We extended our stay in Key West for 3 days, due to wind of course. The final 3 days were fun though. We did have to move to a different dock location and it was nice to give us a slightly different perspective on the harbour.
I also got a chance to launch the dinghy to test the steering repair in the water. And we had manatees visit very close to the boat.
We departed Saturday, Feb 5th with a spectacular travel day to cross Florida Bay, which is really the south-east extension of the Gulf of Mexico. The run to Marco Island is about 85 miles and a longer day than we like to put in, so we chose to anchor overnight in Little Shark River which is about half-way, but does add miles to the overall trip.
We arrived late afternoon and were the 5th boat to anchor in the entrance but with lots of room. What I didn't realize is that we were anchoring at pretty much low slack, but put out more than 100' of chain in 12' deep water. After dark, once the tide was flooding, the current got very strong and put a lot of strain on the anchor chain. Even with more chain out, it still pulled and made an unholy groaning sound which transfers thru to the boat, even with a snubber in place to insulate the chain pull. The boat didn't move at all, other than swinging with the change in the tide, but we did not have a great night sleep due to the sound.
We were up early and enjoyed a nice sunrise, but as we were getting underway for the 50 mile run up to Marco Island, a very thick fog descended. Now, if this was the ICW with narrow and shallow channels, we wouldn't have contemplated running, but the trip would be all open water and we didnt want to hang around for day, not knowing if it would burn off or not.
So with the radar running we proceeded to sea with less than 1/8th mile visibility and much of it with 100' or less. We headed out to deeper water immediately to get away from the preponderance of lobster pots and their buoys, but weren't wholly successful in that. The radar does a great job of displaying contacts the size of navigational markers and small vessels, but not pot buoys. Even at a reduced speed of 7 knots, the boat covers 12 feet per second, so with 100' visibility there is about 8 seconds to respond to a pot buoy that comes into view. Consequently, one has to be VERY focused on the track ahead and over hours that is mentally very draining. Despite our best efforts we did pick up one on a stabilizer fin, and the solution, if it works is to reverse and back down to free up the line. In this case, it worked and Greg didn't have to go for a swim.
After about 5 hours the fog burned off to beautiful sunny day, but the wind eventually came up so we had a bumpy ride the last 3 hours and arrived at Marco Island very salty. We got a spot at a marina we liked and spent 2 nights there, focused on getting caught up on our sleep and de-salting the boat. We also enjoyed the very nice pool at this spot, and reacquainted with some people we met 2 years ago here, and some new friends in another Grand Banks 46.
Departing Marco Island up to Naples is all inside water, although a bit shallow in places , and only 18 miles, including a tour of Smokehouse Bay to assess the anchoring space in the event we want to use it on our way south.
In Naples we are able to stay at the Naples Yacht Club as guests of friends there. It is a very nice marina, well located to the town, and with a great pool. The first night there it rained pretty heavily, so it helped complete my de-salting of the boat that I started in Marco Island. It is also noticeably cooler than in Key West. Although this cold front that came with the wind affected all of Florida, the overnight lows were in the 50's in Naples whereas 60's in KW.
We did a long bike ride to the beaches area and thru a beautiful residential area, where the beachfront homes are located on multiple acre properties, and values can be north of $50M. Also rode thru the more modest Port Royal neighborhood, where homes can be as low as $10M! Naples is a very high end town, and the parade of private jets we see coming in to the nearby airport every afternoon are evidence of that. We had dinner with our friends Tom and Linda Enright as well one evening of the 3 nights we spent there.
The trip from Naples up to Fort Myers Beach is only 25 miles but in open water so we stayed 3 days to await a light wind day. The trip up was great with light airs and warm sun. We docked in Fort Myers Beach at a place we have been before, and fortunately the great music entertainment of Dueling Pianos was on that night.
From Fort Myers Beach we headed up the Caloosahatchee River to the city of Fort Myers. There is a slow section called the "Miserable Mile" where the boat traffic backs up, and being a Saturday morning there must have been 500 boats go by us on their way to the Sanibel Island area.
We didn't particularly intend to spend a week here but there are a few windy days in the forecast for the week, and getting marina space on this coast is very difficult. Next weekend looks like great travel days to get through Pine Island Sound, which is the most problematic body of water, prior to getting to our next destination, Sarasota.
Comments
Post a Comment