Tampa Bay · Gulfport
Private sails for up to six on Boca Ciega Bay and Tampa Bay from the Gulfport waterfront aboard Cay Michele, a 1981 Hardin Voyager 45 staysail ketch, hull 92 of the 130 built. Sunset sails, barrier-island runs with a dinghy ashore, and sandbar afternoons, every trip yours alone.
Cay Michele is a 1981 Hardin Voyager 45, a full-keel, heavy-displacement staysail ketch that Bill Hardin designed in the 1970s and had built in Taiwan; she is hull 92 of the 130 made. The interior is carved teak throughout, with an aft cabin that carries a bathtub, which is a rare thing to find on a sailboat. She has been through a structural and safety refit with new standing and running rigging, and carries a generator, air conditioning and a hot shower. Owner and skipper Capt. Noah DeBickero named her for his mother and restored her with several family members; two further Coast Guard-licensed captains share the helm.
Every charter is private and capped at six guests. The lineup is a three- or four-hour sunset sail, an island run to the barrier islands with the dinghy for going ashore, a sandbar anchorage where she is the one sailboat in a raft of pontoons, and a photoshoot charter. Departures are from the City of Gulfport Municipal Marina at 4630 29th Ave S, twenty minutes from Tampa by the operator’s reckoning, and the sailing stays in Boca Ciega Bay and Tampa Bay with the Gulf beyond the islands.
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