
Carl Haas with 2nd largest Dolphin Old Bahama Bay '07
