SUMMARY
Captains Jonathan Blake and Daniel Medina of TowBoatUS Cape Coral, successfully moved a floating house (also known as Jaspers Bait Shack) from Glover Bight to Kinzie Cove.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Capt. Richard Paul
TowBoatUS Cape Coral
(239) 945-1664
TbusCapeCoral{at}aol.com
CAPE CORAL, FLORIDA (May 15, 2014) – Two captains from TowBoatUS Cape Coral had the pleasure of moving a rather unique floating object across the Caloosahatchee, Thursday, May 15th. A floating house off the Southern coast of Cape Coral near the Tarpon Point Marina had been anchored in Glover Bight for about a month. The two-story, 1500 square foot house used to reside in the St Petersburg area until Jasper’s Bait purchased the house and towed it down to Southwest Florida about a month ago…a job that took 3 weeks to accomplish due to winds and tides. Today, Captains Daniel Medina and Jonathan Blake from TowBoatUS Cape Coral were assigned the task of moving the “soon-to-be 24-hour bait, tackle, and snack shop” to it’s new home in Kinzie Cove.
“I’ve always known it as Popcorn Cove,” Capt Richard Paul, co-owner of TowBoatUS Cape Coral said about the floating house’s new location. The bait shack will be located between markers 94 and 99, opposite Big Shell Island. “We’ve had a relationship with Jaspers Bait Shack since Neil (the owner) first anchored his sport-fish over a year ago in Popcorn Cove. Then he replaced his sport fish with this new house-boat so we were happy to help when we received the call to move it to it’s new location.”
The floating vessel which had been featured in a 1993 movie starring Hulk Hogan called “Thunder in Paradise”, required two tow boats to move it safely across the Caloosahatchee.
“The process was quite smooth since we had boat 8 as the propulsion and boat 3 steering from the back end,” said Capt Jonathan Blake, the operator of boat 8. “Plus, Jaspers had their own personnel on board the floating house, acting as my eyes to see what was beyond my scope of vision. It’s not the largest, nor the oddest thing I’ve ever towed. But it’s definitely the most unique.”
Although the captains didn’t consider it a dangerous operation, it wasn’t free of all hitches. Just as the owners had difficulty towing the house-boat from St Pete to Cape Coral due to mother nature, this tow had similar issues.
“The hardest part about it was that it was really windy,” said Capt Daniel Medina, operator of boat 3. “I was in back steering while Jonathan was in front pulling. He had to take the right angles and the right approach to offset the high winds and tide since the house has so much surface area. But honestly, it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. It certainly wasn’t the biggest thing I’ve towed in the past…not by far.”
ABOUT TOWBOATUS CAPE CORAL
TowBoatUS Cape Coral, (also known as Marine Towing and Salvage of S.W. Florida), offers marine assistance towing, fuel delivery, part delivery, jump starts, contract towing, marine salvage, diving services, and contract oil pollution clean-up services to recreational and commercial boat owners in Lee County. To apply for a membership visit BoatUS.com.