Everglades City to Naples

Day 23: March 27, 2018

With much contemplation and studying of both the navigational charts and the wind apps, I finally made the decision to head out today.  The wind app that I use

Second Wind resting in this pristine marina

has predictions from four different sources and they varied significantly.  I could not get any advice as to which one was the most accurate.  One said that there would be winds of 20 knots with gusts up to 30.  Another said that they would be around 15 to 18 knots with gusts in the mid 20s.  The all agreed that the wind would be clocking from the east.

The route that we were looking at put us in open water for about 10 miles and the remainder of the trip would be via inland passages.  The 10 miles, of course, was the area of most concern.  I figured that if we could make 5 knots per hour in

speed, that would put us in the open waters for about 2 hours.  Also, we would be traveling fairly close to shore where the wind has little fetch, that distance over which wind travels building waves.  Now down here, fairly close is sometimes over 2 miles because of shallow water.  And some sizable waves can build in 2 miles of fetch.

After a breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, we cast off our lines and headed the 5 miles out the Everglade City Channel to the Gulf.  The channel was quite smooth being narrow and passing through the mangroves of the Everglades.  Once out in

A long line waiting for dinner at the Dock Restaurant

the open waters, the wind was blowing at 15 to 16 knots off of our starboard rear quarter.  The waves were coming at us from that direction were quite manageable and relatively comfortable.  

After a half an hour or so, I decided to unfurl a small bit of jib to help increase our speed which had been averaging 5 knots.  With the jib about half way out, our speed climbed to over 6 knots.  It was fun and exhilarating and quite do-able.  I then decided to shut off the engine, unfurl the sail all the way. Man, was that fun!  The wind had increased to 18 knots and gusting up to 22 knots.  We were averaging around 6 knots and on one gust, we saw 7.2 knots.  That may not seem fast to those who are used to

A bit of glitz in Old Naples

traveling 75 mph down an expressway, however, on a small bobbing sailboat, we were flying.  That is the fastest I have ever seen the boat go except for once when I was flying down a tidal flood at over 9 knots.

We were able to keep the sails up all the way through the open waters and then through the inland waters to the city harbor of Marco Island.  We were going to stop and get some fuel at a marina in Marco Island but with the very strong winds blowing directly into the marina, I figured that it was a tragedy waiting to happen.

How they grow trees in Naples FL

The passage between Marco Island and downtown Naples was jam packed with boaters most of which were on rental craft available to the spring brake revelers. Those wild ones, combined with the high winds made the last miles of today’s trip quite rocky.  

I had originally planned to drop anchor in the midst of the exclusive subdivision where we stayed on our trip south, but, although I trust my anchor at high level, I didn’t want to test it in the confines of these mansions in this wind.  So, I called the Naples City Marina and this really nice accommodating lady assured me that they had a slip for us.  Upon arrival, the wind was still

The 7.2 is boat speed in 7 feet of water at mile 493 on this trip.

blowing at 20 knots and getting into the slip was a challenge. Luckily, a young dock hand was there to lend a hand and prevented my ugly landing from being a disaster.

There are still remnants of the hurricane

This marina is absolutely brand new!  It is the nicest one we have stayed at.  Everything is new.  Interestingly, however, since it is a public city dock there are no restrictions on people coming out and milling

around the boats.  That went on until after we went to be.  

We ate dinner at the Dock Restaurant which is located, as you might imagine, at the end of the walkway leading to the marina. After dinner we walked into downtown Old Naples where the glitz of this city is most obvious.  One thing that amazed us was that while we walked the ¾ mile trek to town and back we watched at least 15 executive type jets coming in on final approach to the local airport.  We couldn’t help wonder who these people are and if they were coming in from the office.