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PostPosted: Mon May 13, 2013 2:27 pm 
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Location: Birmingham Al
I was wanting to bring my sailboat to orange beach and gulf shores with me this summer and put it in off the beach and cruse and fish off it while I was there. I contacted orange beach and Gulf Shores and they both told me that I could not beach any boat off the beach front property because of safe swimmer zone. My question is that I have seen other people beach their hobies, jet skis, kayaks, and other things. I was wanting to know if anyone has sailed off the beach in this area. If so did you have any problems with people saying you couldn't beach your boat?

we were thinking about trying it anyways, figuring that the worst thing to happen is someone telling us we cant do that and we would have to pull the boat out at a marina.

thanks
stew


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PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 6:40 am 
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Location: Tuscaloosa, AL
They most likely did not have a clue what you were talking about. You can beach anywhere, but if you are in front of a condo they might say something. If you put in at Alabama Point boat landing and sail out the pass, if you turn east as you come out of the pass for the next mile, that is all State Park beach. you are safe to beach there. If you are trying to load in from the beach side, that is a problem, there is very little direct beach access there due to the shear number of Condo's. I was in FT Morgan all last week and down that way there is plenty of public beach access if you have Cat Trax.

If the winds are from the West, you will not be able to sail up the beach without doing alot of tacking, I ran into this my first two times out. Considering it had been 20 years since I had been on a Cat it took a bit to get my head around it. By the 3rd day the winds were coming out of the SW-S and you could go easily up and down the beach.


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PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 11:09 am 
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Location: Clinton, Mississippi
You didn't say who you checked with, but I always check with the local PD if there's any doubt. You can't really count on advice here (including mine!) as such ordinances change all the time. sxracer nailed it about GS/OB....even worse after school's out. You can hardly get to the water with a beachcat. And if you even pull up in a condo parking lot with a trailer, you'll be chastised. I personally never plan to enter that tourist hell-hole again in the summer, and I certainly wouldn't bring the boat if I did. If they do have a rule against beaching in the summer, it is probably justified......very hard to watch/see/dodge a brazillion swimmers when dealing with a breaking surf and limited maneuverability.

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Jerome Vaughan
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PostPosted: Tue May 14, 2013 11:14 am 
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I would put in at Alabama Point and then sail out the pass or sail in the Bay, the Bay is huge, sail around the back side and across the the north side and go to Pirates Cove for Lunch!!!!!!!!!!!! if you go out the pass, be sure the wind is right so you can clear the bridge, take a paddle with you just in case. Once out, go east and it is public beach that is not jam packed with people.


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PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 9:28 am 
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Location: Birmingham Al
Well I was contacted back from a woman from the city of orange beach. I was wondering if she actually knew what boat I was talking about or if she thought it was a larger boat of some sort. I also contacted my condo offices. the condo people had no problem with it. and there is a lot next to our condos the has a road almost out to the beach. My Plan was to see how big the surf was first. sometimes I go down there and there are 5-6 foot waves coming in. if that's the case I was goanna trailer it down fort Morgan rd and but in on the bay.

on a side note any of yawl ever tried fishing from it.

stew


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PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 1:44 pm 
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What Condo?


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PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 2:53 pm 
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Location: Birmingham Al
first weekend at Kiva dunes ( don't think we are going to sail because we will be watching the boat races). 7 more days at Sea Chase


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PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 8:28 pm 
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KIVA Dunes is in Ft Morgan. Where is Sea Chase


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PostPosted: Thu May 16, 2013 8:35 pm 
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on the beach across the street from the small walmart and win dixie on orange beach


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PostPosted: Fri May 17, 2013 3:30 am 
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Location: Tuscaloosa, AL
Gotcha. That area has grown. We use to have a place at Winddrift. Sold it in 2005. I don't recognize half the places there now since they have added so much.


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PostPosted: Fri May 17, 2013 11:06 am 
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It's been a long tome, but we stayed at SeaChase once and launched next to the condo. IIRC that access is intended for emergency/maintenance vehicles. We didn't have an issue, but made sure not to block it for very long. Problem was there was no good place to leave the trailer. Later in the week, there was a tropical something off shore and the surf got huge. We then put in at the Boggy Point Landing (east end of Marina Rd.) and sailed in Perdido Bay.....really cool. The last day, we got a little drunk and on a solid beam reach punched out the pass.....current, haystack waves and all. Once off shore a little, we were trapped out and gliding over the largest and smoothest rollers I've ever been on.

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Jerome Vaughan
Hobie 16


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PostPosted: Fri May 17, 2013 11:59 am 
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Those waves can get really large and thick out from the pass!!!!!! I use to jetski (Standup) to the east of the past and would have some really great waves to ride in!!!!!!!!!!!

Place you put in is the same as what I call Alabama Point.


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PostPosted: Sat May 18, 2013 8:37 am 
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Location: Birmingham Al
thanks Jerome, we are probably gonna do something like that.

yall sound just like us when we have a day of sailing. beer and sailing just go together.

Stew


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PostPosted: Sun May 19, 2013 8:06 am 
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Location: Clinton, Mississippi
sxrracer wrote:
Place you put in is the same as what I call Alabama Point.


Thought that might be the case. I didn't know what it was called, but I checked Google Earth before posting. They label Alabama Point as the one where 98 crosses the pass, and I wanted to be clear for msl. We checked that area first, and while one could probably launch there, the current really rips through at times and the bridge/squirrelly wind/narrow pass surrounded by rip rap is intimidating.

One more tip as to what not to do.....Once we left our trailers at one of those public launch areas on the canal. It was a Monday or something and there was plenty of room, so we tucked them neatly out of the way....no problem. Our rental ran out on Saturday, and we were planning to leave around 10:00 a.m. It's Saturday...duh....the weekend.....when every one with a boat within a hundred mile radius goes fishing. Our trailers were blocked in three deep and we couldn't get them out to even start loading the boats until about 3:00 p.m. I'd recommend trying to work out trailer parking with the local mini-storage or such!

Again, it's been a long time, so things might have changed.

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