Four Days On The Gulf

For the last 4 days, this camp out in the Gulf was our home. My wife's family owned one of these for decades. This one is owned by a family friend who allows us to enjoy it whenever the need arises. There are only a few of these left, they were built back when Florida was not so full, and you could just go out and build a camp like this in the Gulf shallows.
It was a great way to escape the land heat and humidity during the summer and lots of families spent most of that season living out here, where Gulf breezes cooled the day.

Back in 2010, we had scheduled a trip out here to celebrate Junior's high school graduation, but a lightning strike burned most of the top structure away.

The owners rebuilt, and while it's still rustic, there are a few comfort amenities now that it never had before.

It's a one room open design with windows that funnel sea breezes through the camp. We haul food, water, gear, clothing, etc out by boat and live like wildlings for awhile.

I brought changes of clothing, but I think I mostly lived in my bathing suit the full 4 days.

Even though the camp has a few more creature comforts now, it still uses the same old clothes dryer.

The first day was the only cloudy day and we were treated to a wonderful rain show in the afternoon.

That's one small step for Junior ...
The big attraction is the Gulf of course and we spent most of our waking ours in and under it. The water around the camp is clear and shallow ... the camp sits atop a giant seagrass meadow that literally runs up the coast and around the big bend. These are some of the largest seagrass beds on the planet.

If you snorkel deeper, just above the seagrass, you can see the streams of oxygen bubbles pouring out of them.

Photosynthesis ... it's a beautiful thing.

Friday, it was just a few of us, but we had put out the word that everybody was welcome on Saturday ... just bring your own chow.

This was a busy fun day full of swimming, eating, snorkeling, eating, wake tubing, eating, napping, and some more eating.
In that picture above, you can see the galley.

There's a small, quiet Honda generator that supplies electricity now for those ceiling fans, and a few other goodies.

Sunday was Father's Day of course, so we moved beyond hamburgers and hotdogs.
There was Key Lime cake too.

If there's a better place to spend Father's Day than a camp on the Gulf surrounded by family and friends ... I'm not sure where that might be.

I will be squeezing a few more posts out of this outing. You can imagine how many pictures I took, so I will try not to overwhelm you.

I also have some underwater footage, thanks to the GoPro, but there is some tedious editing to do, so that is down the pike a little.

Next post: Silliness, napping, and water sports.