Monday January 4: Finally Back Home at Banana Bay

After a long but successful flight from DC to Ft. Myers (through Atlanta) we were finally back to Sweetwater marina late Wednesday night.

What a change from the weather in DC! Warm, sunny and muggy ;-)  Perfect!

First order of business - get the mast back up. We expected to be anchoring out on the way to the Keys and thought we should have a mast so we could have a mast light!

Sadly, we didn't think to plug the lights in before raising the mast. Guess what didn't work ......

So at some point we'll have to lower the mast back down and check the bulb contacts.

Once the mast is up it's not hard for me to hold it in place with the lines which will eventually be attached to the boom. In the meantime, Steve tightens the 4 stainless steel cables to keep the mast upright and in place.

The plan was to put this up when we had our competent crew member with us but somehow there just wasn't time to do that!

And as always, there was a bit of checking to be done in the engine area.

Steve deemed us 'good to go' .... as soon as the college bowl games were over of course!



Our thought was to take a leisure trip south but the weather had other thoughts! Since we weren't leaving until Saturday and the weather was turning nasty on Tuesday gave us 3 days to make the 170 mile trip.

In a car - easy! On an 8 mph boat - doable with early morning rises and long days :-)

So up at 6;15 and off by sunrise - or just before. The weather from Sweetwater to Marco Island was wonderful - waves of 1 foot or less.

Into the anchorage by 3:30 - it was a good day!

And then Steve noticed we had a hitchhiker - a little tree frog!! Same one as Becky found? Not sure but it sure looked like the same little guy :-)

What to do with him? We wouldn't be on land for another couple of days so we figured we'd just keep him in a glass until we reached Banana Bay.

Sadly, he escaped .... and wasn't to be found anywhere in the boat.

Perhaps he decided to swim for the land? It was a nice sunset though - we wished the little guy well.

Up early again Sunday and off to Little Shark River. The tide was coming in - always good when traveling on the Big Marco River - which may be big but isn't very deep!

No mishaps this time through (unlike the first time through when I ran aground!).

Steve of course was trolling as we traveled and picked up a couple more spanish mackerel just before we finally reached the Little Shark River.

This is really a pretty anchorage and totally out in the middle of nowhere! No cell signals here - southern tip of the Everglades National park.

Settled in relaxing - until an hour after dark when a squall decided to come roaring through! Winds, waves and rain.

And did I say it was dark? Like pitch black dark? Couldn't see a thing. Fortunately we had our anchor alarm set so it was easy to watch on our phone to verify that the anchor was holding us in place. Not sure how we would have known otherwise.

I really don't like being at anchor when those kinds of winds blow through ....

At least the sunset earlier in the evening was nice!


Finally time to press on for the final 40 miles to Banana Bay.

There were conflicting weather reports so the steadying sail went up - along with all of the enclosure for the flybridge.

We've found the hard way that it's way easier to put these things up when in a calm anchorage rather than wait until we're in wind and waves to do it!

As it turned out, the weather was a non issue. I knew we were here to stay a while when I saw the tie line in a nice little circle :-)


On a happy ending: the little frog made his appearance as we put the tarp over the front hatch. Apparently he was drawn to the water in it when Steve took it off this morning and bundled it up!

Hope he finds some friends down here in Banana Bay ...... but at least he's on dry land.