{"id":714,"date":"2025-10-13T23:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/714\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T23:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:00:15","slug":"st-pete-man-sails-nearly-6000-miles-in-pontoon-boat-raising-money-for-ronald-mcdonald-house-charities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/714\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete man sails nearly 6,000 miles in pontoon boat raising money for Ronald McDonald House Charities"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"6,000-mile <\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A St. Pete man is back home after sailing almost 6,000 miles in a pontoon boat to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n

Ronald McDonald supports families with kids in the hospital, providing them with a place to stay, meals and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Darren Hayes left from Tierra Verde in June and returned in September. He slept on the 22-foot-long pontoon during the trip.<\/p>\n

“We made our way down south around Florida, all the way up the East Coast, up to New York City,” Hayes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“From New York City, we went north to the Erie Canal and I cut across the Ernie Canal, which was an amazing experience, and that led me to the Great Lakes. So, after crossing Lake Erie, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, I then got on the river system in Chicago and took the river all the way back here.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Hayes said he was inspired by family friends whose daughter lost her battle to brain cancer. Ronald McDonald House took care of them while she was in the hospital.<\/p>\n

Previous Coverage: St. Pete man sailing over 5,500 miles for Ronald McDonald House Charities<\/a><\/p>\n

“When you walk into one of these Ronald McDonald’s house charities, regardless of which one, they’re phenomenal and the way they take care of people, once I saw it I couldn’t not support it,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Hayes named the boat Birdie Rey after a little girl he met along the way.<\/p>\n

“The 22-foot pontoon that I actually took on this trip, it got wadded up pretty bad in Hurricane Ian and Worldwide Yacht Sales bought it, they rebuilt it, and that’s the boat that they allowed me to use for this trip.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Because it’s a survivor and the last few trips we’ve done in memory of folks that weren’t survivors, this time, I wanted a good survivor story and I heard her story, born at 1.2 pounds and virtually given no opportunity to live, and she made it. \u00a0She just celebrated her second birthday September first,” Hayes said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He has done a couple of other fundraisers in the past, like driving a 1948 John Deere tractor from Florida to Michigan. The boat captain says this trip was a little different.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

“If you need to stop and get a bottle of water or a sandwich, you don’t have just a gas station at every intersection to pull into. There are quite a few marinas out there, but they’re also spaced out considerably. And it just makes it quite a bit harder for planning, and you can’t just stop if there’s a storm and pull over to the side of the road,” Hayes said.<\/p>\n

Hayes says he was pretty fortunate with the weather for the most part.<\/p>\n

“There were a couple of times that I was in some pretty bad waters and with no one anywhere near me, and I was having conversations with God, making promises, and luckily I made it through, and he watched out for me throughout the duration,” Hayes said.<\/p>\n

He used his social media, Makin Wake<\/a>, and stops along the way at events and restaurants to raise money, including in his hometown just outside of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Hayes said it took him a while to reacclimate to being back on land.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Being back around people is nice because I had a whole lot of time alone, but I miss being on the water. I really do,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

Hayes has raised about $12,000, and is taking donations until the end of October on his website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He says he\u2019s thinking about future trips, but doesn\u2019t have anything set in stone just yet.<\/p>\n

The Source: This story was written with information provided by Darren Hayes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg<\/a>Cancer<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A St. Pete man is back home after sailing almost 6,000 miles in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1158,47,571,115,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-cancer","tag-fl","tag-health","tag-news","tag-pinellas","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}