Sunset in the Everglades!
17 March 2023
Judith Zellmer
We motored across Tampa Bay alongside the Skyway Bridge. It was a pretty awesome view from the water. We saw a flock of kite boarders learning to ride, and one bold fellow jumped over our boat! And our mast is 60 feet high!
Crossing the shipping channel in Tampa Bay was like a squirrel trying to cross the street. One massive oil tanker going one way and one going the other … of course Ron waited until they criss-crossed and then made a run for it.
We stayed in the ICW and planned to exit at Boca Grande because our friends Rick and Cindy in St. James City told us that would be a good exit point, given that boats are still hitting cars in the water south of there. And just like that, we started to see signs of hurricane damage starting at Stump Pass, a place Ron has been before and suddenly did not recognize. One after the other, we saw homes that still had blue tarps on the roofs, blown out windows, docks and lifts destroyed.
Ron timed this trip well. On day two we anchored off Sarasota, and on day three he planned to be in the State Park at Boca Grande. We made both stops in the nick of time, with our weather window closing.
The ICW was beautiful and interesting, with all the massive homes lining the waterway, and interspersed with 'normal sized' homes. It surprised me to see so much natural seawall material ... rocks and mangroves. I had no idea that people manicured and sculpted the red mangroves, and left the black mangroves to grow up through them. They were quite beautiful. On one such strip of mangroves we saw so much wildlife ... loons, flocks of pelicans and flocks of pink flamingoes. Check the photo album section for a video of a flamingo in flight.
Seas were 2-3 feet, wind on the nose. We motored all day.
When we made it to Naples we had planned to try and get a reciprocity slip at the Naples Yacht Club. They didn’t even return my phone call, so we picked up a mooring ball at the Naples City Marina, right in front of what we called Mega Yacht Row at the yacht club. We had the yacht basin all to ourselves, and the water was like glass. We happily grilled hot dogs and watched the hoity toity partying on their multi-million dollar yachts.
Day four was nice sailing all the way to Shark River inlet, Everglades National Park. There was another cat anchored in there so we felt it was a good choice, but at some point I asked Ron if he was more concerned about the crocodiles or the snakes – he said nope, drug smugglers. At some point I thought I saw a big spot light out there, but told myself it was the Coast Guard patrolling. I didn’t sleep well that night, not only because I was waiting to be boarded but because the wind had kicked up and the seas were rolly, but we survived all the perils and got up at sunrise to continue our trip south to Marathon and the crab balls.
And oh the crab balls! It took two of us watching constantly to maneuver through the mine field of lines of crab and lobster balls, and was exhausting.
And finally, land ho! We spotted the Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon, which we passed under to get to Marathon City Marina and the mooring field where we currently are.
This is a beautiful facility (right across US Highway A1A from the Marathon Yacht Club). They provide free bicycles for us to use, basket ball, tennis and pickle ball courts, picnic tables inside and out, free internet – all the amenities including free pump out once a week if we are here that long.
The one thing they don’t have is a map of the mooring ball field that is legible on the internet. I looked diligently because the young girl on the phone could not tell me where ball J-7 was located, even though we were holding right smack in front of it.
Now this marina has two mooring ball fields, containing 230 balls split between two mooring sections, surrounded and intertwined between shoaling. The girl did tell us to be very careful, but since the wind had alredy picked up to 26 knots we really didn't need her to tell us that, just where the darn ball was. T
We cruised around between balls looking for numbers that have long since worn out, and several helpful yachties called to us trying to point the way. As Ron was checking in, he noticed they had pulled all the big bouy markers and were reapplying bigger, legible numbers.
We initially thought we’d be waiting for a weather window on Sunday, but now it appears the next best window will be next Friday. No worries … its calm and peaceful in here, and plenty to see and do while we wait.
Here’s a trivia question for you. We passed under high fixed bridges, two swing bridges (one of which the bridge tender had to run out onto the bridge to open for us), and a third type of bridge – a bascule bridge. Who can tell me how that works?
If you’re enjoying our adventure, Ron says please send money and drop us a note in the comments.
Judy