Ft. Meyers to the Florida Keys!
Fog hung like a blanket over the marina, this morning. Our hope is that the fog will lift by 10 am.
Plans to stay for another day in the Ft. Meyers area quickly changed due to a weather front predicted to hit this afternoon. So, we are up early setting our course to Naples with our goal to get ahead of the front. Weather dictates the schedule. If we don’t leave this morning, we will be caught in Ft. Meyers longer than desired. We love the area, but we need to be in Marathon, FL in 6 days to meet up with family.
After spraying down the boat, taking on fresh water, and pumping out the head, we dropped lines at 8:45 am and slipped out of the Ft. Meyers Yacht Basin. Motoring through thick fog (visibility 100 ft.), we entered the Caloosahatchee River and began our two hour path back to the ICW.
We are navigating from the upper helm as we retrace our path (from yesterday) on the Garmin, track the radar for other vessels in the area, and avoid the crab pots which appear from time to time. Visibility remains limited to 100 ft.At 10 am, a trawler came on the marine radio warning any vessels in the area that he was at Marker 40, was headed south with no radar. Another trawler without radar contacted us to warn us that they narrowly missed a large fishing boat, so they decided to look for an anchorage until the weather passed. Although the sun has tried to burn through, our view is white except for birds sitting on channel markers, a few fishing boats, dolphins at play around us, and occasional mangroves off to the side. The fog continues to remain THICK! Our navigational electronics are worth every penny!
The sun has attempted to burned off some of the fog, but visibility is still 100 ft.. There is no ICW, inside route, from Ft. Meyers to Naples, FL; we must travel outside on the Gulf of Mexico. We have motored through Matanzas Pass and entered the Gulf of Mexico! If you’ve followed the previous blogs, you would know that Steve is thrilled (dreaming of a jaunt to Cuba) and Mary is thinking about seeing shoreline, again. Other than fog, the conditions are fairly smooth and with the stabilizers engaged, there is just a slight roll.
Every salt water, sea-going vessel
needs a "bug" aboard according to
Steve's brother, Mark, a seasoned
salt-water fisherman. Now, we
have our own "bug" on
Dream Chaser.
Thanks Mark and Lu!
Noon…the fog is still heavy and we have 2 1/2 hours left in our crossing.
After 28 miles, we headed into Gordon Pass and up the Naples River which was lined by large beautiful homes. Does this remind you of an Italian villas?
We were sharing the
waterway with speed boats,
cruisers, sailboats, fishermen,
wave runners, paddle-boarders,
and dolphins. It is a water
lover's paradise!
History…
Naples, FL was founded in the late 1880’s and became extremely popular due to the area’s mild (tropical) climate and excellent fishing. The bay was described as surpassing the bay in Naples, Italy, so thus the name “Naples”. In 1920, Naples Bay became the working waterfront for fishermen with the clam-shelling and an oyster processing plant located in the area. Tin City, located just north of the marina, resulted from combining these buildings into a restaurant and open-air shopping venue. The Naples area is home to several major land reserves, the Naples Zoo, art galleries & theater, and shopping districts.
At 2:30 pm, Dream Chaser slipped into her dockage at the Naples City Dock, and we tied her well knowing the storm would hit later in the afternoon. At precisely 3 pm, strong winds began to blow and the temps dropped from 75 and sunny to 65 and cloudy within minutes-the storm was on its way! Tonight and tomorrow night, we should see lows in the 40's. BRRRRR!
About 7 pm, Patti and Craig Mayer, friends from the Wooddale singles group 40 years ago, met us at the boat. Former Minnesotans, they live in Ft. Meyers and drove down to have dinner together at Cafe Luna, a nearby Italian Restaurant. It was a marvelous time of catching up, remembering the "old days", and sharing some life stories. So good to fellowship with good friends!
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Good Morning, Naples!
It’s cloudy and 46, but we feel very lucky as it is -13 back home!
We slept like babies last night with a slight bobbing that was hardly noticed.
In Naples, we reconnected with our good friends and fellow loopers, Meg and Jim Sprow, on Sanctuary. We had been together during the river portion of our journey and enjoyed some evening Rummicub parties. They are renting the cutest little condo only blocks from the city docks for a few months and doing the "land thing". Steve and Jim took the morning walk through Naples. Mary took her morning walk to 5th Avenue for "a little history" and a lot of shopping therapy. FYI: In 1932, Charles “Lucky” Lindbergh landed his plane on the Naples Airstrip which is presently Fifth Avenue & Third Street. Lindbergh flew in from his winter home on Sanibel Island to pick up supplies.
About noon, we all met at a very popular local deli for a great lunch and caught up on our adventures. We passed, however, on our chance to purchase rattlesnake, ostrich, kangaroo, and alligator! The guys did the West Marine, etc. list and the gals visited some of Meg’s favorite spots. Ladies: Naples has amazing shops and award winning restaurants. The “Best of Everything” is a “not to be missed” popular shop with great prices on fun jewelry, accessories, and gift items! Meg knows Naples! After an awesome girl’s therapy afternoon, shopping, a personal tour through town, and a stop for provisions, Meg dropped Mary at the boat. It had been a very special afternoon, and it was so hard to say good-bye, but we will keep in touch and, hopefully, see them in the Bahamas.
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
We pass hundreds of homes of the VERY rich as Dream Chaser motors out of Gordon Pass and away from Naples. Don’t you wonder how these people made their money to afford such lavish (often second or third) homes? Breakfast is light this morning-just a small bowl of soup- in case of rough seas. Steve put a chicken in the crockpot, yesterday, so we are back to enjoying home-made chicken vegetable soup. After motoring for a few hours, we see a grouping of large buildings off our port side on shore which we assume is Marco Island.
The stabilizers are working hard this morning as we are tossed around. As we leave the sight of shore, we are headed south towards Everglades National Park. It’s about noon, so Dream Chaser should have passed Cape Romano and be coming up to Ten Thousand Islands. As the waves build and splash over the front of the bow, Mary checks to make sure that the port holes are tightly closed and items are stowed away. The back sliding screen door of the boat occasionally breaks free from its latch and rattles open from the rocking of the boat. There are no birds (which is a bit freaky), but lots of waves and scattered crab pots fill our view as land disappears. With no land in sight, it is hard to believe that there are spots around us with only 3 ft. depths. Our view is quite pretty with waves of sea green water- the same color as our carpet and upholstery inside.
We have about 70 min. before we will be protected behind some islands and another 20 min. more should have us at the Everglades City restaurant dock. Steve is now navigating from the lower helm due to the cold wind. He mentioned a freaky time, during the morning, when the chart showed 17 feet but the depth reported 6 ft. Also, he is watching to make sure we avoid a sunken ship off to the port side. Sunken Ship?!
Mary has chosen the back of the cabin closest to the stern for the best place to ride out the waves. We find it hard to fathom how Shackleton and his crew survived those expeditions to Antarctica in bone chilling weather, huge waves, and wooden boats-often less than 20+ ft. rowboats! Amazing!
With a sense of excitement at finally seeing land, we passed marker 1 on our port side and entered a marked channel. Steve is carefully navigating this channel due to shoaling and dry land appearing to the sides; just prior to markers 17 & 18, our depth registered at 3 ft and continued to fluctuate back and forth. The sky has remained overcast all day, and it is cool. We passed a tour boat along the channel, and a group of Asian tourists were busy snapping pictures of US! Apparently, there wasn’t much in the area like birds or sea life to photograph.
We fought a strong wind and a very heavy current when we backed into a slip at the City Seafood Restaurant and Market (above) in Everglades City, FL. Even with assistance, it was a really a tricky tie up and we were relieved when Dream Chaser was finally secured. There were some curios bystanders including this little guy who didn't want his picture taken!
We needed to walk (for some solid land time), so we walked to town. We located the museum of the Everglades which was extremely informative and happened to have a guest speaker relating the history of the area.
History…
Everglades City dates back over 1,000 years and is the western gateway to the Everglades National Park and Ten Thousand Islands. The Everglades City area was originally inhabited by the Calusa Indians and flourished until the Europeans bringing diseases wiped them out. Starting in the 1740’s Seminole Indians and escaped black slaves populated the area. Inhabitants could easily subsist on the plentiful supplies of fish, bird, alligator, and fertile ground for crops. After the Civil War, many confederate southerners fled to southeast Florida. The village of Everglades was settled in the 1870’s by William Allen, a Connecticut Yankee from Key West. In 1895 George Storter, Jr. purchased the land from Allen, and it was named Everglades City. Storter became the principal landowner and a sugar cane producer opening a trading post in the area. He was known for entertaining tourists from the north with hunting and fishing and his house developed into the Rod and Gun Club. In 1922 Barron Collier, a banker and railroad man, bought almost all of Southwest Florida including the Rod and Gun Club. He created a “little slice of Europe” where brought in a famous chef and hosted international dignitaries and several US presidents. In 1972, The Bowen family bought the club and have continued to entertain presidents, governors, actors, and tourists. At the far end of town, we located the Rod and Gun Club which has a lodge and is our chosen restaurant for dinner.
We loved the beautiful, quiet atmosphere, and our table overlooked the Barron River. Amanda, our waitress, served us with a delicious seafood salad, seafood platter, and their popular Key Lime pie! Yum! It was the best Key Lime pie we have ever had! Great Place-Great Service-Great Food!
More history…
In 1960, Hurricane Donna destroyed most of the city, so many historic buildings are gone. Also during the 1960’s, Marjory Douglas at age 78 (died at 108) began a campaign to save the everglades from being drained for development. She wrote "Everglades: River of Grass" and is hailed for helping preserve the Everglades and the ecosystem. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, Everglades City was a center of marijuana smuggling where bales coming from Columbia would be dropped and picked up by drug dealers. In 1983, drug laws (The War on Drugs) were enforced regarding “square grouper” (drug bales) and 80% of the male population in the area ended up in “the big college” for drug smuggling. Commercial fishing was going strong in the early 1990’s. Now, the area's economy relies on agribusiness, tourism, and real estate.
Steve sprayed the salt water off Dream Chaser, and Mary prepped a pork butt roast for the crockpot (Meg's recipe). With the smell of BBQ, we settled in for a quiet evening without waves.
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Everglades City to Little Shark River Anchorage
We woke to another cloud covered sky, but temps are in the 70’s with predicted highs in the 80’s. Yeah! After the morning walk, we had breakfast on the balcony of the City Seafood Restaurant overlooking the river. Below us, a cormorant was catching fish, being harassed by the pelicans, dropping the fish, and having it gobbled up by the pelicans. How entertaining! Had we visited City Seafood for lunch or dinner, we could have chosen from: conch fritters, soft shell blue crabs, alligator, frog legs, squid or seawweed salad, lobster, or grouper. Did you know that stone crabs are caught in deep water, their front claws are removed, and then, they are returned to the water to grow another claw?
At 9 am, engines are started, Dream Chaser is untied, and we are following the Barron River back to Chokoloskee Bay and the channel to the sea. We have a 6 1/2 hour journey to reach our anchorage at the Little Shark River in the Everglades which is the half way point to Marathon, FL in the Keys. Winds are out of the NE at 12 mph and calm seas are predicted for today and tomorrow. Today, with the higher tide level, the water depth in the channel should be good for exiting to the ocean.
Enjoying the warm breeze this morning, we are navigating from the upper helm with coffee and tea in hand and enjoying our view of “just ocean” for miles and miles.
At 11:45 am, we were joined by several dolphins swimming in the bow wave of Dream Chaser. In past conversation with loopers, we were told that some dolphins have been released from navy operations and may have numbers on their fins. Others, may have been released from aquariums, especially if they come close to the boat and look up at us. In that case, we should raise our arms in the air to see if they do tricks. These dolphins didn’t jump up and and do tricks, but they swam with us for quite awhile.
At 3 pm, we reached our destination. We haven’t anchored for about a month, but it came back like riding a bike. We need to be sure the anchor is set due to the tides and currents.
We’re spending the night in the Everglades! Anchored at the mouth of the Little Shark River which is on the south side of Shark Island, we are surrounded by an abundance of plants. This picture shows the interesting root system.
Everglades National Park has an abundance of wildlife, and the most obvious is the alligator, king of the freshwater everglades, and his salt water counterpart, the crocodile. We haven’t seen any live gators from the boat, yet, it’s been very cold, but on land they are said to be as common as the lizards in your back yard! We’ve seen fish and turtles, and we will pass on the snakes! As we glance towards the woods and the swamps, we know that this is habitat for raccoons, opossum, armadillos, deer, wild hogs, bear, panthers (quite rare), bobcats, fox, rabbits, and squirrels. Wow! We have already been entertained by the manatees, and the bottle-nosed dolphins jumped and flipped their tails in the air as we ate dinner in the upper helm, tonight.
The night fell. Except for an occasional dot of light from the dim navigational lights on other boats sharing our anchorage, it is totally black around us. We hear strange calls, weird noises, and splashes near the boat. Dream Chaser has been closed up due to the dreaded No-see-ums, tiny bugs. So, snug inside, we read for awhile before bed.
Steve bought an interesting book, Totch: A Life in the Everglades. Totch Brown writes of his experiences in the last real frontier of Florida before the park was established. Although he was a decorated WW II hero, a good husband and father, his life was a combination of lawlessness and law-abiding principles. He lived a free life before the national park was established; during a time when the Indian people lived freely, bear and panther were common, hunting alligators wasn’t illegal, and moonshine stills were common place. His youth was spent hunting, fishing, and trapping with his dad, and he became a gator-hunter (at 14 years of age) and commercial fisherman (at 17). Later during desperate times, he became a gator poacher and active in marijuana smuggling by hauling pot back and forth across the Carribbean from Columbia. Totch retired from the drug trade, but ended up serving 15 months for tax fraud. Memoirs of vanished days.
It’s time for bed since boater’s midnight is 9 pm.
Friday, January 10, 2014 Little Shark River to Marathon
Little Shark River turned out to be a perfect spot for anchoring last night and seven other boats had joined us before nightfall. Other than a few strange noises and a handful of no-see-ums sneaking into the salon, we slept well.
The sunrise was spectacular!
We are at the upper helm wearing shorts and t-shirts with coffee in hand enjoying the unbelievable beauty in the sky as it unfolds minute by minute.
About 7:30 am, the sun broke through the clouds. GOOD MORNING, SUNSHINE!
We are excited to see the sun and have warmer weather ahead.
Mary had just slipped down to the salon to start writing about our beautiful morning when Steve began thudding the floor above. That thud could only mean one thing…look out the window, the dolphins are here! They were swimming right along side the boat at midship and surfaced periodically. This picture doesn't do the moment justice; it was thrilling!
Since we’ve taken our turn towards Marathon, there have been miles and miles of crab pots. It’s like making your way through a mine field, as we certainly don’t want one of the ropes wrapped around our motors. There is no land in sight, but there have been a number of boats including this this crabber pulling traps.
We turned into Moser Channel and passed under the famous Seven Mile Bridge which connects Marathon at the middle keys to the lower keys. We have driven over this bridge several times never dreaming that we would have the chance to motor under it.
It's a perfect day and the water surrounding us is a pretty sea green.
At 1 pm, Dream Chaser is safe, secured, and happy to be at Pancho’s Dock in Marathon, FL in the Keys. We stayed just ahead of the 5-6 ft. waves predicted to arrive this afternoon. Also, the tide is less than two feet here, so exiting the boat shouldn't be a problem.
At 6 pm, we walked to Burdines Restaurant and enjoyed dinner on the deck overlooking the inlet from the ocean. While we dined on salad and Yellow Fin Tuna, a local music group entertained the crowd.
The evening view of the ocean inlet from the upstairs deck at Burdine's Restaurant in Marathon, FL.
Great Food...Great View...Great Night!
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