captain kathe's boat cruises

Very unprofessional.....if you don't mind making stops to visit her friends and their dogs, you may enjoy the the tour. All 5 of us had slightly different opinions, but all agreed stopping to deliver a Keylime pie to a friend was a bit much. We saw no Dolphins and very little wildlife......not her fault but the effort seemed a bit lacking. Kathy seemed to be a very nice person, but this was a total waste of money and time.

Three friends and I spent a couple of hours with Captain Kathe today and had an excellent afternoon. She knows fishing, shrimping, boats, Cortez history, wild life, boating, the inter-coastal waters and all the players. What a treat. I have been out with her before and intend to take future area visitors out with her again. Highly recommended.

This was our 4 th time with Capt. Kathe.. Every time we have visitors we take them on a boat cruise. Capt. Kathe is very knowledgeable of the area. She took us to a great spot for shelling. Skipper found Dolphins for us too. A very enjoyable two hour boat cruise.

This trip was absolutely dreadful. We fought traffic to get there on time, only to have her come in 20 minutes late without apologies of any kind. We booked a fishing trip, but we were never able to fish. We thought we had booked the whole boat, and we were surprised to see other passengers. She didn't even acknowledge the kids we had with us, but went on and on about her dogs and constantly yelled their names and talked to them. She yelled back and forth to other boaters and pulled over at a dock to return their sunscreen. She yelled at boaters she thought were driving too fast, as she let the big waves hit us sideways. She went on and on about her personal life and her dog's health problems, warned us not to drop our picnic food we brought because the dogs could get sick and it would be a high vet bill, etc. She told us her strong opinions on a number of controversial subjects and was insulting. No mention of life jackets (every other boat ride we have been on, the kids were required to wear them and adults knew the location of them). All in all, we felt like we were an INCONVENIENCE to her boating around with her dogs, even though we PAID for the boat trip. Would NOT recommend!!!

We took our grandchildren on a two hour trip with Captain Kathe and her sweet dog Skipper, her dolphin-finding mate. We had asked if she could locate some dolphins for the kids to see and we hoped the kids could do a little fishing.Kathe delivered on both. With Skipper's help we found a dolphin who wanted to run and jump beside our boat. We also found a group of dolphins playing and jumping together in the bay. The kids were thrilled. Heck, the grown-ups were thrilled!Kathe brought along some shrimp for bait and fixed the children up to fish, showing them how to cast and helping them to feel the fish on their lines. She was very encouraging and patient with them.Kathe said she just wanted everyone to have a good time and to enjoy the water and its inhabitants. She pointed out the ospreys and other Florida birds for us. She offered to pull up to a sandbar and let the kids run on it.It was just a great time spent relaxing on the boat and letting Kathe guide us. Kathe lets you bring your cooler with drinks and snacks if you like, which we did. It was an all-around wonderful experience. The rates are very reasonable for the area. We have recommended Kathe to friends and we will go again.

Having visited Siesta Key almost every summer for the past 40 years, our trip with Kathe was the most fun and best value over that period. Highly recommended.

We did the two hour day trip with kath and her skipper pup pup. She has to be the most knowledgable lady, on the area, history, marine and bird life. We saw three dolphin and plenty of bird life. Kath tried her hardest to take us all to places where we would see manatee. We will definitely do thee trip again, a day on the water is relaxing, especially with good people and a really lovely skipper and first mate. You can tailor make this trip to suit your needs. Also you can take a picnic and some beers and kath will take you to a sand bar for a picnic if you want. Kath if you read this we hope pup gets better, we have no doubt he will. Thanks again for a good day.

Myself, my partner, parents and three younger siblings (aged 15, 14 and 10) all thoroughly enjoyed our cruise with Captain Kathe, First Mate Pup Pup and Skipper. The dogs really do make this trip special as they help find the dolphins and when they do the dolphins come right up alongside the boat as if they are playing! Captain Kathe was friendly, great with the younger ones and very knowledgable. She was happy to answer all our questions and we came away with a greater understanding of the local area and wildlife. We had a wonderful time and would definitely recommend. We are all hoping that Pup Pup's treatment is working.

We booked a two-hour boat tour with Captain Kathe. She was so much FUN! We had the time of our lives. She has two dogs that spot the dolphins. They are like bomb or drug dogs but find the dolphins. The dogs sense the dolphins, RUN to a corner of the boat and start barking and then the dolphins jump out of the water. It was an absolute BLAST! And there were only 6 of us on the boat. We stopped to go swimming. It was wonderful! And Captain Kathe had peanut M&Ms that she shared with all of us. I would go anywhere with Captain Kathe. P.S. Her prices are extremely reasonable and she should raise the cost of the tour.

We try to go out with Kathe every time we are in Anna Maria. She is so great with the kids and teaches them how to be responsible with our Eco system. She will pick up trash as she goes but shouldn't we all? She won't let you use aerosols on her boat but just know that going in. She showed the kids how to fish, helped them find sand dollars and other sea life. The kids had a blast and so did we. She is super down to earth and out going. See you next year Captain Kathe!

What a special little experience this was. This fiasco began with 20 minutes of non stop jabbering about how famous she and pup pup are. Then it segwayed into a pitty trip about her dog being on his death bed and taking kimo treatments daily.... this is causing her to work 7 days a week. I kind of wanted to smile and enjoy myself on this $$110 dollar trip rather than hear about how her life is in shambles the entire time. Shortly after leaving the dock we anchored out on a sandbar with several other boats. The water was ankle deep an we spent 15-20 minutes tromping around picking up sand dollars an watching kathey dig in the sand like a 6 yr old. Everyone was looking at each other and scratching their heads wondering when the snorkeling was going to begin. Keep in mind this was booked as a SNORKELING TRIP. We finally loaded back onto the boat and drove in circles scooping up misc. Garbage that was floating around in the bay.... as we headed back to the dock kathey pointed out several areas that she likes to snorkel in between her boat tours. Everyone one the boat looked confused seeing how this was suppose to be a snorkeling trip and all... apparently kathey missed the memo on that one. This isn't even the half of it. She was hateful to my kid an me on several occasions during this 2 hour snooze fest. I could go on for an hour about this trip but I will stop here. ENJOY YOUR TRIP!!!!!!

First thing first. Stepped on boat and got told my Sun screen in my hand sucked and gave respiratory problems and was told to exit the boat to spray it on. 30 minutes of the two hour trip and spent idling looking for manatee and listening to her complain that everyone was stupid but her. One plus side was fun to watch her yell at other boaters passing buy, then it got her started on boat rental companies and letting anyone drive. Hope your an animal lover because her wet dog will be crawling in your lap and drying off on your clothes. This was supposed to be a snorkel trip and after 45 min of driving circles we finally stopped on a sandbar for 10min and watched her crawl around on her hands picking up sand dollars and sea shells. I could have done that at the beach for free. We were supposed to go to another sandbar around the corner but seemed to never make it. We did however manage to stop three Times to pick up garbage with a net. Then we drive in a big circle. Capt kathe complained about other boats going fast but she seemed to get airborn over a wave and acted like it was our fault that our stuff got wet and tossed around. You would think she was up for a medal for all the lives she claims has saved each year in the bay. When she wasn't yelling at boaters passing by or on her phone she was depressing everyone about her dog first mate pup pup having cancer and taking kemo daily while she works 7 days a week. and to top it off skipper was passing gas in my lap. Worst $100 I ever spent.

This was my fourth trip to Anna Maria. I caught Captain Kathe's trip on my second time down. This was the first time my kids came with me and I wanted them to experience the trip as she has two dogs who bark when they see or come near dolphins (which happens to be the trip's only redeeming quality). I tried to call and book with her, first attempt left a message and she never returned call. SEcond attempt, Kathe answered..When the time we wanted to go out was not available, Kathe abruptly ended the call saying that she was getting a call from her daughter who was in the hospital and that she would need to call back. Needless to say, she never called back. Deja vu...I heard her say that same thing to a customer who called while we our out on our original trip. Who does that? I guess she has too much business. I agree with all the other reviewers as we had the same experience with Kathe talking about local politics, changes to the fishing laws and in general her disdain for all of these changes which much time was spent on leaving all of us on our boat feeling as if we were somehow responsible. In addition, she spent a lot of time on the phone handling personal matters. I would avoid this one as her boat is uncomfortable and Kathe clearly does not care about the people who pay the bills, her customers. There are MUCH BETTER OPTIONS.

We had a great time on our trip with Captain Kathe and her dogs Skipper and Pup Pup. They alerted her when dolphins were nearby and we saw a few of them on and off for approx 45 mins. We then went to a sandbar which we waded on and Kathe showed us some sand dollars and hermit crabs. She talked lot about the local area which we found very interesting. Be warned - she will not allow you to use aerosol sun cream on her boat so make sure you've applied it before hand. I would highly recommend this trip.

We are oldsters and we were very disappointed by this cruise. We thought that it would be very leisurely. Unfortunately, it wasn't. She started out very fast. The boat is fairly shallow and we're from this country's interior. WE WERE SCARED!! We complained and she slowed down for a bit but soon after she started "hot rodding" again. In hindsight we should have asked to be immediately taken back to the dock but hindsight is 20-20. SO she continued the fast cruise. She talked about politics and a whole bunch of local issues rather than the wildlife and other less controversial items. On other cruises that we have taken over the years, the first thing covered is location of life jackets and what to do IF something goes wrong. None of this was covered. On other cruises there have been certificates of inspection by local authorities shown. But there were no such items on this boat. I seriously wonder if the local licensing/inspection services have been there. Ironically there is a Coast Guard Station a block away from her dock. We did see four manatee and one dolphin on this cruise so it wasn't a total waste. She seemed to be a nice lady, just unwilling to listen to her customers. She doesn't take credit cards: just cash or checks. Maybe she was having an off day when we visited. But we didn't come a thousand miles for an off day.