MIDORI ADVENTURES

We’ve spent the past two days in Fort Myers Beach. Although we have some favourite things here, there seems to be more unfavourite things, like a crummy dinghy dock (too small with lots of current), too many people (it’s a beach destination). We’ve been to the Beached Whale for our happy hour mussels and we’ve walked the beach , as well as crab rangoon and hellfire fries with a Radler beer at Brewsters.

We’ve been looking at the weather and it looks like we may have our three day window to Marathon. Light winds out of the NE. It may be a week or so before we see favourable winds again. Tomorrow is U.S. Thanksgiving. A big holiday down here. We decide that we would rather be in Marathon, than stuck in Fort Myers Beach!

We depart at 6:00 a.m. just before sunrise and I use a flashlight to spot the marks on our way out of the Matanzas Pass. It is a very pleasant, sunny day as we sail down the west coast past Fort Myers Beach and Naples. We reach the entrance to Big Marco Pass at around 11:38 a.m. We prefer to travel the “inside route” through the Big Marco River down to the Ten Thousand Islands as opposed to the “outside route” around the Romano Shoals because it cuts down a few hours. We are able to do this because of our 39 inch draft and 50 foot mast that can go under the two 55 foot fixed bridges. Sunset is at 5:30, so we need as much daylight as possible. We do not like to do overnight passages in this area due to the thousands of crab pots.

When we enter Big Marco Pass we both suffer on and off from a scratchy throat and a dry cough. Red Tide?

The trip through the Big Marco River is pleasant, but several marks are missing. Thankfully, we are able to follow our previous tracks on the chart plotter.

It takes about 2 hours for us to travel though the river, past the fishing village of Goodland and out the other end at Coon Key Pass.

Another pleasant day with sunshine and moderate temperatures. Light winds. We only see two sailboats out here today along the Everglades coast. One sailing in the distance and one at anchor. However, a group of about ten dolphins come out to play with MIDORI’s wake. They play around us for a long time. What a thrill! I think this is the first time we have seen so many in this area.

We continue for another 4 hours until sunset and drop our anchor just past Pavillion Key.

We have travelled 55.8 miles and it has taken us 11 hours, 19 minutes.

Stay tuned,

First Mate Lynn and Captain Brian