To start the month of March, we had the great joy of having our friends Dick and Susi from Columbus, join us for a week of sailing and exploring. Our adventures began in Burnt Store on Charlotte Bay and took us to Pelican Bay next to Coya Costa, then down to Fort Myers and back up to Burnt Store. It was a great mix of lounging around at a nice marina with a very nice pool, to anchoring out and taking the dinghy in to explore the gulf beaches in a beautiful state park, to hanging out on a mooring ball in Matanzas Pass and celebrating Dick’s 69th birthday. Plus the weather was beautiful.
After getting settled in at Burnt Store for a couple of days, the four of us headed south through Charlotte Harbor to Pelican Bay. Charlotte Harbor is quite large and the water depths are sufficient enough that you can sail all over the place regardless of the direction of the wind. After a 2 hour motor – unfortunately there was no wind – we arrived at the entrance to Pelican Bay. This is an amazing place, well protected from winds in most directions, and very tricky to get into. The local knowledge we got instructed us "to enter the bay from navigational aide “Red 74” and steer a direct course to the “No Wake” sign. About ½ boat length from the sign, turn sharply to port and steer a course towards the State Park docks keeping the shore about 50 to 75 feet to starboard. The shore is a sandbar and it looks like you will run aground but you won’t. As you approach to park docks, steer more to port and find a place to anchor in about 6 to 10 feet of water". YIKES!! After we stopped hyperventilating and got settled in the scenery was wonderful, quiet and relaxing. We took the dinghy ashore and for two dollars we rode the tram across the island to the Gulf-side beach. That was awesome.
The next day we decided to take the Intracoastal Waterway to Fort Myers and pick up a mooring ball in Matanzas Pass. This area is very interesting. Although we were on a ball that was about half a mile from the public dinghy dock, the Pass is very well protected and we stayed dry mostly. Besides, the outboard motor did all the work. It wasn’t like we were rowing. From the dinghy dock, we were only a couple of blocks to the beach. Fort Myers Beach has the finest sand anywhere I’ve been. We went to Nervous Nellie’s Restaurant to celebrate Dick’s 69th and overall had a walloping good time.
On our return trip to Burnt Store Marina we finally got to sail, at least for a little while. We went out into the Gulf, got the sails up and enjoyed a quiet, engineless mosey up the coast. On the way we saw plenty of dolphins but the real thrill was the gigantic Hammerhead Shark I saw right next to the boat. It was just below the water and very visible. Unfortunately, I was the only one who saw it and everyone said I was lying or hallucinating. Believe me, it was there. We finally got to Burnt Store, got settled in for the last couple of days of Dick and Susi’s visit. They were with us from the 4th to the 11th. The time really flew. We look forward to seeing them back in Columbus this summer. In the meantime, Peg/Marg and I have almost two weeks until our next guests arrive and we plan to do some exploring further north. Stay tuned for our continuing adventures and don’t forget to check out the photo gallery from Dick and Susi’s visit. Some great pix if I do say so myself.