No Name Harbor to Ft. Myers
03 February 2013
We left Miami to No Name Harbor on 24 January. This was a beautiful, sunny, warm day!!! Great for sailing!!!! We stopped at Crompton Marina for fuel and water. We anchored outside of No Name Harbor. It was a calm night--early sleep as tomorrow we will get up early and head out for Rodriquez Cay.
We had an early start. It was a little rough at first but then smoothed out like the day before. We had a great sail. We anchored on the south eastern side of the island. We had a little problem with our water pump. Somehow it kept running and the bilge was dry. So we turned it off and then back on--and it was OK. Early dinner and early bed so we can be on way to Marathon.
This was Saturday, 26 January, we left early of coarse. It was a great day for a sail. I was taking a nap and Tom was fishing while sailing. Guess what he caught a 19" Spanish Mackerel. He left it on the fishing pole--so it would die and not cause a mess on our cockpit floor. Well as he was adjusting the sail--the fish jumped off the fishing hook and back into the water for safety. That was when I woke up. He did not catch any more the rest of the way. We were busy dodging lobster pots the rest of the trip. We checked the weather to see if we could anchor outside of Marathon to save time and money the next morning. We were lucky--it was calm. We anchored and was about to eat dinner when Lee on Sporting Lee arrived and anchored. He was having an alternator problem--he thought it had bit the dust and it did but he was ok until he got to Ft. Myers.
The next morning Sporting Lee and Our Freedom left for Little Shark River which is the beginning of the Everglades National Park. Another great day for a sail!!!! We anchored in the middle of the river and had a good night sleep.
The next day we were all heading for Marco Island. Another great day to sail--a little overcastted but warm and not too many lobster pots to dodge. When we were getting near Marco Lee told us he planned on leaving the break of dawn for Ft. Myers. We wanted to stay a few days as this is a great anchorage on Smokehouse Bay. We toured our favorite places for a couple of days. We went to the Farmers Market--there Tom held a baby alligator and I found a nest where a burrowing owl couple were courting. We were planning to stay another day or two. Tom told on the morning of the 2nd of February, if we didn't leave today--we would be stucked for a week. Since we still wanted to see more of the west coast, we decided to leave.
Off to Ft. Myers at 8:00 am--not 7:00. The water was a little rough not bad and overcastted. It started to smooth out closer to Ft. Myers. When we arrived we saw Charlie and Cathy's boat My Time Too and Sporting Lee. We got a mooring ball in the second mooring field. We went for a shower and register for the mooring. On the way back, we stopped at Charlie and Cathy's boat. He asked why we did not take two moorings in that field. One was due to the barge and the other was still occupied. So we went back to our boat, started the engine, and moved to the closer mooring ball. I can't believe it we were able to catch the mooring ball the first try--thank God.
The next morning, we met Charlie and Cathy on shore and made arrangements to go to Heavenly Biscuit for lunch. They had to go back to their boat to drop off laundry. So Tom and I took a walk. They called us when they were ready--we told them we were sitting on a park bench across from Hooters. We waited for them there. We had a great sandwich. We all walked back to the dinghy dock. We checked out bars for the Super Bowl game. We ended up having Super Bowl Happy Hour on our boat. All the places were so noisy.
Before we left Ft. Myers, Helen and John Deresky (Lara's parents) came by to go sailing. We did some fishing, also--we did not catch anything. We then went out for dinner. We had a grand time!