7/1/2014 – (Kelly)

July 2, 2014 Kelly Grillo 7 Comments

Hey Everyone. . .

Little late on this post but there was a good reason. Leaving from Chincoteauge this morning we made our way to the beginning of the 27 mile bridge that takes you across the Chesapeake Bay. We had lunch at our favorite stop along the way to florida. I had a Jumbo lump crab cake sandwich and boy did that hit the spot. Heres a picture of us at lunch.

My ski sucked up a bunch of shells and is causing it to ride hard, and of course this happens right before we have to cross the Chesapeake Bay. Now if you think the ski riding hard was a big problem, you’re wrong. Little did we know, the Chesapeake bay held 3-4 foot waves in store for us the entire way. It took us two and a half hours to cross the bay. We traveled that long at 7 miles per hour. It was the worst ride on anything that floats that I have ever been on. But we were rewarded greatly with one heck of a dinner at a place in Virginia Beach called il Giardino’s II. I had clams and spaghetti in a red sauce that was ridiculously good. Heres the desert i had =D

THAT WAS GREAT! haha, well i think thats enough for one day. We are gonna be staying in Virginia Beach until friday because of this storm that is coming through. We will be fine here on land. . .

Over and out.

Kelly

Matt

6/30/2014 (Matt)

July 1, 2014 Matt Grillo 2 Comments

Today was a really fun day despite me getting stuck for 3 hours. It was very exciting to see the east cost from the water because I’ve never been past Ocean City, NJ on water. We also saw a big pod of Dolphins that i recorded on my Go Pro. I will admit that i didn’t put enough sun screen on and that i did get cooked but i will make sure for tomorrow i will keep reapplying. The high temperature for tomorrow is 95!

Kelly

6/30/2014 (Kelly)

June 30, 2014 Kelly Grillo 3 Comments

Hello everyone.

Today was one heck of a day. In my first 45 minutes i fell of the ski twice. Now believe me, i did it to save the ski from flipping. Haha. But other then that, our trip really did turn out to be an adventure. . . We saw big rays, sandsharks, and even some wild horses. Here they are:

The crossing on the Delaware bay was unbelievable. It was so smooth that it looked like we were crossing a flat in the back bay. Speaking of flats in the bay, did i mention that we got stuck for 2 hours today? Oh yea, thats kind of interesting. Matt got his ski stuck right before low tide switched to high, so luckily we only had to wait about 2 hours before it came up. . . Well i am physically and mentally drained. As of right now i havent even ate dinner yet. It’s coming from a place called Marias on chincoteague island… im starving… Goodnight =D

Qwin

6/30/14 (Qwin)

June 30, 2014 Qwin Vitale Leave a comment

Day one of our trip really showed us many things. Today was a type of day for trial and error. We now know to not slow down in shallow water haha. Besides that I really enjoyed today. I saw so many cool and interesting places and landmarks along the way. We also had a pod of dolphins follow us as we passed through the Delaware bay. Supposedly Kelly’s dad saw a sun fish and I really wanted to see one. We also saw a ton of rays come to the surface and interact with our water crafts. But in total it was a long day on the water probably going to be our longest day through the trip. But it was fun and we all still were able to laugh at our own mistakes I can’t wait for what we take on next.

Captain Kelly (SPC)

Captains log 6/30/2014

June 30, 2014 Kelly Grillo Leave a comment

Begin – 39.21N 74.32W – Northfield, NJ 6:55am

End – 37.93N 75.38W – Chincoteague, VA 10:00pm

Total fuel: 74.61 gallons

Travel time: 15 hours

Miles traveled: 122 miles

Met the Harvester on Wildwood Beach 8:30am, he took some great photos… I’ll post them in the gallery.

made course for Indian river inlet

seas calm and glassy

At 9:30am appox 12 miles out I received low fuel indication… Wanted to test how long we could run after indication, ran 35 minutes at 5k RPM until dry… Did refueling exercise at sea with success.

refueled at Indian river took on 45.34 gallons of fuel, set course for Ocean City Maryland and ran ICW all the way to Chincoteague,

Got to see the tons of wildlife and even the ponies on the way

https://www.noip.com/blog/2014/06/30/ips-formal-statement-microsoft-takedown/ — Wild horses at Assateague

set course for Rudee Inlet via ICW and had a run in with some water that wasn’t conducive to marine craft (yep stuck in mud), as luck would have it, we did this on a falling tide,

so we had 3.5 hours to contemplate running in the shallows…. unstuck at 6:30pm… Made a run at the ocean only to turn back a couple miles off and call it a night.

topped off fuel once more at Curtis Merrit Harbor took on 29.27 gallons

Got a hotel room with slips, ordered pizza and hits the racks at 11:00pm… Long first day.

total miles traveled 122

Captain Kelly, SPC
(Self Proclaimed Captain)

Captain Kelly (SPC), Kelly, Matt, Qwin

Hello Friends and Family! 1st Post (6/26/14)

June 26, 2014 admin 16 Comments

As you all know, our trip is almost here and the prepping has been CRAZY. As Dad, Matthew and I (Little Kelly) have been working like mad men to get this trip up and running, Dad has to get most of the Spotlight.

Where will this adventure take us?? Well, the ultimate destination is Nassau in the Bahamas to stay for a few nights in Atlantis, but we will be making tons of little stops all the way down the eastern coast to Florida.

Now, to talk about how we have prepared for the trip. . . We purchased a rescue sled that surfers use to rescue other surfers from getting crushed by big waves out in California.

They attach it to a jet ski (like we will be doing to ours, obviously =P), and fly out to surfers in distress and pick them up. The one that we acquired was also designed for carrying scuba gear, spearfishing gear, or just general equipment for different things. But my dad, being the somewhat mad scientist he is, came up with a design that would hold our surfboards, dive gear, and camping equipment.

Solar — Capture the suns natural energy to be converted into cell phone and laptop power.

Now if that didn’t sound crazy enough, he converted a pelican box (impervious to water and the elements) to house all of our electronics and use a SOLAR PANEL hooked up to a wheelchair battery to charge up all of our electronics when we stop at night. Yes, it seems crazy, but on a trip like this where we may not be able to get to a hotel with outlets, its going to save our butts if we need our cellphones or something of that nature.

Box — This is the inside of the box. A little messy right now, still has to be cleaned up a lot.

Now having read all of the things we have done, I think you deserve some pictures. . . Here they are:

Pelican Box — Houses all of our electronics and the battery that will be charging them.

Hitch — The hitch that was designed specially to be attached to the back of my dads jet ski.

Wiring — Allows us to turn on and off the battery and also lets us turn of the solar energy from being captured.

GPS — This will be giving our position to our computer every five minutes so we know where we have been throughout the day.

Thank you for being so interested in our trip. It makes happy to know that we have somewhat of a fan base you could say, that will be following us on our trip to the Bahamas. Many more posts to come. . .

Over and out.

Little Kelly