MacDill Ferry...

[jbdba01]

Anyone have more details on the land they are looking at?

http://tbo.com/news/politics/hillsborou ... -20140205/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm not so sure about this statement...

"About 5,500 MacDill employees live in southern Hillsborough County and 90 percent of them said in a survey they would use the ferry if it was available."

[jbdba01]

Found it...all the details here and the study here.

Not sure if this is it or not...the study doesn't seem to match the proposal.



From the study I did find this to be a humorous quote...

"The two largest cities of our region, Tampa and St. Petersburg, are separated by the calm waters of Tampa Bay."

Apparently they are not familiar with the summer storms, 10-20 mph winds in winter, and fog we get.

[saltwater_cowboy]

Some may already know this, but that spot on Piney Point used to be a ferry dock in a past life as well http://www.mymanatee.org/home/governmen ... ferry.html

Another look back here: http://www.bradenton.com/2011/08/12/341 ... piney.html

A ton of old pics, postcards and memorabilia here: http://www.skywaybridge.com/pix-beeline.htm

[Heywood]

When we moved here in 1972, there used to be ferry's that came to the old Bahia Beach pier and the Apollo Beach Pier. It ran to St. Pete and back.

John, that image you posted is the point out by the Kitchen. There is a concrete facility out there now. There hasn't been any activity at the plant on hwy 41, but lots of activity on that point.

I don't know how much it will get used. What are you supposed to do once over there? Walk to work?

[jbdba01]

When we moved here in 1972, there used to be ferry's that came to the old Bahia Beach pier and the Apollo Beach Pier. It ran to St. Pete and back.

John, that image you posted is the point out by the Kitchen. There is a concrete facility out there now. There hasn't been any activity at the plant on hwy 41, but lots of activity on that point.

I don't know how much it will get used. What are you supposed to do once over there? Walk to work?

Supposedly you would catch a shuttle for the appropriate building. MacDill is huge - you ain't gonna walk it.

Meanwhile there's a bus that runs express from Fishhawk to MacDill. Military ride for free. 5 min from Fishhawk.

Personally I don't know if I would want to take my chances on a summer ride. There's enough lightning to REALLY get your attention, and it's an every day event. Winter there's fog. To make it safe there would probably be a delay - which would defeat the purpose of the ferry. I would rather drive it and not be on the water.

I would be surprised if the eco-warriors would go for highspeed out of the gate - plenty of manatees in that area. I see then all the time. So it's slow then go.

[bicoastal]

bye, bye kitchen

[Heywood]

bye, bye kitchen

Why do you say that Andrew? I don't think a ferry would disturb anything. The big barges coming in and out of the old phosphate loading dock didn't disturb anything.

No, I take that back. That point used to be a snook breeding area for that part of the bay. When they dredged it out to make it deeper, they did screw that point up. Haven't been back there for a long time.

[jbdba01]

The plan is to include an area for 1,000 cars. I'm not so sure where that would fit. In the study it talks more about Williams Park. That seems to make a bit more sense - clear out the old Giants Camp, put in a launch site and go from there.

I just have a hard time believing that in the summer months (call it May through late Sept) it's a viable option. Way too many storms.

Then there's the concept of "Hey let's advertise to the world that we run a shuttle to MacDill with MacDill authorized personnel only." From a tactical perspective that seems like a very bad idea and presents a high valued asset. Even in the business world you don't fly your top dogs on the same plane. I would be surprised if the top dogs at MacDill signed up for that - just seems to contradict common sense and I'm sure there's some military doctrine about bunching up your troops in one spot.

On a side note - I was at a meeting last night and the Ducks Unlimited guys were talking about it as well.

From what I can tell the proposal is to get a toe hold for a ferry/taxi using Fed $ (military gets a transportation allowance) then expand out to St. Pete, downtown and a couple other areas. On paper it sounds good, but in practice (IMO) until those bridges REALLY back up no one will ride the ferry. This coming from a guy who commuted 1.5 hours each way in Atlanta with decent rail system in place.

Seems to me that express buses to MacDill would make more sense.

Regardless the $125K has been allocated, probably could have put in a nice(r) boat ramp at CRB for that $. Our tax dollars at work.

[bicoastal]

Why do you say that Andrew? I don't think a ferry would disturb anything. The big barges coming in and out of the old phosphate loading dock didn't disturb anything.

No, I take that back. That point used to be a snook breeding area for that part of the bay. When they dredged it out to make it deeper, they did screw that point up. Haven't been back there for a long time.

I'm told the area just to the north of the dock area used to be a dredged ship holding area. They reclaimed it a while back and it has held good quality/quantity of fish for the last couple of years. I've been back a couple of times recently and found very few fish and a lot of people breaking into that area and netting. I don't think they're just keeping mullet.

[Heywood]

Not sure which area you are talking about, maybe its this?





Sorry the text is so small.

[bicoastal]

I've looked at that area from land when I'm at the Big Bend terminal and have debated about going making the paddle there. I won't do it alone and so far haven't found anybody adventurous enough to make the trip with me.

See the picture below.

The skinny, horizontal arrow points at a deep trough adjacent to the reclaimed area (fat, vertical arrow) that I believe to be the remains of the ship holding area. I estimate the trough to be about 15' deep. People go around a cow gate and walk/swim in between the islands and fish/net on foot. You can see the footpaths that have been created over the past couple of years.

[Heywood]

No ship holding area. I think that channel may have been there for a long time and part of the Adamsville community, don't really remember but there was no way a ship would ever have gotten back there.

Those deep holes were dredged and the sand was used to create that point, among other things. The reclamation area, I don't recall what that looked like before. Might be able to scroll back on Google earth and see though.

If your talking about going back into the channel where the docks are, go for it. I've been back there tons of times and no one has ever said a word. My brother in law and I used to fish those phosphate docks when he worked there. Monster snook and even bigger Golaiths. With all the homeland security, they may chase you out if there is a ship there, but I don't know for sure.

[Heywood]

If you have Google Earth, check that area out. It goes back to 95, the reclamation area was nothing more than a part of that point. I believe the aim of that project was to restore it to what it was before they dredged all the sand to make that point.

[jbdba01]

Couple years ago in my stinkpot I've been back there.

This year in that general area I've been chasing Cobia in the stinkpot. I have struckout on Cobia, but I have landed about three-five 30-35" Jacks. Those bastards put the smack down on top water plugs. I think at one point I doubled - they try and steal the plug from each other. I've since bumped up to 4X treble hooks.

Gotta watch out for jumping sharks and rays though. There's thousands of 'em and drifting over them is surreal. You might say a bit unnerving.

For those of you who don't fish the Kitchen in the fall it's a duck hunters area - hence DU will be watching it very closely. They are actively working on the Merritt Island space center issue and this one is right up there.

Although rockets going off frequently is much different than some boats.

[rich]

Years ago that area was called wiskey stump you could drive all the way out to the end of the point and fish and have picnic's out there before they gated it off. The deep channel is a great place for Silver trout this time of the year it has always held allot of snook also. We planted allot of oyster bars around that restoration area with tampa bay watch it's great to see how they have take off over the years.