TAVANIER KEY TO MARATHON TO FT. MYERS BEACH

What a great day sailing down from Tavanier to Marathon.  It was so so nice to be out in the Atlantic again. The water is so beautiful.  The man-o-wars were out, a bunch sailing on the surface.  Our children have our old 22 foot sailboat that bears the name "Physalia", which is Latin for Portugese Man of War, and has an awesome decal on its stern, looking very similar to this first picture, thanks to our late son in law Jeff

A different Physalia

Islamorada

Thought from a distance it was a rock, but it is a house! Out in the Atlantic! 

Can't believe I caught him in a jump!

Here's a few pretty pictures from the anchorage in Marathon

"All our flags are flying"

We got a little antsy in Marathon, did some work on the boat, took a dinghy ride into the mooring field to top off our fuel jugs and motored around, looking at boats.  Since we didn’t want to go to shore and walk the town, we ran out of things to do. So, when that happens, we weigh anchor and set off for someplace new!  We slipped under the 7 mile bridge.

  

The wind was non-existent, so we motored up the gulf to Little Shark River, back to the Everglades. 9 hours of motoring and we only burned 7 gallons of fuel!  The gulf was a beautiful emerald green color, as beautiful as the Atlantic, but a different color. Ed had to look in through the binoculars at one point, he saw what looked like land, but it couldn’t be!  Upon further investigation, it was a large gathering of duck-birds or cormorants, just sitting on the water and flying back and forth.  We’ve never seen anything like it! 

 Motored up the river and enjoyed the seclusion of the Everglades.  I fished for a little while, while watching the large sea turtles pop up and down around us.  They seemed very curious.  I finally grabbed the camera to take a picture of one of them.

Little Shark River 

Curious sea turtle

As we turned in for the night, the breeze picked up from the southwest, the breeze and the strong current opposed each other and kept us rocking.

By morning the breeze died down to nothing and the mosquitoes and no-see-ums came to feed (on us!) We decided it was time to move on.

We were able to utilize a light southwest breeze and motor sail up the coast to the Ten Thousand Islands.  We spotted on Active Captain a nice looking anchorage off Camp Lulu Key and chose to anchor there.  It was a beautiful spot, with uninhabited islands and a few white sandy beaches here and there.  Spent a real rock and rolling night, again with the wind and the current opposing each other.  But there was enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away.  We explored in Lil’Bit for the afternoon.  We didn’t spot any alligators, but I’m sure they were there.  We walked a beach and shelled.  LOTS of shells, mostly oyster shells. The mangroves were really cool to walk around. 

Anchorage in Camp Lulu Key

Through the porthole

A mangrove island

Oyster shells atop mangrove roots!

Lots of shells, mostly oysters on Tiger Key

Walking the mangroves, Tiger Key

Secluded beach

Peli!!

Where the sky meets the horizon?

We got up the next day, weighed anchor at 0730 for a long run up to Fort Myers Beach.  We motor sailed and Ed had a chance to pull out the drifter sail, as the wind was light out of the west and northwest.  We were just barely on the edge to be able to use it.  Ed put out the trolling lines with bright yellow and green jigs.  In about 26 ft of water we started getting hits on the lines and started bringing in Spanish Mackerels!  We kept hitting schools and catching!  We had a great time, Ed filetted them on the stern deck, I brought them down to the galley, washed them down and bagged them up.  Then we caught a large King Mackerel, about 8 pounder!!! Yummy!! After one more Spanish Mackerel caught, we had to stop fishing!! No more room in the freezer!  Sweet!

The Drifter sail!

King Mackerel

Spanish Mackerel

Our bounty for the day!  

Arrived just before sunset at the Ft. Myers Beach Mooring field and secured a ball for a couple of nights.  It will be nice to have a restful sleep on the ball instead of worrying about the anchor and rocking and rolling all night long.  We’ll hang out here for a couple of days and then perhaps anchor off Sanibel Island tomorrow, walk the beach and shell.  Our next destination will be back at Pelican Bay by Cayo Costa State Park again.  It was so nice on our way down, we want to enjoy it for a couple of days again, this time in warmer weather!!

Coming around the point at Ft. Myers Beach, Matanzas Pass

THE FUN AT GILBERT'S TIKI BAR

I thought I would just post several pictures I took while we stayed at Gilbert's, on the mooring ball. We had a great 6 weeks, watching all the activity every weekend!

POWER BOAT WEEKEND

THIS BOAT HAD JET ENGINES!

POWER BOATS GALORE 

BOYS AND THEIR TOYS!

CREATIVE PAIN JOB!

CHINESE JUNK

THE BOAT NEXT TO US, NEVER SAW THE OWNER!

AGAIN, BOYS AND THEIR TOYS!

SAILING MANATEE

Hello Everyone!  Thanks for finding us on the new blog.  Our Shamrock Adventures have ended, but adventures await her new owner, who is currently cruising up the ICW to the Chesepeake Bay!  

As most of you know (how could you miss it?) we have found our dream boat, just a bit bigger and sturdier than Shamrock.  Manatee is a 35 ft. Fantasia, full keel, double ended blue water boat that was designed wonderfully down below.  

New lettering (after re-naming her back to Manatee)

Down below, looking forward

Looking up into cockpit

The doorway to Captain Ed's workroom!

Glad we got the dodger installed!

We blew our whole cruising season “plan” right out of the water.  With the repairs on Shamrock and then the new plan of searching for a bigger boat while in the Keys, we haven’t done much cruising and relaxing like we thought we would.

We have completed the sale and purchase of boats, got Manatee up to the trip and have finally re-started our cruising life.  We are now heading back up the west coast to our new home in Panama City. (St. Andrews Marina). 

We had a great time hanging out in Key Largo tho. Thanks to Ed’s sister and brother in law, we had access to a vehicle, and a mooring ball, and got to listen to live music almost every night of the week, from the cockpit of the boat.

We headed out off the mooring ball on my birthday, March 13.  It took some time untangling the lines that were attached to the ball and to the boat.  Captain Ed had to go in and untangle the mess! 

Jewfish Creek, leaving Gilbert's Resort

We sailed north and east to Angelfish Creek.  I enjoyed a relaxing evening and a beautiful 

sunset.  

Thank you Charlotte, for the cutest pic!

The following day we went through Angelfish Creek and out to the Atlantic into the Hawk Channel to head south.  We had a nice sail on an East wind for most of the day.  Anchored behind Tavanier Key for the night, and left at sunrise on Sunday, for Marathon.  We will probably hang out at the anchorage there until Tuesday morning.  A north fluky wind is forecast until then, so we will just enjoy the keys for a couple of days before heading north and west towards Shark River in the Everglades.