Apollo Beach, Florida · Veteran owned
Private charters on Tampa Bay with a USCG licensed captain. Your group, your pace, no one else on board.
Welcome aboard
Nothing is rushing in or out. The water goes flat, the wind lays down, and for a little while there is nowhere you have to be. That is the whole idea behind the boat.
Slack Tide Cruises runs private charters out of Apollo Beach with Captain Luke Dowd at the helm. One boat, one group at a time. You are not sharing a bench with strangers or getting herded off at the end of a scheduled slot. Tell Luke what kind of afternoon you want and he will build the trip around it: dolphins, a sandbar, a quiet island beach, or just a slow loop around the bay while the sun goes down.
Trips leave from your marina name and address. Bring whatever you want to eat and drink; coolers and ice are welcome.
Five ways to spend a day on the water
Bottlenose dolphins live in Tampa Bay year round and they are at their busiest in the flat morning water. We run the shorelines and the channel markers where they hunt and follow boat wakes. Good odds any day, and the light is beautiful for photos.
Best for families and first-time visitors.
When the tide drops, bars come up out of the bay and turn into knee-deep beaches you can only reach by boat. We anchor up, you get out and stand in the water with a drink for a few hours. This is the trip people request twice.
Tide dependent, so the start time moves with the calendar.
Run out to the barrier islands and spoil islands around the bay for shelling, swimming and lunch on a beach with no parking lot attached to it. Bring a cooler and a towel and plan on staying a while.
Ask about which islands you run to.
The classic. We push off with enough time to get somewhere with a clean western horizon, cut the engine, and watch the sun drop into the water. Dolphins usually show up on the way back in. Bring your own bottle.
The most requested trip. Book ahead on weekends.
Birthdays, proposals, anniversaries, bachelorette afternoons, small corporate groups, a scattering of ashes. The boat is yours for the window you book it, and Luke will work out the route, the timing and the stops with you beforehand.
Call to talk it through rather than booking online.
Your captain
Luke holds a United States Coast Guard license and has been running these waters long enough to know where the dolphins feed, which bars come up on which tide, and where to sit when the sun goes down. He served in branch and years before turning a lifetime of boating into a charter business.
Slack Tide is a veteran-owned, one-captain operation, which means the person you talk to on the phone is the person driving the boat. If you have questions about what your group can do, call him and ask.
Two or three sentences in Luke's own voice — why he started the company, and the basset hound's name.
Call LukeBefore you go
Food, drinks, a cooler, sunscreen, a hat, a towel and a light layer for the ride back after sunset. Soft-soled shoes or bare feet.
Ice, bottled water, life jackets, shade, a cooler, a Bluetooth stereo — list what you provide.
Your policy on children, car seats and whether well-behaved dogs can come along.
How to reserve, what deposit you take, and how far ahead people should call.
Florida afternoons change fast. If the captain calls the trip for weather you can reschedule or get your money back. Confirm your exact policy.
Your cancellation window and any fee.
Call or text Luke with the date you have in mind and roughly what you want to do. He will tell you straight whether it works.