We sailed through Card Sound, Little Card Sound, Barnes Sound with motoring through each of the channels that connect the bodies of water until we reached Jewfish Creek. My brilliant husband fixed the autopilot last night and it worked great! Unfortunately, the boat gremlins were busy at work too. The BBQ pit just disconnected itself and jumped into the ocean and the water facet came apart in my hand! So we have more repairs to make!

Jewfish Creek winds through mangroves that are wild and beautiful. There are signs saying it’s bordered by a National Crocodile Preserve! I am definitely keeping the dogs close to me while we stay at Gilberts. It’s is just under the bridge from the Crocodiles and when asked the dockmaster, Andy, said, “Yes, there are lots of gators but it’s the crocs you have to watch out for.” He said all summer they watched a twelve footer swim across the channel every night! But on the plus side there is a pod of dolphins that live here and a momma and baby mantee in the marina.
It’s an old Florida resort but really cool with a little 24 room motel, a pool, a private beach and a huge Tiki Bar with nightly live music. There’s a conch republic and pirate flag on the Tiki Bar.
Will and I ate a 2 ½ lbs. of Stone Crabs tonight because the prices are so much better here than in Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. In Ft. Lauderdale, the claws are $10 a piece with a minimum order of 4 or 5. But here a whole pound was $24. So we pigged out. Afterward, I was talking with a local captain at the bar and mentioned how I love stone crab because it’s a sustainable resource. He informed me that it was until the laws were changed a couple years ago. The way that stone crab claws have been traditionally harvested was that the catch the crab, pull off one crab and then put the crab back in the water. That allows the crab to defend itself while the other crab grows back. But the new law allows fisherman to take both claws and toss the crab back into the water. A wounded crab with no claws might as well just be killed on the boat, because it won’t last long. Something will see it’s defenseless and eat in a matter of minutes! Therefore, the Florida stone crab population is being decimated and folks don’t even know!
There was an awesome band called the Luke Summerhand band playing so Will and I drank rum drinks and danced all night! But boy do I miss my dancing friends, Ginny, Cindy, Libby, Victoria….all the ladies that can be counted on to get up and dance when the music is good. No one else in the place ever danced! They just stared at us like we were from a different planet! We were really tired after snorkeling in the morning, fighting the anchors, sailing 14 miles but the rum kicked in and we had a great time anyway!

We are tied up to a seawall and securely protected just in case the winds do get as strong as protected!