Feb 3-7- It doesn’t matter where we go the weather in Florida is atypical—COLD! 

We left Key West and traveled to Marathon on Wednesday.  We anchored out for the night,

and left early the next morning to head north.  The original plan was to only go as far as Shark River, but with the threat of a front coming through we traveled further north.  It was a nine hour day on Florida Bay/Gulf of Mexico, after several hours we found that the water changed from the aqua blue color to more of a dark brown- like Lake Winnipeg.  We each took a turn driving and playing tip-toe through the crab pots. We ended up anchoring out in Indian Pass, and the wind swung the boat throughout the night.

In the morning we called the Everglades Isle Marina and secured a slip for the night.  It was only about a 45 minute trip across a choppy Chokoloskee Bay

and up the Barron River into Everglade City,  the marina is part of an  high-end RV park- we were the only boat in the 50 plus  available slips- apparently it’s not well advertised.

 

After going for lunch at the Camellia Street Café,

we walked around town and toured the Everglade Museum.

We then went back to the bar at the RV Park for a ”meet and greet” and met several couples that had done parts of the Loop in boat but were now RV people.  We also met a couple from Winnipeg, who were staying in the park.  We went to City Seafood for supper and  returned to the park for Karaoke in the evening.

We departed Everglade city around 9:45 in the morning and returned to the Gulf.  Because it was low tide- here’ a pic of an empty  crab pot in Chokoloskee Bay. It was a relatively calm day with few waves.  We followed the shore until we reached Coons Pass, just before Marco Island.  We had opted to take the scenic/inside route towards Naples.  At lunchtime we pulled up to the dock at the Old Marco Lodge, and enjoyed more seafood.

By about 2:00 we were starting to look for an anchorage as the wind had picked up and there was now rain in the forecast.  We ended up anchored behind an island in Rookery Channel.  It was windy and the rain began to fall.  At about 7, Andy moved the boat more into the channel as we were swinging fairly close to shore.  In the morning  the sun came out and I took this picture, very soon after the winds started to blow.

Since it was low tide, we had to wait until after 11am before we could pull out of our anchorage.  We were only travelling as far as Naples today, which was less than 8 miles- so it didn’t matter when we left.  With the gusting winds, it was quite rocky going down the channel, but there weren’t as many other boaters out- so not a lot of additional wakes to manouver around.  We arrived at the Naples City Dock marina  just after noon.   After checking in, Andy contacted Mic who we had spent some time with in late November on the Rivers and Mobile Bay, We’re going to meet him this afternoon for a drink.  So I’ll be spending my Birthday in a Naples bar and will likely have to be watching American football.