My best friend, John Brown, and I traveled to Caya to have a "work week". We did manage to get 1/2 the list done and the oil changed but we also had planned to take a few days and use the boat. Our mutual friend, TD, (who is internet phobic and won't let me use his name) who has his much larger boat on the same dock was there for a work week also but the parts he was waiting for got delayed and before we knew it Saturday morning we were leaving the dock. Getting fuel and headed for Cabbage Key.

We anchored in the same area as in November and we had an early dinner and enough drinks at the Cabbage Key Restaurant and fortunately John figured out what happened to the Honda outboard or cleaned the carb or ?? and got it running, although I still have less faith in it than I did before.

Sunday morning post bloody marys brought us back to Cabbage for breakfast, TD's suggestion after I recalled we already had breakfast on the boat. We weighed anchor and had North Captiva as an idea for a day anchorage option.

Motoring to N. Captiva was a bit more daunting because you're really looking more at the plotter and depths and unlike Texas where everything in Galveston bay is 8-10' deep all over, there are places in Florida where it's 8' then 3'.

North Captiva is a gem to go checkout. The entrance is well marked but It didn't appear deep enough for our draft but all power boats didn't seem to have an issue. I wasn't about to try it as the entrance is narrow, winds around the tip of land and it appeared shallow and we were on a lee shore.

Now some people would say, never anchor on a lee shore but there we found a spot in 10-12' of water and a sandy bottom and I was dying to try out the 45# Rocna and the 247' of chain I have (not all of it at once but enough to find out). So we picked this spot outside the channel entrance and it also lined us up with a cleared grass runway that is cut across the island. Nothing like flying yourself to your own house!

We set the anchor with 100' of chain and the Mantus Snubber, had a drink, and it while it was a bit choppy it was not that bad. (note if you are on active capt, I have marked the spot). We jumped it the dingy and headed in. I was 100% convinced that the depth was not what we needed (4-6) while we were headed in. So we get in and it opens into this delightful little bay lagoon surrounded by mangroves and all. TD says see that cut in the mangroves, head for it and it appears to be about 15' wide and not going anywhere but as we get there a 38' offshore center console with 3 motors comes idling out. So once past the mangroves it's a canal with some houses, boat lifts and the North Captiva Island Club Resort, which is private, the but they don't mind you tying up to the dingy dock and hitting the pool bar. However the drinks were resort prices ($8) and doubles were $16! So we left there and went straight across the lagoon to Barnacles where it's all outside under tiki huts and picnic tables and they had an local acoustic guitar guy doing his thing. The food and atmosphere was great.

By the time we got back to the boat, the wind had died down some and the Rocna was doing it's job so we decided to just spend the night. I checked the anchor some during the night and although the wind did pick back up, we never moved.

Monday morning was not as cheery as even Saturday was and I guess two of the island residents had to go to work because two planes took off on the grass strip and went right over the top of us!

We weighed anchor and headed the 4-5 hours back to Legacy Harbor. All in all a great short trip especially for a "work week".