El Nino has just been causing havoc with the weather in Florida this winter! We had planned to cruise to Key West and then to the Dry Tortugas, but because of the high winds and waves, we stayed put at Faro Blanco Marina in Marathon for 2 weeks. The good news is we got to spend that time with our friends from Grayling and Sea Dog, which we thoroughly enjoyed! Sunset at the Sunset Grill at the 7 Mile Bridge was beautiful, and with cocktails, great food and great friends, the night was perfect!
We also took the opportunity to discover some local attractions, like the Crane Point Museum & Nature Center.
On Tuesday, Feb 16th we left Marathon in our wake and headed across the Gulf to The Little Shark River in the Everglades National Park. It was beautiful there, but "out in the middle of no where" is an understatement.
From there we had smooth waters all the way to a favorite spot of ours, Panther Key, about 10 miles south of Marco Island. We anchored there for 2 nights......
.....experienced another stunning sunset.....
.... and met some great new people. They had kayaked from Everglades City and were camping on the island for a week, living off only what they could fit in their kayaks. One of the best parts of this adventure is meeting interesting people like Wes, Bill and Gaitlyn.
We took advantage of the silky sand and relaxed on the beach.
At Panther Key we picked up another crew member, a pelican to captain the dingy.
From there it was on to Marco Island Marina....
and then to Gulf Harbour Marina in Ft. Myers, where Dave was meeting the guys for 4 days of golf. Doc, Jerry, Ralph, Frank & Cloyd joined Florida Dave on the east coast for a couple more rounds.
While Dave was golfing, I had a lot of fun with my Mom and Dad at their condo in Sarasota. It was so great spending time with them in their paradise! I also had the opportunity to go back to Longboat Key Club Moorings to visit Nancy and Ron and several other friends. For both Dave and I, it was a great week of reconnecting!
Then back on the water just across the Caloosahatchee River to Kitty's house in Cape Coral. There we experienced our first "rafting" with another boat. Silver Boots tied to the dock and we tied to them, cool experience and not nearly as scary as I thought!
Kitty's hospitaliy was again amazing, spoiling us with decadent keylime pie in addition to her opening her dock and home to us Loopers!
On Leap Day, we headed east up the Caloosahatchee River for the 145 mile journey across Lake Okeechobee to Stuart on the Florida east coast. It had been over 3 years since we had passed through a lock, so we were a little nervous entering the Franklin Lock.
The Caloosahatchee River provided for many interesting sights.
Beautiful sail boats,
abandoned sail boats,
swing bridges,
railroad bridges,
bascule and 65' fixed bridges.
This was a first, horses playing on the shoreline....
Our first stop was LaBelle,
.... the honey capital of the world.
From there it was on to Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston, just east of the lake. We were jammed in the lock to Clewiston, resulting in our second rafting experience.
Entering Lake Okeechobee...
we had a smooth 25 mile run across the lake.
We anchored out about 5 miles from Stuart, arriving at the Loggerhead Marina the following day. Florida Dave & Shelly picked us up at the marina, we visited Shelly's parents, Mackey and Jackie Rogers and then we spent 2 nights in Tequesta at David & Shelly's house. We had an absolute blast with the Frankens, hanging out in the hot tub and pool, having cannon ball contests, eating and DRINKING ....
No comments:
Post a Comment