Kitty's Dock Cape Coral to Fiddlesticks in Punta Gorda

Wednesday 11/29/2017 – Thursday 11/30/2017

Depart: Kitty’s Dock – Cape Coral, FL 10:20

Arrive: Fidler’s Dock – Punta Gorda, FL 4:15
Distance: 41 NM

While waiting for the tide to come in high enough to allow us to leave Kitty’s dock in Cape Coral, we sat on Kitty’s screened-in porch enjoying the morning. At 10:00 we walked down to the boat and started to prepare for our trip to Punta Gorda.

Weaving our way out of the lagoons, we passed a couple of fishermen sitting on the dock.

Fishermen on the docks?

No - little ceramic figurines posing!

 

To get to Punta Gorda, we had to travel southwest to exit the Caloosahatchee River, pass several islands (Sanibel, Captiva, and Cayo Costa) , and then travel northeast into Charlotte Harbor. Unfortunately, we were traveling the same direction as the wind, so we had no breeze. That combined with a bright sun shining on us made for a very hot ride. To make matters worse, we traversed a long “Manatee Zone – Slow Speed” zone. Speed boats, trawlers and sailboats formed a parade as we very slowly passed through the Manatee Zone.

"Manatee Zone" boats on parade

Watching the fast boats in front of us, we knew as soon as the slow speed zone ended as they took off “like bats out of hell”.

I do not know how he does it, but Clark can recognize certain boats from far distances. Whenever we are traveling and he says, “Is that a Mainship?” 99.99% of the time it is a Mainship. Today he saw a vessel coming towards us from off in the distance and said, “Is that a Krogen Express?” I looked and said, “It might be.” As it got closer and closer, it became clearer and clearer that it was indeed a Krogen Express. When the boat passed us, we saw her name – Black Swan, and she had a similar dark-colored hull. It was almost like looking in a mirror. How exciting to see a sister ship! Of course, we waved madly at each other as we passed.

Thirty minutes or so after we passed the Krogen Express, we saw a tour boat coming into the main channel from the direction of Cabbage Key. As the boat turned in front of us, Clark distinctly heard the narrator say the word “cheeseburger” and knew he was talking about Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise” supposedly made famous at Cabbage Key.

Lady Chadwick
Tour Boat out of Captiva Island

We followed the tour boat for a relatively short distance – behind and slightly to their starboard side. All of a sudden, we heard the captain of the tour boat calling “Black Swan, Black Swan this is Lady Chadwick”. Clark and I both looked around to see if we could see Black Swan. After Lady Chadwick’s second call to Black Swan, it occurred to both Clark and me that the captain thought we were Black Swan! I told Clark to respond, which he did.

The captain confirmed that since we were a similar-colored Krogen Express, he thought we were Black Swan. He complimented us on what a beautiful boat the KE is. Then he told us he needed to make a turn down a channel to the east, so Clark backed off on speed and moved to Lady Chadwick’s port side to get out of their way.

From the level of dolphin activity we get with Sunset Delight, it’s pretty clear that they love traveling at our speed of about 10 mph. Today we had two sets of dolphins – one on port (3 dolphins) and one on starboard (4). Often they turn to look at the boat to verify they have an audience!

Dolphin fun!!

Clark noted that even though we had changed directions on today's travels, it appeared that the wind changed with us to keep us miserably hot. At 2:00, we finally reached the end of Cayo Costa island and turned towards Charlotte Harbor. With 21 miles to go to our destination in Punta Gorda and an average speed of 8 knots, that meant we still had more than two hours to go.

Once we entered Charlotte Harbor, we found lots of open water, minimal boat traffic, and lots of dolphins to keep us company.  Thankfully, eventually, we got far enough into Charlotte Harbor to find a breeze and start to cool down. Finally, just before 4:00 we arrived at the channel to Clark's friend’s house.

Channel into the mangroves at Punta Gorda, FL

Channel through mangroves

Following Route to Fiddlesticks

Jim and Carol, from a Mainship named Fiddlesticks, greeted us at the dock and helped us raft up, i.e. tie up to their boat.  Being both engineers and boating enthusiasts, Jim and Clark started talking as soon as we got there and hardly stopped long enough to catch a breath! These two have known each other online for many years. This is the first time they have ever met in person!

After we got Sunset Delight settled in, Jim and Carol drove us into town to eat at an Irish Pub. They looked to have a great menu, but due to it being Trivia Night, the restaurant was so loud we would not be able to have a conversation. We left there and went to an English Pub that resides in an old-time Ice House. I had their so-called famous Fish and Chips and Clark had Cottage Pie.

Night Sky at Punta Gorda, Florida

Osprey sitting at the top of a sailboat mast
to get a "bird's eye view" for an evening of fishing!

 On Thursday, while Clark and Jim took Sunset Delight out to fill up the fuel tanks, Carol and Ev went shopping - Walgreen's, a bank, Home Depot, Publix, and West Marine. After we all got back to their home, Carol made us a nice lunch, and we chatted away the rest of the afternoon. With non-changeable dinner plans, Jim and Carol went out while we cooked and ate on our boat.