Depart: Fort Myers Beach Salty Sam's Marina 9:40
Arrive: Marco Island Smokehouse Bay Anchorage 2:30
Distance: 24 NM
As we left Fort Myers Beach, we passed Ballard, Inc where we fueled up yesterday and saw all the fishing boats along the docks.
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| Fishing Boats at Fort Myers Beach, FL |
We also passed the restaurant where we met and had dinner with our boating friends last night.
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| Dixie Fish Co. Restaurant in Fort Myers Beach, FL |
Being only 24 nautical miles away, it proved to be a short trip to tonight's stop. Looking ahead to up-coming weather, we decided to bypass Naples altogether this trip and go straight for Marco Island. As we navigated the narrow and all-too-shallow channel to enter the Smokehouse Bay anchorage, we had an unwanted "escort" through the canals. As the jet ski closest to the boat wove back and forth and wandered into our path, Clark said, "Do you think he even knows we are here?" Clark tooted the horn and the guy barely moved and certainly did not look to see what was behind him. His passenger did whisper in his ear though.
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| Oblivious or Uncaring of the proximity of our much larger vessel?? |
Our "escort" finally got to the side, so we could pass by them. Once we no longer had to worry about what they might do next, we could enjoy the view of the neighborhood.
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| Passing through the canals into Smokehouse Bay anchorage. Marco Island, FL |
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| Colorful bushes at this home on the water. Marco Island, FL |
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| Smokehouse Bay Anchorage Marco Island, FL |
After we chose our spot and got settled in for the night, Clark reminded me that the zipper on the front panel of our full enclosure needed a sewing job. I took my sewing kit and went up to tackle the project. I had to sit on the edge of the instrument console while I did the repair. I thought I would have a permanent dent in my backside from the ridge I had to sit on. The sun was starting to set by the time I declared myself done.
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| Sewing on the flybridge |
Clark took several beautiful sunset pictures tonight, so I am including a few in the blog.
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| Reflections of Silhouettes |
12/7/2018
Depart: Marco Island Smokehouse Bay Anchorage 8:45
Arrive: Everglades National Park Anchorage 3:25
Distance: 59 NM
We had a bit of a surprise this morning when we went to raise the anchor and found the keel of "Sunset Delight" sitting on the bottom. When we pull up anchor, Clark takes the bow and I take the helm. As soon as I got in position, I knew something was not right. The depth sounders showed unrealistic depths under the keel. Putting the boat in forward, I found it did not move. Uh-oh!
I called Clark back to the helm to check it out. He tried the bow thruster and the front of the boat wiggled but the stern did not dislodge itself. As he played with the bow movement, I carefully watched our two depth sounders. One side showed no depth reading just "- - -" and the other showed numbers I knew could not be believed - "332 feet" - like we were in the Atlantic Ocean or something. Neither one is a good sign!
As Clark wiggled the bow, I saw a "real" depth reading of 0.5 feet show up on the starboard side. The port side still showed "- - -". Clark's mental picture of the bottom from his roaming around the anchorage last night did not comply with what I was seeing. He thought we had to move the boat to port to get off the bottom, and I was convinced we had to move the boat to starboard.
Basically, the actual data did not agree with his hypothesis. It took me repeating myself multiple times for him to accept the data and try moving the boat to starboard. With his wiggling of the bow and a bit of power, we got off the bottom. The water under the boat went from nothing to 0.5 feet to 8 feet almost instantly. Basically "Sunset Delight" had managed to find an underwater shelf to sit on.
Fortunately the tide was coming in, so had we needed to wait, the flow would at least have been in our favor. As it was, we only lost about 10 minutes of time with the messing around.
On our way out of the anchorage, Clark reminded me that I had tried and failed to get a current picture of the Hurricane Irma damage at the entrance to the Smokehouse Bay anchorage. When we were last here, the cement patio around the outside of the building had collapsed into the water. All the debris has been removed now, and work is currently underway to replace the missing patio.
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| Warning Sign: "Hurricane Damage ... Use Extreme Caution" |
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| Fenced off area around damaged building whose huge cement, wrap-around patio collapsed as a result of Hurricane Irma. Base of house, just above pilings, shows the rough area where the cement used to be. |
I find it hard to know how to dress when I get up in the morning. Is it a shorts day or a sweatshirt and jeans with a coat on top type of day? I frequently guess incorrectly, and today was one of those days. I prepared to freeze out on the Gulf of Mexico. Instead I found it balmy and pleasant. Fortunately, I carry my clothes on the boat, so I can just go change when I pick the wrong outfit.
Expecting seas of 4-to-5 footers, we were pleasantly surprised by today's travel in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the anemometer sometimes registered wind gusts in the upper teens, we had very calm seas. The winds came from the direction of the land which kept the wave heights lower.
Given the conditions, we decided to drop anchor in 6 feet of water just under a mile offshore right in the Gulf of Mexico. I found this a bit exciting. When we were in the Bahamas in 2016, we anchored overnight in the Atlantic Ocean. With tonight's stay, I can add anchoring in the Gulf of Mexico to my "wow, we did that" list.
We figured with the wind coming off the shore, plenty of bugs would come to visit us if we anchored in any closer. Even being .9 miles offshore, a few gnats found their way on board.
Clark took the obligatory sunset picture for the blog.
After that we had nothing to do for the rest of the night. Everglades National Park has no cell service, FM radio or TV signal and certainly no WiFi. As I sat reading, I noticed Clark looking at his sheet music. "What are you doing?, I asked. "Why aren't you playing your guitar instead of just reading the music?" Shortly after, he came walking out with his guitar in hand. For the rest of the night, Clark serenaded me as I read my book.
A while before that, Clark and I could hear some wild animal making an almost continuous grunting sound. I said I thought it was an alligator. Clark thought it was coming from under the boat. I suggested he not go swimming tonight!
When Clark started playing the guitar later, the "beasty" was still grunting. At one point, in between songs, Clark looked at me and said, "Hmmm. Sounds like he grunts in the key of 'G'!" Blithely, then, he went back to picking his guitar.
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