Camping At Sea

So where was I?

Here.

The "camp" in the photo above sits about a half mile offshore of New Port Richey, Florida. It belongs to a friend of ours who graciously allowed us to use it this week. The photo is looking through the remains of my wife's family's camp. It was destroyed in a storm and the state only allows repairs, not replacement. All that is left are the pilings that stand as a monument to the generations of her family who spent countless happy days and nights out in the Gulf of Florida.

When we were dating, and I had not gone home to "meet the parents" yet, the future Mrs. FC tried to describe their camp and how fun it was to live out in the Gulf for days at a time. For her, "going out to camp" was a regular part of every childhood summer. Before I made it out there,I pictured something on the shoreline, extending out a little bit, but these camps are out there.

There's only a handful left. They are a wonderful remnant from a Florida that was less crowded, less busy, ... less disconnected from itself.

I met Johnny Cash out at a camp like this.

That's another story though.

The basic design of any of these camps is a rectangular open room about as big as a two car garage. Around the perimeter of the room are beds, a galley, and dining table. They are rugged plywood cabins with decking and shuttered open windows all the way around to catch the Gulf breezes. When I say "open windows", I mean there is no screen or glass, just openings in the plywood walls that can be securely battened down using the heavy plywood shutters. When a rain squall comes up, you close the shutters on the side where the rain's coming in until it passes ... or you sleep in a wet bed.

Here's my boat, "Summer School", moored at the landward side of the camp. Doesn't she look happy to be there?

The purpose of the trip was an early birthday celebration for Junior (white shorts). His actual birthday is next month, but September is the worst of the hurricane season, so we did the "boys in the Gulf" celebration now.

The knuckleheads didn't waste any time once they got there. A few minutes after we arrived, they were wrestling and leaping crazily into the water. This top deck is about 6 feet above high tide water level. At high tide you jump into about 8 feet of water and at low tide there's only a couple of feet.

The water was spectacularly clear and green. Besides being excellent for leaping in to, the clear water was also super for snorkeling and fish watching.

We fished some too.

One of the neat things (there are many) about being out at camp is that it reduces life to the fundamentals. Not totally of course, or we would have had no time for fun. Still, when you are at camp, you only have the food, water, and ice you brought with you. There is no A/C, no internet, no water heaters ... showers are cold and very, very short. Rinse - turn off the water- soap up- turn on the water.

Waste freshwater out there and see how fast you catch hell.

Anything you forgot ... you do without.

It's good for teenagers to experience this, I think.

Fundamentals ...

...and when a storm comes, you batten down the hatches and endure it. The one above came Monday night. At the time, when it finally passed and the lightning subsided, we thought that was about as bad as we would ever see out at camp.

We were wrong.

The real monster came Tuesday night ...

... I'll share that with you tomorrow.