Finally Underway

Day 11: Thursday, March 3, 2016

This guy was moored on the opposite side of our dock

I awoke early this morning and spent a couple of hours getting caught up on my blog postings.  Janine came around at about 6:00 and we prepared a bacon, eggs and toast breakfast.  Of course, the first thing that I do when I get up is to light the fire under the coffee pot.

We tossed off the dock lines at about 8:30 and started motoring down the Big Marco River on our way to the open waters of the Gulf.  For the first few miles the congestion of Marco Island was obvious and then suddenly we were deep in the mangrove islands.  I was involved in a discussion,

Second Wind resting with the Damn Dink Too at Rose Marina

several days ago, about how easy it is get disoriented and lost amongst these islands.  But, we have good charts, a good GPS chart plotter, and the channels are well documented so that there is really no concern about getting lost as long as you follow the channel markers.

It is a beautiful area and aptly named the Ten Thousand Islands.  We didn’t see an abundance of wild life although we did see a few egrets, and a number of ospreys.  The ospreys are noisy rascals.  They build

Our other neighbor. A boat for old tired sailors

their massive nests on the channel markers and the squawk loudly in a high pitch whistle as you pass.  We saw a number of occupied nests but no young.

We motored for probably 3 hours through the narrow passages.  The wind was light but on our nose so there was no way to sail.  We finally broke out into Gullivan Bay which is an indentation off of the Gulf of Mexico.  Our course swung southeast and with a light westerly breeze, we were able to sail.  The fastest that we saw on our GPS was about 2.5 knots or about 3 mph.  Most of the time we were traveling along at around 2 knots.  But

Stan's in Goodland FL from the water.

, we are in no hurry and so we sailed for probably 4 hours.  We had selected a fairly nice spot to drop our anchor but it was obvious that at the speed we were traveling, we would not reach our goal.

The sky was lightly to moderately overcast most of the day and by evening it was cloudy.  With the cool breeze, we both wore long sleeve sweaters

We readjusted, started the motor and headed behind an island called Lumber Key.  We arrived at about

Heading down Big Marco River near Goodland FL

4:30, dropped anchor, buttoned up the boat and sat down for hors d'oeuvres that included a nice sharp cheddar cheese, some peach salsa prepared by a friend of ours and dipping mustard sauce that was provided by another friend.  Of course we needed a cold beer to facilitate passage down our gullets.  For dinner, we prepared chicken Alfredo.  The chicken was a couple of chicken thighs that we canned before we left home and the Alfredo sauce was a

An  osprey adorning a channel sign

packaged product made by Kerr. It made a really good combination. 

Our anchorage is behind a small island that stops the waves that roll off the Gulf.  The water here is quite shallow and it is entirely possible that we will be touching the bottom during the night when the tide goes out.  Our boat is designed to travel in really shallow water.  We can pull the centerboard and the rudder up so that we only need 18 inches of water to remain

Lumber Key anchorage at sundown

afloat. 

 

We both tried to read after dinner but sleep kept creeping in, making it difficult.