Thursday April 5: Ft. Myers Beach

Love You More leaving Banana Bay

It was Monday morning the day after Easter about 10:30 and finally we were ready to go. Water tank filled. Fuel tank filled. Holding tank empty. Freezer and fridge filled. Car covered and parked where it will stay until we return late this year.

Randy and Cindy on Love You More left Banana Bay shortly after we did. One more boat had already left and one would leave shortly.

It's definitely the flight of the snowbirds :-)

Our destination was about 45 miles almost directly north across the Florida Bay. Since it was late when we left the thought was that a 5 1/2 hour cruise would be a good start to our trip.

It was what looked like an almost perfect 4 day window of good weather (which means no rain and low winds) to make it along the Everglades of southern Florida - land of the limited phone signals to the beginning of the western intercoastal waterway. Once we reach this waterway travel is for the most part very protected and easy travel -we'll be there in 3 days!

We anchored off of Little Shark River Monday night. It was calm enough that we did not need to actually go into the river - a good thing because the bugs can be quite annoying.

The sunset was amazing - and a green flash to boot! We've seen a few at Banana Bay this year but it's always nice to see one anytime.

The sunrise was just as good. Steve had the coffee pot on early. He uses a small single propane burner to make the coffee so the generator doesn't need to be started.


Off again soon after. Destination Whitehorse Key - about 50 miles so about a 6 hour day.

The seas were actually better than Monday - so much so that Steve decided to polish some of the stainless steel stanchions that support the railings. The salt water is really hard on these - causing rust way too quickly.

Also on the list to polish is the stainless stays that hold the mast up. These will be completed when the boat goes into storage as we will need to take the mast down in order to fit under the covered storage.

Of course traveling over open water also means Steve has a chance to troll for fish as we move at our normal cruising speed of 8 mph. Two nice Spanish mackerel and dinner was changed from shrimp and steak (contributed by Randy and Cindy) to fish and steak!

Great dinner!!

Yesterday's Dream left and Love You More on the right

After first anchoring and then moving when the wind and current changed, we ended up in a great spot well protected from the wind. Steve was out and kayaking early the Wednesday morning as we were waiting for the tide to change for the trip up the Big Marco River.

It's very shallow in several parts and traveling on a rising tide makes the trip way less stressful. If we were to get stuck on a mud bar, we could just wait for the tide to go higher! Fortunately, no issues :-)

The mangroves and islands in the area show the continued damage Irma wreaked as she basically passed over the entire state of Florida from south to north.

The mangroves will come back - it will just take some time.

The anchorage Wednesday night was quite different as we were near Naples with it's huge waterfront homes. Very busy place.

By early evening the winds calmed and we had another very peaceful night.

We untied from Randy and Cindy and headed out. We've learned that when there are tides and currents to use just one anchor when we're tied together. It's way too easy to end up with twisted up anchor chains because the boats spin around when the tide/current changes. Not a fun thing to deal with!!

So we're on the way this morning for a 32 mile trip to Ft. Myers.

Steve of course is fishing - again!

And success with 3 Spanish mackerel - with a double hit on both poles at once! He threw the smallest one back as we really couldn't eat all three tonight.

Mackerel are good but only if they are really fresh. Guess what was for dinner tonight .....

I'm thinking there must be a McDonald's in the area somewhere, right??

I mean I like fish but it's getting to be kind of old for me ...

Fort Myers Beach was on the starboard side and quite easy to pick out with it's high rise condos. It's a fun area - VERY crowded waterways even though it's only Thursday.




Tomorrow? Off to anchor at a state park for a couple of days. Then it will be time for Randy and Cindy pull their boat out and head back to Ontario.

More later .......