My weekend(with pics)

[THEFERMANATOR]

Well I upped and decided to go off and go to GASPARILLA 08 SATURDAY and did the pirate invasion. For those who have never heard of it, it is a basically a GIANT party to celebrate Jose Gaspar who terrorized this area many years back. http://gasparillapiratefest.com/history.shtml The part I went to see was the invasion portion where they bringthe pirate ship in through the bay up into the exclusive area of TAMPA BAY and ends at the convention center. The weather was pretty crumby by FLORIDA standards, so this year wasn't a really big turnout(probably only 500 smaller personal boats were there plus the bigger charter boats and parade boats). We got ther about 10:30 in the morning and waited over next to the shoreline, and at 11:30 the invasion began and we started our way in. There were to many true classics there, several V20's and BERTRAM 31's. After the invasion we made our way up to the convention center through the mass's of boats and rode through the mayhem. I didn't take any pictures of the wildlife since I knew that the eye wouldn't them slide, but I got plenty of the invasion and a PG-13 pole dance on a T-top.

Picture of downtown TAMPA from where we lined up.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA10.jpg

A few pictures giving you an idea of how many boats were waiting for the invasion.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA5.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA4.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA7.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA6.jpg

The pirate ship before the invasion, you can see the mass's piling on it. There's even a really nice FORMULA 233 in the far right of the picture.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA13.jpg

A few pics from the invasion across the bay.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA23.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA21.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA22.jpg

A couple of them fancy go-fast's.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA32.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA27.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA24.jpg

The MASSIVE bottleneck of boats entering the channel to the convention center.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA26.jpg

A few shots making our way down the channel.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA25.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA33.jpg

Making our way up to the convention center.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA31.jpg

A picture of the pirate ship at the convention center just before the coast guard came over and made me move away.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA17.jpg

And another pirate ship that does charters.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA18.jpg

All in all a good day, the kids seemed to have had fun.
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA36.jpg
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t271/THEFERMANATOR/GASPARILLA/GASPARILLA35.jpg

[C YENSEN]

looks like a good day Ferm, love the pics. what is up with the chick in pink.....did she show the puppies off? lools like she was about to :oh:

[Blue_Runner]

Ferm that looks like a really great time on the water. The pics of the kids are classic. Love the beads!

[THEFERMANATOR]

I believe she showed them off to all to see. I resisted the temptation to take puppy pictures, sorry guys. There were so many boats there, it was a full time battle just keeping myself out of the gel-coat derby as they call it. And I don't know why, but the admiral refused to take puppy pics for me:sad:. We ended leaving early though. The cool air temps on a flats boat is one thing, but the rain makes it unbearable trying to blast back in.

[Bygracealone]

Sure would be nice to have weather like that up here... :sad:

Glad you had a good time; thanks for the pics.

Hey, this is my 1000th post! Very cool.