After our lovely time in Pelican Bay, Cayo Costa State Park, we headed out in a blustery wind. Cayo Costa is situated between Fort Myers to the south and Sarasota to the north, also just north of Captiva Island, which is north of Sanibel Island. Each of these locations face the Gulf of Mexico about mid-coast West Florida.
We had planned to go "outside" into the Gulf, but the wind and waves were so bad inside, we decided to just stay in the waterway bays. As choppy waves pushed against our bow, we pulled out half the jib to steady the rocking motion and motored on through. Conditions were brisk with 20+ knot winds. After a few hours we turned East and had better protection from some of the bay's islands, so things calmed down. The highlight was, just as we were turning out of the waterway and into the channel to head through Matanzas Pass (just West of Fort Myers), we watched in awe as a lone dolphin jumped at least six feet out of the water - over five times! It was rolicking in waves made by a passing motor yacht and made an unforgettable show.
The rest of the day was routine as we headed downwind just offshore and toward Naples. Big excitement came when we turned East again to enter Gordon Pass into Naples Harbor (they call inlets passes over on the West coast of Florida). Suddenly those waves were broadside again instead of behind us, and the boat rolled, tossed and hopped its way along until we entered the jetty - whew! Then, just inside the jetty, a 70 foot scenic tour boat decided to do a U-turn, effectively blocking our entry in high winds and waves. Greg called on the radio, they turned quickly and headed back inside. Another "Whew"!
After motoring three miles up to Naples City Dock we pulled into the fuel dock, fueled up for our next trip, then moved to the brand new face dock where they put all the "transients". We were excited to see the new place after staying at the old docks last year. They did a beautiful job with their $6-1/2 million renovation. Three new buildings, all floating docks, gorgeous baths and laundry, shiny new utility pedestals with power and water, and very friendly, efficient staff. Perfect!
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Check out this cool new water fountain. Hold your bottle in
front of that outline of a bottle and it fills it up for you with filtered water! |
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This was Sharon's breakfast one morning at a local cafe - poached eggs
with "avocado smash" that had feta, chives, tomatoes
and cilantro mixed in - YUM! |
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| A good day for the fishing charters - eleven Grouper hanging up there ready to fillet! |
Naples is always fun for us. We love to get on our bicycles and ride around the gorgeous neighborhoods and enjoy a variety of good restaurants. We've been lucky with our timing to enjoy the Naples Art Council Art Show that takes over the downtown area for a weekend. This is a great show of high quality artisans. It did not disappoint. We scored a couple cool items and enjoyed walking the booths. It was also the morning of the "Walk for Our Lives" supporting gun control in the aftermath of the horrible Parkland, FL shootings. We were surprised and impressed that the local march included several thousand people - it went on for hours: kids, parents, and many grandparents - all calling attention to the problem of assault rifles in the hands of the general public. It was good to be engulfed in that positive and inspiring event. We applaud the valor of the kids at Parkland.
We had planned to stay for only four days in Naples - in fact, the marina has a rule that you can only stay that long. But - the weather for continuing to travel east was unsettled, so we asked for more time and they kindly gave it to us. We ended up being there a week - and enjoyed every day! Finally, by Friday, the wind calmed down enough for us to start south. Up before dawn, we were off the dock before 7am and motoring out of the harbor with all the charter fishing boats and their paying guests. It was another calm day - which is why we waited so long - so we motored south, past Marco Island, further on south to round Cape Romano Shoal (too shallow to cross), then turned southeast towards the Little Shark River on the Gulf side of the Everglades. About halfway through the day, the wind came up enough and from the right direction that we could unfurl the jib and enjoy a bit of sailing. The day's highlight was when a ray flew up and out of the water about 50 feet from the boat. We have seen videos of this, but never live. It "flew" about 10 feet, flapping its batwings, before softly splashing back into the water. These things we see are so cool. Just not possible to get a photo.
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| Great Blue Heron in the Little Shark River |
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| Three boats anchored up river from us |
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| Our view sailing around the tip of Florida |
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| This is what Sharon's hair does on a breezy sailing day. |
We pulled into the Little Shark River a couple hours before sunset, anchored, and enjoyed a nice meal. As the sun dipped below the horizon we retreated inside as the "no-see-ums" started to bite. We know sailors that have made screens out of wedding veil material because the "no-see-ums" fly right through a normal screen. So, no openings anywhere for us onboard
Dream Catcher that night. Any cracks even got towels stuffed in them! The next morning, you would not believe the number of small flying bugs around the boat - thousands. We dressed to cover every area of our bodies and got out of there as fast as we could, even while being chewed on - ankles, faces, hands. Yikes! There were teeny tiny black flies coating the windshield, stuck to the bimini (the top canvas covering above the cockpit), all over the deck - it was gross and disgusting. (did we mention how much Greg hates bugs?) Once underway we got the water hose out and sprayed down almost every surface. Later, we used the hand vacuum to clean the underside of the bimini. By 10am we were comfortable again. The evening seems to bring these critters out; but the sun seems to kiil them. All OK, but what a clean up!
Saturday, after exiting the river, we turned East again and made our way around Cape Sable (the bottom tip of Florida) and on over to the Keys. The original plan was to retrace the tracks we traveled from Key Biscayne early in February. But, for a variety of reasons, we decided to try something we hadn't done before and travel up inside the Keys - between the Keys and the mainland. We got some advice from other sailors whom we knew had made this trek before (thanks Bill and Tricia) and started northeast on our travels. It was delightful. Quiet anchorages, beautiful sites, nice sailing - a real treat. On Easter, we dropped the hook off Elliott Key just north of Key Largo and Southeast of Miami. We could see the beautiful sandy bottom through the clear water, the sunset was gorgeous, and the moon rose over the water.
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| Moonrise at Islamorada |
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| Looked like a storm was brewing, but blew right over |
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Navigating inside the Keys, you follow these
deep cuts right through the mangroves |
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| Beautiful Biscayne Bay |
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| Took this from the cockpit looking over the side. We're not in Chelmsford any more! |
After a huge amount of debate, considering timing to leave and arrive in daylight, checking waves and wind, concerns about business calls, we finally gave it up and decided to motor inside the waterway to get to our Vero Beach destination by Thursday. We were so looking forward to an overnight offshore sail. But, one business call scheduled for Tuesday at 1pm put such a kink in our plans that we decided offshore just wouldn't work.
Our next day took us through Miami, which is one of the busiest in the waterway for small boat traffic, rude motor boaters and bridges. We persevered and dropped the hook in Lake Boca at 7:30pm just as the sun was sinking below the horizon, 57 miles after we started our trek north. Leaving early the next morning, we caught the first bridge at 7:30am and hit almost every one at the designated time needed to keep us moving along. As we passed through Palm Beach, we spotted our friends Hayden and Radeen on board
Island Spirit at anchor in preparation for their run to the Bahamas the next morning. Check out this great shot of their beautiful boat amidst the tall buildings and palm trees.
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| Island Spirit |
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| Sunrise at Hobe Sound, Jupiter |
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| The beach at Hobe Sound |
We finally ended our full day of bridge tender negotiations and dropped the hook in peaceful Hobe Sound between the mainland and Jupiter Island. This is a beautiful area with the entire north end of the island designated wildlife area. Check out this bald eagle Greg spotted high up in a tree along the way.
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| A Bald Eagle |
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| Traveling towards Fort Pierce on the waterway |
Today was a shorter day of only 35 miles ending at 1:30pm (!) in a nice protected anchorage in Faber Cove, Fort Pierce, in anticipation of increasing winds and swinging at anchor. We are surrounded by land, which means no waves or boat motion - so a restful night ahead. Tomorrow we make our last ten miles to Vero Beach where we will hang for the next month.
It has been a great winter here in Florida and we look forward to our slow journey north for summer.
'Til next time -
