Everglades to Little Shark River Anchorage

1/31/2017

We had a great sunset last night. It progressed through several degrees of awesome as the sun faded behind the horizon.

Start of Sunset at the Everglades Anchorage

Sun going down at the Everglades Anchorage

One final view of the Everglades sunset

Just before I got ready for bed last night, Clark came and said, "You need to come look at the stars!" Wow! As soon as I stepped into the cockpit, the big dipper jumped out at me on the starboard side. Then, on the port side, I found Orion's Belt. It seems that no matter where or when I check out the stars, I find Orion's belt.

As we studied the night sky together in awe, Clark said, "There's the Milky Way!" Sure enough, we could see it clearly. I don't know when I last saw the Milky Way that well - perhaps not since my childhood growing up in rural Pennsylvania. Magnificent!

Looking around our anchorage and seeing nothing but nature made me feel like we were the only two people in the world. I found that to be both awe inspiring and scary - no one to disturb our peace and no one to come to our aid should we need it.

Temperatures in the 40s eventually motivated us to call it a night.  After climbing into bed I could hear what sounded like the pitter patter of rain. I concluded, and Clark concurred, that the sound was originating from a species of shrimp known to generate a clicking sound. It annoyed  me for a short while, but then I feel asleep.

I awoke when it was still dark outside, probably around 5:00 or so, to noise of the AGLCA burgee flapping madly and the sound of running water. The flag I am used to but not the sound of running water. Poor Clark! I didn't hesitate to wake him and ask, "What's that noise?"

Right away he said, "The water flowing under the boat due to the fast current." I knew he was right, but my head would not let go of the idea that the boat was filling up with water and we were sinking! Finally, since I needed to use the head anyway, I got up and put my feet on the floor. The fact that they remained dry reassured me and allowed me to go back to sleep until morning.

At 8:00, it was definitely time to get ready for the day, but neither of us wanted to come out from under the covers! It was quite cold as we did not open the engine room door last night as it emits an engine room smell that gives me a headache. As I finally ventured out into the cold room, I thought, "at least it's too cold for bugs"!

After breakfast, we got the nautical weather report... winds NE @ 10-15 knots, Seas 2 to 4 feet with occasional 5 feet, and a 7 second period. It sounded like a repeat of the day before. I decided I better make sandwiches for lunch while the waters were calm enough to do so.

Because the anchor line tends to snag in the winch, I work the helm controls while Clark brings in the anchor. We took our positions just before 1030. Not 5 minutes into the exercise, the anchor line jammed. In fact Clark had to disassemble part of the winch to release the line! Twenty minutes later, we finally had the anchor in and were underway. What a pain!

Chart Plotter View of our boat in the anchorage

Russell Pass Anchorage in the Everglades

As we left the protected waters of our anchorage, I saw the same tourist boat I saw yesterday at the same time I saw three dolphins. I grabbed my camera to catch them in action, but they never reappeared.

Tour boat searching for dolphins

Since the wind came from the northeast, we did not have the wave heights we had yesterday. In fact, we had pretty smooth sailing. Like yesterday, however, the scenery became pretty boring really quickly.

My typical view - water, sky, and some clouds

When outside the Everglades boundary, we once again had to be diligent in our crab trap duty. We found oodles of them!

My other view -  crab trap markers - usually a dozen at a time!

No coconuts floated by like yesterday, but unlike yesterday, we got to see a large sea turtle! He, like the dolphins, turned out to be camera shy, so I got no picture.

We finally arrived at our Little Shark River anchorage at 1530 hours. After searching the boat for things we could not find, Clark went and found more manuals to read, and I did some cleaning and reading. With no WiFi, no TV, no Radio, and no Cell service, it was early to bed for us.