We departed Tuesday on a rising tide to open water so we could calibrate Sir Robin’s brain. It took a few circles and zig zags (Garmin calls it the "offshore wizard), but the old boy finally figured out his compass and took over the long trip to Marco Island (at least an hour!). We had skipped Marco Island on the way to Naples because of the weather so we thought we’d check it out on the way back. We had originally planned to anchor in Factory Bay, but other cruisers assured us we could get into Smokehouse Bay, right off The Esplanade and near the town center mall. It was a long and dicey ride into the Bay, but we made it in and set the anchor with time to go exploring.

The local Winn Dixie has a free dinghy dock, and this particular market is quite upscale. We spoke to the Manager who said the "one hour dingy docking" sign was to be ignored and we were welcome to leave it there all day... please shop there!

We took him at his word and left the dinghy to walk around the area, locating the Starbucks (hi speed internet needed), West Marine (always need something there), post office and other places of interest. We literally stumbled on the Marco Players, a community theatre in the Town Center Mall. They were performing Ira Levin’s Deathtrap and we thought it would be fun to go to live theatre again (it’s been a long theatre draught for us). We bought tickets for the next night. We also learned that during the season there is a farmers’ market on Wednesdays so we had our day filled up before it even happened. The weather forecast was for thunderstorms until late in the week so we planned a few-day stay in Marco. There were several other boats in the same situation (awaiting weather windows) so after visiting the farmers’ market and theatre on Wednesday, we invited the other cruisers for happy hour on Thursday. Old Man Weather said “nothing doing” – thunderstorms started at 4 and lasted right through last call. Literally, everyone took rain checks and we turned drinks into a potluck dinner set for the following evening.

We did some boat projects Friday and then prepared for our company. We entertained Carol and Garrett from RAZZMATAZZ, Dave and Susan from FREE AGAIN, Marji and Jeff from FAR NIENTE, Janice and Jim on a Columbia 23 (they did not give us the boat name and we couldn’t read it from our angle) and John and his crew Jeff on SEA ROVER. Evenings like this are why we cruise. There was no lull in conversation for the entire time, and we know we will cross paths with many of these folks again (see above!).

NB: Who took the picture if Scott is in it??? Let's just say Photoshop is your friend!