We’ve been getting one of two replies when we tell people what we’re up to; “Wow! That sounds fun!” or “Wow. That sounds…fun.” (Sarcasm is hard to type.) Nevertheless, the germ of the idea was moronically simple: try to cross the entire State of Florida both ways (West-to-East-to-West) in one day. We knew riders and clubs had performed the feat before – in fact, it was in direct response to an article we published a few weeks ago of two clubs doing exactly that – but at a far more accelerated pace.
The question was whether the logistics of weather, fuel consumption, traffic, mileage and most importantly, timing the locks, would actually make this feasible. The answer we came up with was a definite maybe.
The first piece of the puzzle to fall into place was locking in one of the best ride logistics planners in Florida, and someone who knew the route backwards and forwards (quite literally, it would seem), and that was Jetski Junkies’ Kev Hemingway. Hemingway was immediately able to pinpoint the trouble areas in our route, provide alternatives and develop a ride plan and schedule that would put us within the porthole-sized window of “possible.”
Although the round trip mileage is only 280 miles, the route is littered with No Wake and speed restricted zones, and five locks which we will have to cross twice (one of which – the St. Lucie – operates at a timed schedule regardless of traffic).
So here goes: Unless we post otherwise on The Watercraft Journal’s official Facebook page, we will be leaving from Punta Rassa Landing, Punta Rassa, FL at 6:30am in the morning of Wednesday, July 8th. From there, we hope to be pulling into the Riverwatch Marina in Stuart, FL at noon, and returning back to Punta Rassa just before 6pm. If you are interested in following our progress, we will be tracking our progress using Glympse, a fast and free smartphone app that shows our location in real time, and posting a link on our Facebook page for everyone to follow first thing that morning.
We are very grateful to Sea-Doo, Kool PWC Stuff, PWC Life, Ride Power USA, EZ Throttle, and JetRenu for their sponsorship and making this ride a reality.
