Fort Myers to Home

In the morning, I picked up anchor and entered the Gulf of Mexico, which was slick calm!  A small craft advisory expecting 25 knot winds was forecast for 1 o'clock, so I got off to an early start in the calm before the storm.

                                                   Fort Meyers Beach area at sunsrise

                                             Looking shoreward from the Gulf of Mexico

At Naples, I entered the pass, and ran the inside passage from Naples to Marco Island, around Marco, staying on the inside of Cape Romano thru Goodland.  I had never been through that waterway before, and it is gorgeous! 

Between Naples and Marco, there is an island with properties running from the Gulf to the inside passage.  You can still see hurricane damage from years past, and a lot of the places are for sale.  If I didn't already live in such a great place....

Marco Island is a pretty place, and I am saying that as someone who doesn't like cities!  I didn't explore ashore, though it was hard not to stop somewhere for lunch!

There are so many osprey nests, they have no number their houses!  The ospreys sat and stared as we passed.  Note the disrepair of the daymarkers... can't work the aid with a nest on top of it!

There were also a lot of dolphins!  Dolphins love the Nordic Tug @ 1300rpm (I played with this a LOT on the trip down)

I stayed on the inside past Goodland, behind Romano Pass, and then outside along the coast, protected from the north wind that had blown up down to Ten Thousand Islands.  I went up Indian Key Pass and anchored in Russel Pass 25 50 318    81 26 306  There were two trawlers already on the hook there, but I didn't launch the dinghy to go visit.

In the afternoon, when I reached the Little Shark River, I knew I didn't have enough time to get into the Keys by dark, and there were lots of crab traps I didn't want to hit.  I've always loved that part of Everglades, so I explored for a couple of hours before returning to the mouth to anchor.  One trawler from the night before was already anchored there, so I went back up the river about a mile and anchored.  Later, I heard the other trawler come in and anchor.

In the middle of the night I woke up, the wind had calmed, the moon was full, and I was ready to go home.  By 0130, I'd picked up the anchor, and was passing the two anchored trawlers.  They had to wonder what I was doing in the middle of the night!

I paced to enter the Marathon flats at daylight, so I could watch the bottom, and went through Mozier Channel under the 7 mile bridge and down the outside towards home. 

I had neighbors waving to me as the Mercy came home.  The canal seems much smaller than with the Miss Vi, I think because my line of sight is so much higher.  Boy, some folks need to trim their mangroves, too!  Rudy had spent a day earlier in the week snorkelling the main channel coming in, to make sure there wasn't any debris we'd missed during our multiple sweeps this fall.

Pam Borgert was at the house, and caught lines for me as the Mercy came to her new homeport.

I tucked into the dock at the house about 1000, and as much as I love being gone, it sure is fun coming home!