Gulf offshore islands and Venice
30 March 2016
We pulled out of Pink Shell Resort and into the Gulf Inland Waterway mid morning on Easter Saturday! It was hot and sultry and our route to Sanibel island anchorage near the nature reserve cut through a section called 'Miserable Mile' - narrow channel with very shallow water either side and every imaginable small craft in the area out on the water at speed! However we and another sailboat in front were sticking to our track and let the other boats zoom in and out of the channel.
I had picked up a local newspaper from the marina and read that the record winter rains had filled Lake Okeechobee overful and the run off into the rivers and then into the Gulf of Mexico had made the water brown and murky. We had remarked just how poor the water quality had been from the Keys upwards - we expected to see much bluer water in the Gulf of Mexico.
We anchored in a bay near the J N Ding Darling nature reserve on the bottom end of Sanibel island. The bird life particularly in the late afternoon was fabulous with all sorts of herons and ibises coming through. Next day we took the dinghy into the Tarpon Bay reserve to have a look round and on the way back we encountered some very shallow water between us and Duplicat so I waded across and pulled us into the deeper section. Just ahead of us a manatees snout appeared so we just drifted in the wind towards the area and saw at least three others but one of the big ones must have been startled by us drifting towards the group and came over and rolled and flicked his tail at us putting loads of water in the dinghy - we could just about see him under water coming again so we started the engine and made a hasty retreat.
Next morning we set off in a foggy mist - anchored out off the island of Captiva and Gerry went ashore to get some more petrol for the outboard as we had forgotten when we were in Fort Myers. We carried on and anchored again in the gap between Useppa Island (private with homes and a small marina) and Cabbage Cay which has some of the first holiday cottages for rent and the clubhouse in the area dating back over 60 years. As the afternoon wore on more and more boats appeared in the anchorage which is literally just off the waterway and by the time we dinghied over for our very pleasant dinner there were 11 of us there.
The restaurant is lovely and all the walls and pillars are covered with dollar bills from years gone by - estimate of over 50,000$ stuck, pinned and stapled with signatures and sayings on them.
Next day our epic voyage was 3.5 miles round into the anchorage inside Cayo Costa which is a state park. After lunch on board we took the dinghy in first into a small mangrove cutting opening out into a small bayou and there must have been at least 6 manatees feeding and swimming around inside. Mindful of our last encounter we watched where they were and saw one arch its back and tail - it must have been nearly 10 feet long.
The day had started sunny but the cloud had built up and by the time we walked across to the other side and the Gulf beach we could hear thunder. The walk took about 25 minutes and went through untouched old Florida mangrove, woods and seaside grasses but half way back one of the rangers who shuttled tourists to and fro stopped and offered us a lift.
Good job he did because by the time we got back to the boat the rain had started and the sky over the sea was going very black with odd nearly turquoise coloured clouds underneath the black. Within 15 minutes we had over 50 knots of wind, flying spume, driving rain and monumental flashes of lightening. Gerry turned off all the batteries and we put our electronic gadgets in the oven for protection just in case.
The rain fell in biblical proportions then huge hailstones started to hit the boat. The boats either side of us who were anchored just on rope had their engines on and were motoring upwind to keep the anchor from having too much strain but as we were happy that our anchor had set well we decided just to keep an eye on things.
By early evening calmer conditions had settled in and the temperature had dropped dramatically. The night was cool and with quite a ENE wind blowing we could hear the waves slapping the side of the other hull whilst we were in bed.
With a forecast of ENE winds around 10-15 knots we left the anchorage at 0800 and made out into the Gulf through the Boca Grande Inlet. We had booked a berth 30 miles up the coast at Venice Inlet at the Crows Nest marina and restaurant promising we would be there mid-afternoon.
However we soon realised as we left the anchorage that reefs were needed in both main and jib and we were going to have a very fast sail with an offshore wind of 15-20 plus knots. We arrived at 1230 which made our average speed 8 knots - with maximum speed of 10 knots reached on more than one occasion. Only downside is the amount of crab pots laid not far offshore and of course on our track.
We borrowed a bike from the marina and pulled out one of the folders from the cabin and set off this afternoon for the 2.5 mile cycle to Publix supermarket for what will be one of our last stock ups as our next port of call is the area just south of St Petersburg where we will be hauling and storing the boat.