Fort Myers Beach to Marco Island
05 April 2014 | At anchor in Factory Bay, Marco Island
John/hot but cool breeze off water
We slipped the Matanzas Inn mooring ball at 9am to head 33 nm over to Marco Island. The morning winds were very light, less than 4 kt, forcing us to motor for the first four hours. Around 12:45, the winds crept up to about 8 kt, which was just enough for us to sail the rest of the way to Marco Island (sometimes making only 3 kt). The anchor went down in Marco Island's Factory Bay at 5:15pm.
The weather forecast is forcing us to make a change to our next stop. From Marco, we would normally make a short passage to the Indian River anchorage, and the next day, another short hop to the Little Shark River anchorage. That would have us crossing Florida Bay to Marathon on Tuesday. Florida Bay, however, is forecast to be "rough" Tuesday afternoon due to west winds in the 15-20 kt range. So, we are going to skip Indian River and sail direct tomorrow to the Little Shark which will allow us to cross Florida Bay on Monday.
So tomorrow, we'll be getting up early to make the 50 nm run over to the Little Shark River. The first part will be quite picturesque. We'll be motoring down the Big Marco River which has a nice combination of wild landscape and river side homes. Unlike today, maybe we'll even find something to take a picture of.
The Little Shark River has not had cell coverage in the past so don't expect to hear from us until we reach Marathon Monday evening or Tuesday.