Boating to Dog Beach Island at Lovers Key

[@craneville5446]

Thank you for all the great amazing ICW trip and info. I'm am at Shady Harbor and will be heading south for the first time in the fall with no destination in mind. Just the start of an adventure and to watch and learn your footage help takes the pressure off. You both are wonderful people. Enjoy and stay safely happy!! A big wave for Shady Harbor NY

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Our old home! We miss Shady! Enjoy the trip. It will be awesome not having any plans. Take your time and enjoy.

[@admiralbrigitt]

Tell our friends at Shady we said hi!!

[@comred2]

Love the story about Stella's shell- spooky in a comforting way

[@richardb7063]

Mateys narrative would have been " That dog beach island was Bomb !!! "

[@enpassant7358]

I miss the days when I could take Bubba around other dogs and people. These days, I have seven German Shepherds and they are so over protective that I just cant chance it. Bubba was the smartest Border Collie I've ever been around though. He had a huge vocabulary of words and even understood the spelling of the important ones like W, A, L, K or V, E, T and the dreaded B, A, T, H. 😀

[@Faulkew]

Hi Tommy, I'm a former owner of the exact make, model, and year of your sweet Meridian! I have noticed the topic of getting the boat to its expected RPM as WoT, and associated discussion about time to plane the boat, etc. I learned several worthwhile nuggets and wanted to share them for your information. My boating was done on the upper Potomac River, in Washington DC waters. So, brackish, brown, warm water most of the year. First thing I learned (or confirmed) - with the 6.2 gas engines, the boat is underpowered. Especially, when you start to take advantage of the storage and load it full of stuff, as I did 🙂 Back in the day (2010'ish), when Merdian was still an active builder/model - a recall was issued for the 341 to address planning issues. The end result was that a wedge (foam and glassed in) of a few inches was added to the stern sections of each side of the hull. The goal was to induce additional downward pressure to the bow and to improve the ability to get the boat on plane. I believe the MarineMax team from Baltimore did this work, so MarineMax may be a good resource to follow up on this topic. Back in 2010 ish, I invested a good bit of time (and boat bucks 🙂) working with a great technician to see if we could bet the boat to run at the spec'd RPMs (5,000 at WoT). A large part of the work was sending out the props to be balanced, and the pitch increased - I think 1/4 inch. The shafts were also sent out to be inspected (if we had issues with the shafts, it was minor). The ignition system of each engine was cleaned with new rotors and plugs. The fuel flow/filters of each engine were also inspected and filters were replaced. The bottom received a fresh coat of paint, and "prop-speed" (or something like it) was applied to the running gear. When the boat was splashed and we had new'ish fuel in the tanks, we were able to get the starboard engine to peg at 5,000 rpms and the port engine to 4,800. To note, for some reason that we did not identify, the port engine could not achieve the same rpm at WoT. The tech I was working with suggested that seeing a difference of a few hundred rpms was not that unusual and tracking down the delta to get a match may be worth the effort and cost. I also had the tech team upgrade the thrusters to the 5 blade version offered by Sidepower. Not sure what these blades cost today, but the difference in the amount of thrust and noise reduction was noticeable and worth the effort and money. A week later, when the work is completed, I pick up the boat and now she runs a couple hundred rmps less on both engines. All it took was a week or so of slime to grow on the boat hull to degrade its efficiency. Keeping the hull and running gear clean will be an important part of the "care and feeding" of your Meridian. Refreshing the props and considering adding the wedge to the hull are other things that you can consider. Finally, good engine "care and feeding" too. Lastly, let me also recommend buying a set of stainless steel cup holder inserts for the bridge. I did this on sort of a whim, but the 'upgraded' look of the stainless steel cup holders improved the wow factor of the bridge well above the cost. I miss having this boat, in hindsight, she was even a better boat than I appreciated at the time. Enjoy yours!

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Thanks for the detailed response and tips. I’ve considered adding the prop tunnel hooks as they are called to add lift for the stern. I’ve heard that improves speed greatly. I have reduced the pitch on my props one inch to 19” as suggested on the Meridian yacht owners group. Little difference was noticed. I think growth under the boat will be the biggest challenge. I will try prop speed on my next haulout for the props and shafts, as well as good bottom paint. Until then, I’m diving and scraping every few weeks. We’re heading out this weekend for a long trip and I just cleaned the bottom today, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Thanks.

[@RandomlyAwkward1]

Wow… another great find! We are going to have to find these nooks down by you guys. We have gone as far South as Cabbage Key/Cayo Costa but it sounds like some more travel is authorized! I think we need a tender as well because we beached at Cayo Costa and ended up ingesting sand and shells in the impeller. Our Pug loves the water and we all went swimming up in Venice off of the ICW the week before last. Looks like you are enjoying life to the fullest!

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

We plan to head North this coming weekend for a week long trip. First stop Cayo Costa/Pelican bay, then Boca, Venice and maybe to Sarasota depending on time.

[@RandomlyAwkward1]

@@AdventuresofHappyOurs if you are looking for a place to pump out, the only place I have found north of Gasparilla is Crow’s Nest marina, which is right across from Snake Island at Venice Inlet. $15 for a pump out and it seems to be the only place around, at least where we are. Pops Sunset Grill is a good place to have lunch or dinner, and you can tie your boat up right on the ICW.

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

@@RandomlyAwkward1 we were planning to stop at Crows nest for a bite. How is the water depth at the Sunset grill?I don’t think we can get Happy Ours back in there but would love to anchor by there for ve right. Nice quiet bay.

[@RandomlyAwkward1]

@@AdventuresofHappyOurs I seem to think it was 6-10 feet most places. We only draw 3 and didn’t have any problem but you are probably more like 4-6 at least. The ICW is around 12 but goes to 2-3 on the sides of the channel pretty quickly. That’s where all the boats beach and swim , dogs play, etc.

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Oh I’m confusing pops with the Sunset Hut in Dona bay Nokomis. We should be fine for pops.

[@Andrealightworker]

Love the story of the shell. I believe in mediums and signs. My mom sends all of us dimes. My daughter and I went to see Theresa Caputo after my daughter first born son was stillborn. It was Theresa first live show here in Durham NC. She brought him through. She could not have known the details she gave us. I BELIEVE 🥰 that was so cool, the seashell ! Beautiful!

[@gypsybelle637]

Good dog, good dog parenting. 👍🏼👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽💕❤️

[@briankillian5248]

It was great to see "Matey" have a wonderful day. I wonder how well cats would do on a boat? LOL... I'll never find out.

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Cats apparently do well. Another channel I follow is “Team Wiff”. They have since gone the RV route, but they were once full time boat live aboards for a couple years with 2 cats. Check that channel out to see how they lived - quite well I must add!

[@craigc.7033]

Beautiful video.

[@jeffalexander544]

Your daughter can finally say amen. We all love you Stella. 🦮🎣⚓️🍻🥂🛥👏‼️

[@Baba3756-n2o]

Ooooh Fa! Now youre gonna have to drag that shell around for the rest of your life. .

[@richardmcdaniel6262]

Looks like a great time. I went past there by car and would have loved to have been on the water. Thanks for the video's.

[@rhutcheson3738]

Would love to see you do a Wiggin's Pass video. Stunning water. Very Carribean like. Love all your videos

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Will definitely check that out!

[@meganpruitt2400]

We have vacationed to Sanibel and Marco Islands for the last twenty years and are considering moving down there. How do you guys like it compared to living in New York

[@richardmcdaniel6262]

I'm a Realtor in Cape Coral, let me know if I can be of any help.

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Love it! New York what?

[@briankillian5248]

Awewsome "shell" story. I got misty.

[@ronaldharmon9891]

Very cool story about the shell, thank you Stella (if I may be so familiar).

[@richardb7063]

Some people say " Don't look for living in the Dead " at times it sure is difficult not to or to believe that statement. So I say "Keep On Truckin" with the medium Brigitt. 😊

[@swflboatingchannel]

Please think twice about taking the bayside route to dog beach for a few reasons. We have done so ourselves before Ian hit on our old 21’ boat with a 32” draft and there are several very shallow areas on the bay side and we even ran aground just before the westerly turnoff to the dog beach channel before the bridge as there is shoaling over there and it gets very, very shallow there. There is also a very shallow, winding area of the channel that you might have trouble with on your vessel. In addition, there are numerous no wake zones that will slow you down a great deal rather than going gulf-side and please, don’t forget, the bay-side is where all the debris from the destroyed buildings went during Ian and there is a higher likelihood to hit debris on the bay-side than on the gulf. Please be careful. You have a great boat and hopefully we might be able to meet out on the water some time. We are closing on a new to us 2016 24’ Crownline Sport Cruiser this week and know the local waters very, very well! Be well!

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Thanks for the local info! I wouldn’t dare try it with Happy Ours. But I’ll try it with our pontoon. Good luck with the new boat. We had a 27 Crownline just prior to our Meridian.

[@jrac863]

So guys let me ask do u miss New York lol?Great video were just down at dog beach in april

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

What’s this New York you speak of? Lol

[@edwardranno7119]

Where did mateys tail go ? Can’t wait to take my lab there only I want a a 22/25 foot boat

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Mateys tail was bobbed when he was a pup before we adopted him. His little nugget tail goes nuts when he’s happy!

[@chuckvogt899]

What brand are the admirals glasses? Look like Maui Jims?

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

I think so.

[@timskiff9422]

Is it able to power up on plane now?

[@lesliefleming4359]

I had the same question?

[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

Got it figured out. That’s the next video.

[@chuckvogt899]

waaaay too crowded for me!