Image of the Week: Start Of The Southern Migration

Like migratory birds, the folks of the Fort Myers Offshore powerboat club head south for the winter. They come to Florida’s Gold Coast from places such as Canada, the upper Midwest and Northeast, place that, unlike their winter destination, actually have winter. And who can blame them? Boating environments don’t get much better—at least through the fall and “winter”—than Florida’s western coast.

Pierre and Meghan Brousseau, the owners of this Nor-Tech catamaran, Nor-Tech’s Nils Johnsen and Raymond Roberts of Canada-based Double R Performance, found the warmth they were looking for on Cayo Costa Beach last Saturday. Photo courtesy/copyright Jay Nichols/Naples Image.

A nonprofit club that raises funds for student scholarship, Fort Myers Offshore kicked off its 2014-2015 season with a Fun Run to Cayo Costa Beach last Saturday for a cook-out and a little chill time. The owners of 23 high-performance boats and center consoles, the latter mostly from the Renegade line, beached nose-in on the pristine shoreline for a casual day of socializing and renewing acquaintances. As always, the club’s dedicated photographer Jay Nichols was on hand to capture the event.

“We’ve had this thing going for so long and everybody just knows everybody,” said Nichols. “You almost don’t need to catch up.”

“It was hot,” he added. “We got a little taste of coolness earlier in the week and everybody got all excited. And then—boom—it was back to being Florida.”

Somehow, we doubt that bothered any of the members of this particular southern migration.