Monday December 30: Everglades City - Rod and Gun Club

 It was a leisurely morning - time to catch up on the news with a cup of coffee as we waited for the tide to come up.

The travel this morning was out the Big Marco River which runs along the eastern side of Marco Island. It is a VERY shallow waterway. The suggestion is that if your boat draws 5 feet or more - skip it!

But it saves us a long way out and around a huge shoal at the southwestern end of Marco Island - and we draw only 4' 8" so we should be fine. Going through with a rising tide is definitely the thing to do though. The high rise condo's are left behind as we head toward the Everglades.

So the question for you is this: here is the area of my first ever run aground (3 years ago - I remember it like yesterday :-) ). Which way to go??? Use the yellow line, go over the 1 foot depth and follow what I'm not sure are real markers?

Or follow the deep water indicated and take the purple line?

STOP READING and make a decision ......

If you chose the purple line and it's depth - you too would have been in the mud!!

Lesson learned fairly well (but not totally as I ran aground for the same reason in Georgia :-) ): Follow the visual aids. Period. No matter what the chart plotter is saying. Period.


Anyway, it was a no problem today even though there were definitely some stressful moments as the depth sounder read 5, then 4, then 3.5 feet. Muddy water (which can sometime produce incorrect readings) or is it really shallow and we're about to run aground?

This was one of those days when I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the depth reading 5 feet :-)

It was overcast most of the day. We ran about a mile or so offshore - which is almost exclusively mangrove 'islands' as we continued in a south-easterly direction toward the opening through the mangroves leading to Everglades City.

Steve caught a couple of hitchhikers in the act! We had watched these guys diving for fish and were amazed that they were able to keep so near the boat. Didn't see them for a while and then they would be back.

Don't see them for a while and back they came again. I finally suggested that perhaps they were sitting on the flybridge canvas - and sure enough! I didn't mind as long as they aren't sitting up there pooping on the canvas :-)

As we turned into the cut for the hour long run north into Everglades City, I couldn't figure out why the sand was so white off of this one island. White pelicans! Hundreds of them! Some of them with wings spread just enough to see the black tips of their wings. How great!

All of the white on the picture right is due to the white pelicans sitting on the sand. You might be able to see them better by right clicking and then click on "open link in a new tab" - it will now be on a tab at the top of the screen.

Everglades City itself is built on fill and is literally in the middle of a thousand mangrove islands. Cut off from the top of this picture are hundreds of other islands which lie south of the city.

It was a really pretty ride in with the sun finally showing up as we moved north up the channel.

The Rod and Gun Club looks pretty much like the last time we were here almost three years ago.

The inside is still a very dark paneled area that reminds me very much of a hunting lodge - which is the original use of the building. Still no rooms yet but the old truck is still sitting in front.

We watched as a helicopter took off just outside of the restaurant. Not sure if this was a "stop by for lunch" or not but it hasn't returned yet. Must be quite the view of this area from the air.






A bike ride around town was easy - very flat, no hills at all :-)

Several seafood restaurants - all overlooking the water - and quite surprisingly full considering it's a Monday. Must be all of those tourists from the North  ....

Tomorrow: off to anchor at Shark River. It's 85 miles to Banana Bay from here and there really isn't enough daylight to make it that far even though we did make a straight run last time. But then it was late January and there was an additional hour of sunlight.

But we've been wanting to stop at Shark River ever since we passed it up last time. 45 miles with nice winds from a good direction. One foot waves predicted for our route. Sounds like it's going to be a good day!