Everglades City to Marco Island
After a great rest stop at Everglades City, we headed out on the 10th for Marco Island. As a crow flies, it’s about 20 miles from EC to MI, but by boat, we had to travel about 32 miles in order to avoid the shallow Everglades waters. Though we didn’t have much wind, it was FINALLY come from a favorable direction, so we were able to sail the entire trip! We had a fantastic, lazy sail up the coast and arrived at Big Marco Pass at around 5:30 PM.
After anchoring, we dinghyed (is that a word? – we got in our dinghy and headed out) ashore for dinner and drinks at the Snook Inn. The long day of lazy sailing had totally worn us out — it doesn’t seem possible, but it’s true, we were exhausted from doing nothing — so we turned in early and slept in the next morning.
On the 11th, we needed to do a bit of shopping and ship my old shrouds back to JSI, so after a leisurely breakfast, we headed ashore. We got all our chores done in short order and had some time to roam around the tourist shops, art galleries, etc. All together it was a nice morning, topped off by a great lunch ashore.
Back in our dinghy, we were headed back to Double Wide, when Michelle spotted a Manatee. We circled back and found not one, but 3 or 4 of the wonderful sea creatures. Now, I haven’t been at sea for months on end, but I’m not sure how the ancient mariners could mistake these things for women (mermaids?)! Really — that’s a stretch!! They are beautiful in their own right — but nothing like any woman that I know!!
Back aboard, we decided to move Double Wide to a new anchorage in Smoke House Bay, where we found another Manta Catamaran similar to ours. The crew aboard “Anything Goes” invited us over for drinks and we had a nice visit with Peter, Julie, Di, and Ralph. Though their boat is here in Florida, Peter and Julie are from Australia and spend the Australian winters in this area. Ralph and Di also live in Australia and have a Manta 40 down there.
Tomorrow we’re headed for Naples and we plan to be in Fort Meyers (and the end of our Florida adventure) by the end of the week. Someone slow time down for us, it’s going by entirely too quickly!!