Little Shark River to Everglades City

Day 22: March 26, 2018
Follow our progress using this link: Steve's Spot

Our anchorage last night was wonderful.  When we dropped the anchor, I noticed that there was a lot of tidal current, but the boat didn’t rock, sway or bounce all night.  We both slept well.  Pancakes were the breakfast of choice this morning and we were underway soon after the sky began to brighten.

Our beautiful anchorage

We had no idea what the winds would be like. We had no cell service and our wind app is dependent on being in touch with a tower.  I had seen the long range forecast and it appeared to be calling for fairly light winds today but significant winds tomorrow.  We bantered about what we should do.  We could easily make it to Everglades City where we could tie up to a wall or we could go about 10 miles farther and get into the10,000 islands area where we could drop an anchor. If we had to wait out high winds we would be better off in Everglades City.  We delayed our decision until we got out into the open waters and checked out the current conditions.

As we were pulling into our anchorage, I noticed that there was a wide opening out of the Everglades and into the open waters of the Gulf.  This opening is where the Shark River empties.  We had come about 2 miles up the Little Shark River and it appears that if we could get out of the Shark opening, it would save us probably 5 miles of travel.  The catch is that the opening is a maze of shallow water and channels.  We were leaving at high tide ,so I decided to thread our way out the short cut.  It was a good decision.  We had no problem with depths thought out the whole passage. 

The winds were coming from the northeast at about 10 knots which made for a

The sun appears over the Everglades

light chop that we were heading into but it was not uncomfortable.  As the day moved on, the winds diminished to around 5 knots and relatively smooth waters.

Our course carried up past miles of white sandy beaches that line the many islands of the Everglades.  We were never in more than 9 feet of water although at times we were probably 3 miles off shore.

An American Oystercatcher

After lunch, Janine took over the watch and I crawled onto the v-berth for a cat nap.  I had just fallen asleep when she awakened me telling me that some men wanted to talk with me.  I asked if they were on the radio and she said no.  I got out into the cockpit to find a fishing boat about 10 feet off our starboard side.  They were having engine trouble and wondered if we knew of a marina.  The only one I knew was at Everglades City and their 600 hp. engines slowly took them away.

We threaded our way the 5 miles back into the Everglades to the Rod and Gun

Add caption

club and the mooring wall.  It is a beat-up dock; however, it is secure and well protected from the weather.

We paid our mooring fee and met with the guys whose boat was having engine trouble.  They had a mechanic coming from Marco Island but he was delayed because the

2005, Hurricane Wilma nearly destroyed this historic city hall

highway from there was closed due to dense smoke from fires that are currently plaguing the area.  We also had a long conversation with the skipper of the trawler, Summer Breeze.  These were the folks that we had talked to on the radio earlier when we were entering the Little Shark River on our way south.

We treated ourselves to hors d’oeuvres of sardines in mustard sauce on crackers washed down with a Yuengling and Heineken. We decided that the grouper roxey that they served at the Gun Club was excellent so we both ordered it again.  As before, it was quite good. 

Old Bank now a private residence

We have used most of our crackers so we wandered to the only store in town and I as amazed how few items they had on the shelves.  However, they did have crackers so we set for another round of appetizers.

We read for a while and made it into bed by 9:00.