Cruisin’ Panama City Beach

By William E. Males

For several years now, my family has been visiting Panama City Beach and loving every trip. With its beautiful water, sugary white beach and inland hot fishing spots, it is the perfect place to get away. Panama City Beach has everything the family loves to do, such as swimming, sunbathing, fishing, golf or taking the shuttle to get lost for a day on Shell Island. Every trip, we’ll head out to some of the various amusement parks and spend countless hours together on the miniature golf courses or go-cart places.  There’s nothing like some good ole’ competition with the kids and the friends they always bring along. Last trip I even scored highest in laser tag with the youngsters. On the drive home, we always reflect on all the various activities we managed to squeeze into our latest escape.

The last time we went to Panama City Beach we found something new to do that I just have to share. See, we’ve been all over Panama City Beach and have seen many of the sights, and believe me; we were by no means getting bored with our regular adventures. However, one day while on the beach, we saw this big yellow speedboat with a spoiler on the rear; go cruising up along the beach, just slicing effortlessly through the waves with a bunch of people on it just before sunset.  The boat just looked spectacular, like a giant speed boat converted into a convertible pleasure yacht with everyone hanging out along the edge as it sped on by. I thought to myself “Now that’s the way to really get out and experience one of Panama City Beach’s beautiful sunsets.” That was it, we were all set and determined that next evening we’d be the ones out there cruisin’ along the Emerald Coast looking back at everyone along the beach.

Now it wasn’t hard to figure out what boat it was because the name of the boat was proudly painted in brilliant turquoise lettering all along its 73 foot bright yellow hull, “Sea Screamer.”  The next day we called to make our arrangements and were really pleasantly surprised at their prices for their tours.  Once the arrangements were made in the morning, we were left with an eager anticipation of the trip for the rest of the day.  Everything else now seemed fairly humdrum, so we headed off early to watch the Sea Screamer come in from its 3:00 tour. As they approached the dock we could hear the captain talking to everyone over the loudspeaker and there was not one person onboard that didn’t have a smile on their face. 

Finally, when it came time for our sunset cruise, we soon found ourselves there with about 60 or more people in line waiting to board. Not being too much of a crowd person, I began to feel like maybe this wasn’t too bright of an idea after all.  Once Captain Andy boarded the Sea Screamer he began to introduce himself and the crew to everyone. His mild manner and witty humor soon had me feeling easier, and having given out boarding instructions and some basic “how to have a great time” advice we were soon all on board.

We took our seats up on the bow and were getting situated when Captain Andy assured everyone that remaining in seats was optional. “If you want to stand up and walk around, go ahead and enjoy yourselves” he said “we’re all here to have a good time.” That was all I needed to hear and I was up looking around with everyone else on board. I was surprised to see that there was still so much room left on the boat, which restored my anticipation for a great time and gorgeous sunset. Looking at the rest of my gang, I could see they too were excited as we headed off to the open water while listening to the encouraging melody of Gilligan’s Island.

Now the skipper, Captain Andy, is what some of my friends would call “a hoot.” He’s one of those people that are so comfortable with life that he makes all those around him feel at ease and like part of the family. He had a gift for giving the proper balance of interesting information, cleverly woven together with good humor so you didn’t feel like you were stuck with a dry tour guide in a museum, or on a cheap date in a local comedy club while locals make an attempt at being funny. It was as educational as it was enjoyable, hearing some of the local history and a bit of ecological information, as we headed off to see some dolphins. And see them we did!

The dolphins obviously recognized the boat and came right up to it, swimming all around and under it. Everyone was so exhilarated by all the action that, when after fifteen minutes or so, Captain Andy said we needed to go, you could see everyone seemed a bit let down. But Captain Andy knew what He was doing.  Once we got out of the channel and moved west along the shore, we soon ran into some more dolphins and stopped again, as they gathered around the boat. This time Captain Andy let everyone in on his intentions. When the dolphins behave that way, sometimes they are likely to play in the wake of the boat, not only swimming and jumping out of the water at the bow while cruising, but literally taking turns getting into the wake and surfing behind it.

It was great and the kids absolutely loved it, but what is more amazing, was how everyone became kids again. You could see it on all their faces. There weren’t any burdened adult faces showing the left- behind demands of responsibilities or business issues. It was just a bunch of excited kids, of all ages, enjoying themselves as the Sea Screamer soared along the coast toward the lowering sun. All the kids and parents together were having a great time with some grandparents on board participating. It wasn’t long before we stopped again, and out came the water soakers, for several minutes of some get-wet-fun for all those who were game for it.  Heading back, Captain Andy was letting kids, the grown up ones too, steer the boat while the deck hand was always available to take photos of the whole gang together or get someone a drink. Even that amazed me. The drink costs were the same as that of a vending machine, not the usual high dollar “we’ve got the only drinks around,” cost. 

The whole trip seemed faultless… an absolutely beautiful sunset and a wonderful time that was chock-full of excitement on the way out and saturated with calm on the way in. It was hard to believe that in such a short time, we had indulged in so much. We made a stop on the way back to pull up a crap trap full of various sea critters, for those kids who wanted to get some hands-on experience.  The deck hand showed everyone the proper way to handle the crabs, while Captain Andy shared how he and the crabs have a great arrangement… he feeds them, they get caught, go for a short boat ride, then are released to walk back for the next day’s ride.

Now, I’ve shared what seems to be a lot of excitement, and you might find this hard to believe, but there’s even more than I’ve told you. We just couldn’t believe how much fun we had and how much the Sea Screamer crew showed to us…and did for us! It was the best part of our vacation…by far, a total blast, and without a doubt, the smartest dollars we’ve spent on any vacation, anywhere, ever! Now were all eager to return to Panama City Beach to take their snorkeling trip and go swimming with the dolphins. Maybe we’ll even squeeze in a voyage on their Sea Dragon Pirate Ship cruise! After all, there’s still a lot of kid left in this old body, still savoring the bounties of fun left in this life.                www.seascreamer.net