LOOP Report 02/28/2005

Fort Myers Beach, Florida

Monday, Feb. 28, 2005

What a special past month,…….every day a new adventure and surrounded by sunlight and beauty.

Marnie, David and Shiloh were reluctant to leave on the big bird yesterday and we were sad to see them leave, we had such a good time experiencing the true old southern gulf side of Florida.

We managed to get down to Bahia Honda Key and anchored off the park beach. A short cruise down the gulf side and under a bridge with mast down got us in a good spot and neat park with a great swimming beach. The dog got her shore leave finally.

We went on to do our snorkelling on Looe Key which was a one hour ride out to the reef off Hawk Channel. Sat on a bouy provided by the state and saw a beautiful selection of eye popping, colourfull, fish and coral including big barracuda watching from the sidelines. After a couple hours here then back to Bahia Honda Park. Next morning to the Everglades cruising over two feet of crystal clear water under our keel across Florida Bay to Cape Sable…..

The Everglades including the Town of Flamingo ( nothing much there, except a couple of American crocodiles by the bridge ) and Everglades City tell many strange stories and it was a wilderness place. In between we anchored again on the way back in Little Shark River. To have been part of this region as a local fisherman or explorer would have twisted peoples character . Imagine alligators and mosquitoes of the same size living with you in tangled mangroves and other not so nice things, yet people kept coming back to the glades. We saw such a place called Chokoloskee and a old museum store called Smallwoods and it’s history standing still. You can imagine every bandit, small time crooks and big killers all hiding out here in the early 1900’s. when the law went in to arrest them they never came back out, so they say. They ran everything from shrimp, mullet and dope out of there including good old moonshine. They tell tall tales here. ( reading book by Toch Brown “A life in the Everglades”).

We had dinner at the Rod and Gun Club at Everglade City, cash only here, but dinner was terrific especially the Grouper “Roxie”. This old place is as it was early 1900’s. A good place to hang out one night.



We left there in a high tide next morning and still were showing 1’ under the keel, … this entire coast is a shoal with cuts dredged out to 7 or 8 feet. Thank goodness we have a keel lower than our props. Also we keep relying on our Garmin depth sounder, this is a great technology.

A good easy cruise up inside Marcoe Island passing by the town of Goodland and Naples to Gordon Pass and into the Gulf to find our way to Ft. Myers Beach.

Stayed at Salty Sam’s and they put us on a terrible high commercial dock next to a large cruise cat ship that takes you to Key West in a big hurry. They didn’t leave soon enough for us. Took off next day to North Captiva and very low water but anchored well in 5 feet of water. Cayo Costa state park was our next stop. The beach was littered with dead fish which was from a red tide week before. This Park was hit hard by the Hurricanes so there is a large cleanup going on. On a trail back saw land Tortoise and a very black wild pig apparently left behind by Spaniards many years ago. Park officer suggested if you could catch one you could take him home. A wild place to hang out now.

We all came back to Ft. Myers Beach and put up at Moss Marina and did a little clean up and rented a car from Hertz to use as transport to Tampa Airport ( the dog looked like, “can’t I stay here” ) and Pat and I then went back to our “Chinook” after to seeing them off to Vancouver..

Arriving in good time next day were good friends Martin and Judy. I had taken the car back and now was riding the free trolley back to greet them. They had arrived with Judy’s sister and brother-in-law from England on a visit to relatives in Naples. After messing up ( miss-judged the current and rubbed the boat along some pilings, so learned another valuable lesson about tides and currents … pre-plan your escape route ) on leaving the dock in heavy currents we all went for a ride out to Sanibel Island and walked over to see the big beach. Then back for 6:00 so sister Joan and husband Jerry could beat the setting sun on a ride back to their vacation pad.

Sunday showed up with high winds and possible tornados so guess what….. we stayed another day and drove to Pine Island to check out village of Malalaca and to drop into a Diary Queen for a dipped cone. On way back we picked up a few fresh stone crab claws and large shrimps and demolished them very quickly back on the boat while watching the Oscars.

We must leave A.M. today, provided the winds drop, and show the gang some more of this great coast and get back on anchor at Boca Grande for a little R and R. Will also meet other friends for lunch there, Paul and Linda, who are visiting nearby. Wednesday will see us back at Moss Marina. The Leaver’s are nearby and will join for some cruising fun soon also.

Loopers and visiting friends…..Ted, Pat,……. Judy and Martin.