Friday April 10: Anchored in Blackburn Bay

We left the anchorage at Cayo Casta Tuesday morning and headed 14 miles across Gasparilla Sound to the Burnt Store Marina. I found it to be an interesting name for a marina. For some history on the name of this marina, click here.

Peter and Cheryl (Surona/DejaVu) were coming for a couple of days - driving from near Lake Okeechobee where they have spent the winter at Indiantown Marina.

Wednesday: First of course, there was fishing. Cheryl and I figured Steve and Peter caught a fish a mile for the first 5 miles of the trip! It was kind of crazy since Steve had had such a hard time picking up anything at all while trolling.

All in all 5 very nice Spanish mackerel - guess what was for dinner .....

These fish are very easy to clean (nice bone structure) but very difficult to skin.

So I cleaned and Steve and Peter skinned. A nice combo effort for a great dinner.



We even managed to hook up with Andi and Mike on Two Hearts (Banana Bay folks) who ended up near us in the anchorage in Pelican Bay - near Cayo Casta. Same place we were the night before!

Beach walks and trail walks were the order of the day. What a beautiful beach on the Gulf!

The prickly cactus were in full bloom - first time we've seen this.

The state park is really nice - cabins and campsites are available. Very back to nature (that mean no power to the cabins and generators are banned) - almost no cell service as well.

The sunset was once again wonderful.

I don't think I ever tire of seeing the sun setting. Sadly I don't very often get to see it come up ;-)

Thursday was a leisure morning with a dinghy excursion to the manatee hole nearby.

Off then to Cabbage Key to check it out - very similar to Henry's in Georgian Bay. We thought lunch but after finding out it was an hour and 15 minutes before we would be able to be seated we called it a day and left.

Steve instead made the rest of the mackerel for lunch. Lightly breaded and sauteed in garlic butter. Couldn't have been any better!!

We dropped Peter and Cheryl off back at Burnt Store Marina late in the afternoon on Thursday and decided we might as well just stay the night.

Friday though we were up early. Changed the transmission fluid (every 200 miles), pumped out the holding tank, filled the water tank and we were off!!


Finally! We are seeing the white pelicans again! They are so much fun to see as they fly almost in unison with each other. Kind of like a ballet.

These were just sitting along an island near the waterway though. Still enjoyable to see ....

The waterways are again lined with osprey in their nests. The young are getting pretty large at this point.

We don't see many of these birds in the keys - certainly nothing like along the waterways here where almost every channel marker has a nest.

The waterways along this part of the western Florida coast remind us of Canada. Smaller waterways - not a great deal of development.

We anchored for the night at Blackburn Bay.

Which along this coast means a short distance off of the ICW! Some boat traffic but not bad and by early evening - dead calm. My kind of night! Still - the anchor alarm was set just in case ;-) I really do sleep much better knowing the alarm will ring if we move outside of our designated circle ...

Monday April 6: Cayo Casta State Park

Tonight's anchorage is near the Cayo Casta State Park. Beautiful place - well protected and very quiet.

Lots of other boats around but we went around the corner from the park docks where not very many other boats come.

A bit shallow but then we only draw a bit :-)

We left Marco Island yesterday for the 40 mile run outside on the gulf - destination Ft. Myers Beach.

The water was a little rough but settled down after an hour or so. The high rises along the shores of Marco continued for a good part of the coast up to Ft. Myers.

Some portions of the coast are still covered in mangroves - which I would assume are probably protected at this point.

Still no shortage of high rises along this coast though.

It wasn't difficult to spot the main beach area of Ft. Myers Beach - people everywhere enjoying the water.

The pull behind a boat rides seemed to be particularly popular. Looks like fun, right? Unless of course you don't like heights :-)

The bikes came off pretty quickly for a ride around town. This is one place where we can go faster on a bike than the people in their cars! Crazy busy - everywhere!

There was a nice public park at the north end of the island. Steve walked to the beach part - I stood guard over the bikes .....

Of course there is a pirate boat ride. Hey - looks like fun and it's a nice way to get on the water if you don't have your own boat, right?


I tried to talk Steve into the casino boat but he wasn't having any of it. Party pooper.

Best score at the marina was the HUGE selection of books. It was a very nice lounge with a giant tv, microwave, coffemaker etc but it was the books for me.

I was out so time to trade in the ones I'd read for a new batch. One of these days maybe I'll get an electronic reader but there is something about having a book physically in my hand that I'm not really ready to let go of yet. Just chalk it up to age .....

                                         

As we left Ft. Myers Beach this morning, we passed by Sanibel Island and it's distinctive lighthouse.

The waterways were like a freeway today - crazy busy.



It's nice to be in and anchored for the night ......

Sunday April 5: Happy Easter!

Amazingly enough, the Easter Bunny found us today! Even though we were traveling 3 or so miles off of the coast in the Gulf of Mexico, he (she?) managed to bring us a basket of goodies!!

Chocolate bunny, malted chocolate eggs and some sunburned peeps (they are actually orange even though they look yellow in the picture).

Gorilla Guy was on guard throughout the remainder of the day ...... didn't help though. The chocolate was calling :-)

Saturday April 4: Exploring Marco Island

The bikes came off again this morning as we had already picked out our breakfast place yesterday.

Susie's Diner. Not at all what we expected but good nonetheless. Voted best breakfast in Marco Island -

The scary thing to me? Putting Est. 1983 like that's a long time ago or something! Really - isn't all that long ago. Our kids are older than that .... guess maybe I'm getting old :-)






So we rode around the island for a bit checking out dolphins. Found the bald eagle preserve (didn't spot either of the eagles even though in theory one should be on the nest with an egg) and stopped at Tigertail Beach.






It's a beautiful beach that wraps around the south and west of the island.

It's one of those kinds of beaches with white sand that is so fine it sort of sticks to everything. Very nice to look at.

Based on the aerial view of the island, I think every home comes with a canal and boat dock!

 Folks around here do love their dolpins! This one even had a baby dolphin as well :-)

And I loved the seahorse mailbox with the Easter bonnet - very cute!

There was a Dunkin Donut near the grocery store - I held out yesterday but today was the day, right? A Boston Creme. Never know when we might find the next one.

Ooooh ... family of four just ahead of me. Mmm .. how long could that take, right?

Apparently longer than I was willing to wait. I mean really, pick out your coffee and your donut and move on.

So I settled for rainbow sherbet instead. Probably a good trade off anyway.

Maybe before we leave in the morning .....

Friday April 3: Marco Island

So for the past 4 days we've  traveled the almost 100 miles from Banana Bay to Marco Island.

Mostly along the Everglades National Park. No alligators spotted but then that was ok with me!

Actually it would be unlikely we would see them anyway given the waters over which we have traveled. The gators (and crocodiles as well we're told) are more in among the very shallow waters that in general we try to avoid :-)

The bay waters have been almost perfect for the trip with winds less than 10 mph most of the time and from the east or north.

Last night we ended up at our last anchorage - a very nice mangrove surrounded area only 10 miles from Marco Island.

Entry was over a 5' bar and the uncharted depths beyond. Active Captain review indicated the waters beyond were plenty deep.

We timed our entry for half-tide rising. So if we get stuck, we wait for the tide to go up a bit and on we go :-)

No one indicated the mud bars that were visible once the tide started going back out - I've outlined them in brown. They weren't difficult to see once the water went down but still kind of scary!!

The picture of the mud bar with the crane walking around says it all :-) Totally not visible AT ALL when we came in.

And to think that is where I was thinking we should anchor!!

Of course there was fishing - not much around other than catfish but still ......



Last night at anchor for a couple of days as we're headed to Marco Island for a two day stay at Rose Marina.






Nice place for the night. Almost no wind.






Off this morning for the short 9 mile trip up the Big Marco River. Very shallow - travel only at half tide rising again for a less stressful ride up the river. Draw more than 5'? Forget it ....


Some really fun places along the river in Goodland. Including the Big Marco Lodge - here on the river since the late 1800's.







Marco condo's appeared before too long. The start of the populated west coast of Florida.

We found a great place on the water for a late lunch. Biked to Publix for a few things.




Breakfast place is already picked out - the best diner on the island - or at least so goes the claim. In the meantime, Steve loved the following poster in the UPS store: it's our favorite - natural selection at it's best :-)

April 1: Anchored in the Florida Everglades

The weather was right so off we went yesterday morning - along with three other boats!

Lots of room at the inn for at least a little while.

The idea was to travel up the coast of the Florida Everglades National Park - stopping at one or two anchorages as we made our way to the populated area of the west coast of Florida.

Marco Island is the nearest large city. Be there before the weekend.

The day on the Florida Bay was almost perfect - for most of the way at least. West winds started in the late afternoon but not bad.

Our destination was the New Turkey Key - one of the islands in the park that has a campground reachable only by boat.

Steve of course was trolling the entire time and with a nice joint effort - a cero mackerel for dinner! He puts the poles out, I listen for the line to go out and tell him he has a fish on and then he reels it in - perfect :-)

The anchorage at New Turkey Key was just off of one of the islands that has campgrounds in the park. Jenna Star was anchored just south of us. Very pleasant night with very large mosquitoes. It's been a while and we forgot to close up before dusk - won't do that again!

There were actually some folks camping. They had arrived by boat before we arrived. Guess everyone is looking to get away for it all!

Nice sunset - and we called it a day. It was a bit over 9 hours to get here as we traveled most of the day against the current.

Off this morning about 9 or so. We had to wait until the tide came in a bit before heading out. There is something about a depth meter reading 3 1/2 feet that makes me nervous!

Beautiful day to move on, smooth water, sunny and light breeze. Steve was again fishing as we moved (and ended up with another cero mackerel for dinner).

In the meantime, he worked on polishing the stainless steel - just can't keep the rust off in this salt air.

Tool of choice? An electric toothbrush! Works fairly well on the screw heads and other small places around the stanchions.

Tonight we're back in the land of electronics and cell signals - anchored about 30 miles from Marco Island and civilization. Great spot in the mangroves - some shallow areas coming in so we'll wait a bit until we leave.

Not sure where we are headed. The goal at this point is to now avoid having to move on the weekends once we reach the more populated areas of this coast. Maybe anchor one more night then into a marina in Marco. We hear there is a good breakfast place in town ......