Re: 14 footer 3miles out
A little late to the party here. I'm a multi-decade 13' classic Whaler driver. I'll do all sorts of 'stupid' things in south Florida I wouldn't do at home.
Oh, and what if the engine dies out there? What then?
How do you pull start the engine, retrieve an anchor and a few hundred feet of rode by hand, or paddle a 40' boat?
If the battery were the problem I'd pull start it. If the battery were fine I'd call for a tow on the fixed mount VHF. It would be pretty dumb to go out of sight of the radio towers in a 14' boat, and most people have cell phones now. If that didn't work I'd hope someone was close enough to hear me ask for help on my handheld VHF. If that didn't work I'd look at which way I was drifting and either throw out the anchor or start paddling. These days I'll also bring a PLB along when going that far offshore in any boat...
I have had no real problem going from the Pennekamp state park ramp out snorkeling to places like Molasses reef (9.2mi out, 6mi offshore) or from a rental house on the Gulf side of Vaca Cut out snorkeling to places like Sombrero Light Reef (12mi out, 8mi offshore)) several times each in the 13' Whaler. Yeah the weather could have (and did sometimes) turn worse, and we got a bit wet. I trust the boat to be a lot more durable than the passengers in it, so I've done a bunch of things south of Cape Canaveral that I wouldn't consider north of Cape Cod. Getting wet with 80 degree water on a 90 degree day won't kill my family, 50 degree water on a 60 degree day has the potential...
