(At anchor—Otter Key)
The anchorage at Otter Key has become one of our favorites—a close second to Cape Haze. With very good protection from most directions, and with beautiful homes to the west and mangroves to the east, what more can you ask for. The only problem is that it’s 10 hours from Burnt Store, while Cape Haze is only three hours.
We left Otter Key at 8:00 am Saturday and had a beautiful run until Venice (three hours). There, we picked up a 1-knot current and lots of small boat traffic. You have to transit three bridges through Venice and with the current pushing the boat to the bridge, waiting for an opening, and dealing with small power boats buzzing around you, it is a bit taxing. The rest of the transit was fine until the Englewood/Stump Pass area. For an hour we had to again deal with not only small boat traffic (sober?) but also larger boats throwing out large wakes, which are hard on a sailboat.
We finally arrived at Cape Haze around 3:00 pm. As we pulled in, a marine law enforcement boat had pulled over a flats fishing boat and was searching it. After letting it go on its way, the officers started stopping other boats on the ICW, presumably checking on alcohol or safety issues.
We have travelled this route many times, even over weekends. Never have we had to deal with such boat traffic. Apparently, the economy has fully recovered in southwest Florida. One thing for sure, we will avoid weekends on the ICW in the future.