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!

Sunday December 29: Waiting out the Weather at Marco Island

The five and a half hour trip from Fort Myers Beach to Marco Island was calm enough - just still a lot of wind in your face. Good thing for the flybridge cover - once again!

We stayed between one and a half and two miles from shore. Depth about 15 - 20 feet or so. Still crab pots every so often so it was easy to focus on the task at hand. The high rises lined the shoreline most of the 45 miles.

It was very quiet with little boat traffic out here -- until the invasion of the cigarette boats! There were a pack of them - probably 15 or so - headed somewhere very fast. Maybe Key West? Anyway, it was fun watching them zoom on by.

Not sure where the rest of the day went though once we made our way to the marina here. Steve went on a bike ride to scout out the area. I ..... well, there were 4 college bowl games on so that's all I needed :-)

This morning we awoke to a brilliant PINK sky. You know what they say: Pink at night, sailors delight, pink in the morning, sailors take warning.

So we checked the weather, discussed our options and determined the best bet was to stay put today. I mean there are quite a few ball games on today not the least of which was the Brown's last game (at least we don't have to go through the stress of wondering if/how we'll do in the playoffs, right?). Who wants to travel through thunderstorms and winds?

Basically, we need 3 more travel days to be at Marathon. From here (Marco Island) we'll travel 30 miles to Everglades City. But we need to travel at least mid-high tide to take the back route behind Marco Island. With the moon being what it is, we can't leave until 10 am but that's ok as it's only a 4 hour trip.

After that we need decent weather for the 45 miles run to the Snake River and then good weather for the last 45 miles to Banana Bay.

Hopefully the weather will come together and we'll get to Marathon on New Year's Day - or the day after or the day after that .....



So Steve spent part of today making pizza dough. It has to be made 24 hours ahead of time - sounds like dinner tomorrow night! The other 3 parts (he made 4) went into the freezer to be used at a later date.

The rain finally stopped for good (well, almost) and we headed off for a bike ride to the beach.

It's an amazing beach that runs the length of Marco Island but sadly there is minimal public access to it. And there is an $8 parking fee to boot which seems to be a bit excessive.

We think it's a case of the well to do wanting to keep the riff raff off of "their" beaches. Maybe we're wrong though .....

Regardless there was a really cool beach riding thing that I'm sure is not nearly as cool as it looks - kind of like the pedal carriages that we rented with my parents and the kids in Montreal. Fun to look at, not so fun to pedal :-)

Tomorrow: off to Everglades City - after the tide comes up of course. I remember this particular route well - it's the first place I ran us aground. I can show you the exact spot on the chart :-) Not this time though!!

Friday December 27: Fort Myers Beach

We left the Seafood Shack bright and early after bidding farewell to Sandi and Eddie - the really nice couple docked across from us (she's the one who showed Steve how to fish from the dock).

Travel was nice enough - much of it through small waterways lined by mangroves. So much nicer than the waterways lined by mansions!

Steve even spotted some of the many, many white pelicans in the area actually out swimming instead of hanging out on a sand bar! Maybe finally we were seeing how they catch their food.

One of the really cool homes we saw was on the tip of a small point that stuck out into the waterway.

You could see right through the house! I looked for someone to walk down the staircase but alas there didn't seem to be anyone at home.


Overall a very nice day except for Charlotte Harbor. The wind was going against the incoming current - and of course we were broadside to the waves. A bit of zig-zagging was in order for a while. After that - smooth sailing all the way to our anchorage on Lemon Bay.

Thursday night turned out to be one of the best. Warm enough to sit on the flybridge with our Christmas lights and music. Best of all: no bugs :-)

We are so fortunate to be able to continue doing what we are.

Sunrise was early - even Steve missed the best of it! Regardless, we were off and headed another 45 miles south to Fort Myers Beach. Of course our new alternator decided to not alternate - or whatever it is it does ...... mmmm ... we can still travel so time to deal with that another day. Ironic though since the old one was working fine just thought it was time to have it checked out :-(

On the way to Ft. Myers Beach, we passed by Sanibel Island lighthouse and pier - along with a nice beach. The traffic on the water and on the bridge going to Sanibel was crazy. And I thought because it was Friday, the waterways would be empty. Wrong!!

But apparently the whole world is off this week and half of them came to southwestern Florida!


The beach at Ft. Myers Beach was packed - with lots of folks that will be hurting tonight! Too much sun and too little sun screen .... yikes!

There was a very nice poinsettia tree near the beach. Still doesn't look right in the sunshine and 80 degree temperatures though - but fun to see anyway.

The birds at the pier didn't seem to understand that the function of the wirey pokey things was to keep the birds from sitting on the lights and post tops. Guess it's pretty hard to fool THESE birds!















We finished our ride around the main drag (the traffic was so backed up it was no problem peddling around without being in danger) and stopped at the grocery store just in case we saw something we needed. It's been a few days after all since we were at a store!

Suddenly out of the mist appeared a giraffe! With Rebecca in Africa posting amazing pictures of the animals she has seen, we thought we just had to have a picture of our own! If you can look past all of the background stuff it's almost as though we were in Africa ourselves -- guess that's one more place we don't need to go :-)







Back to the marina to spend a short time chatting with "Q's End" - folks we met back in 2011 on the loop. They started from Windsor and traveled with some of the same boats we saw off and on throughout the trip south. Never actually met them until we both were in Georgia visiting a common friend. Fun to see them - again I'm reminded what a small world boaters float in!

Tomorrow: off to Marco Island. First time in a long time that we will be traveling in the Gulf. No channel markers - no magenta line suggesting your path - just a wide open, go where you want Gulf of Mexico!!

Think we'll stay within 3 miles of shore :-)

Thursday December 26: Moving On .....

We watched our last sunset from the Seafood Shack dock last night - time to move on.

The weather for the most part has been great here and we've spent the time relaxing - with enough work done to justify the relax time to ourselves :-)

With a nice 5 day weather window, we should be in Banana Bay in Marathon by the first of the new year.

We've seen some different things here though. One was the mullet fisherman - they are CRAZY! Apparently when the mullet are running, they travel in a giant ball of fish very closely packed together. So when the fish are running, everyone and their brother are out with nets.

Our neighbor Sandie said this was nothing - there can be hundreds of boats all running around all in a small space trying to net these small fish which are used for bait fish.

We finally made it to the Cortez Kitchen for breakfast. Nice place - just the way we like it. A mom and pop type place.

The window decorations were well done - it could almost seem like Christmas around here except for the really nice weather!!

A trip to Anna Marie Island was in order yesterday. It was a fun thing to do on Christmas day. How often can you get out on the beach and have it be warm and sunny?

It was a bit farther than I expected. Steve wanted to walk the beach a bit and someone had to watch over the bikes, right?

Everyone was definitely in the Christmas spirit with Santa hats. One group actually had a decorated Christmas tree on the beach for their gathering! Very fun :-)

But it was definitely time to go. Steve spent his last few hour fishing off of the dock.

No great catches but then that's not the point of fishing, is it? Fishing is just for the fun of having a pole in the water and the thought that maybe something might swim by ....


Next destination: Marathon by New Year's Day!

Wednesday December 25, 2013: Merry Christmas :-)

Merry Christmas from the beach :-)

Saturday December 21: Still in Bradenton

It was so nice pulling into the marina the other night and seeing many of the boats totally decorated for Christmas.

Not to be outdone, Steve pulled out our lights and Yesterday's Dream is now in the holiday spirit!

Yesterday was a work day. Reinstalling the engine alternator and starter and the generator starter after having them checked over in Cleveland.

For a work day it went exceedingly well! Thanks to good diagrams made as we took things apart, every wire was reconnected in its appropriate place.

And everything ran as it should! It's a miracle :-) Bonus: the battery charger was having issues running off of the generator but after replacing the starter and reconnecting the battery, it worked just fine. Go figure ..... although the armature in the starter was getting pretty loose. Perhaps that was causing a short?? Who know  ... but it's fixed :-)

Today was a play day. Steve spent most of it fishing off of the dock. Apparently there are many kinds of fish that call this area home.

Steve's biggest fish was a black grouper (out of season) but Sandie (neighbor lady) caught a nice flounder. She loves to fish and was happy to help Steve in his quest to catch - well, just about anything!


Tomorrow's another day, right? But as we were biking around the neighborhood we found a place that sells fresh fish.

Why take a chance? I see tuna in my future for tonight's dinner!



Also spotted today was the sign below. Just thought it was really funny! These folks must get a lot of turnarounds in their driveway ....



There was a very nicely done Maritime Museum across the street also. Many models of the types of boats used in the fishing industry that was so big in this area in the early 1900's.

Spotted some Roseate spoonbills in a small pond in the area. Steve saw them - I totally missed them!

We don't see too many - or maybe we just aren't looking closely enough :-)








And for your entertainment tonight: Steve's Beard Looks!


The raised eyebrow look.










The Happy Look.










The Very Serious Look.










One more happy look - time to shave this thing off!










How about a Fu Manchu?








Or a Serious Fu Manchu?

Well, maybe a moustache?

Nope - all gone. Just the way we like it :-)