moving boat

[Jaxxon]

I recently bought a boat in Pensacola and need to move it to Texas. Has anybody sailed from Pensacola to Matagorda Bay? I hear there's a lot of rig platforms out there, how many are there?

[camaraderie]

In 2001 there were over 4000 oil and gas platforms in the Gulf. What kind of boat and what is your sailing experience? How many crew will you have with you?

[Cruisingdad]

You better have a radar!! Talk to PBeezer about how delightful the trip is down the ditch. I am soon (well, hopefully one day it seems) to punch off the other way, but here is what you can expect:

Massive rigs, but spottable during daylight. Not all are lit so at night you better have radar. Lots and lots of freighter traffic outside the mouth of the mississippi and inlets. You will most likely give the river a 100+ mile berth offshore. The seas are ok during the early summer (assuming no hurricanes). You don't want to be there in the winter in a northern. The ditch has a lot of freighter traffic. I hated the ditch in Texas... but each to their own.

Hope you have good offshore experience, a solid boat, and a good crew. Plan on about 4-7 days, less at sea if you make a B-line and no stops. You can also truck it from Pensacola. My 40 from Dallas to Biloxi was about 4k at the time. May be less than that now with gas prices down. You could very well have 4k in broken crap on that trip. You are taking the FL to Texas run at the hardest leg in my opinion.

Ask PB his experience and opinions. There are also some offshore riggers that frequent this sight. Hope that helps.

- CD

[pigslo]

6 of 1, half dozen the other. Find a couple freinds with offshore experience or do the ditch with help. If you go offshore, do it during a full moon and you can see most of the night. To do the ditch you need a good chartplotter and really good night vision. I believe you have to have better ability to see in the ditch than offshore. You have barges come around the bend out of nowhere in the ditch. You will learn alot either way.
pigslo