We spent two nights, Feb 1st and 2nd,  anchored just off the private island of Useppa and a short dinghy ride to Cabbage Key.  Both Islands are only accessible by boat.  After several phone calls we received the required permission and registration to enter the upscale Useppa Island to go to a museum.  It was a great audio guided tour of island history since the ice age.  There is a staggering amount of crazy information including how Useppa played a big part in the Bay of the Pigs.  The original Calusa Indians, known as the shell Indians, lived peacefully on these islands until a variety of cultures came and screwed it up for them.  They buried their dead under huge shell mounds and these are still visible today on several islands.  The Island got its name from a Spanish Princess that was captured and held hostage by a pirate who didn’t take kindly to her rejection of his affections.  Of course my imagination goes to Johnny Depp and Captain Jack Sparrow and I don’t feel at all sorry for her being held on a beautiful island occasionally bothered by a handsome pirate.

There is over $50,000 worth of dollar bills on the walls in this Cabbage Key restaurant.

Our favorite part of this anchorage was gained from the ever important local knowledge of bartenders.  Drinking has a wide variety of advantages.   We took our dinghy several miles through and around mangroves to the elusive “tunnel of love.”  There is a narrow tunnel in a mangrove just wide enough for the dinghy and partly too shallow for even that.  We would walk and drag the dinghy at those points.  After many twists and turns we ended up on a long, beautiful and natural beach on the gulf.  We saw all kinds of birds and fish along the way, but no alligators.  This type of exploring is called gunkholing.

Osprey

We met a great couple, Tom and Jennifer, anchored next to us from Red Lodge, Montana.  Red Lodge is one of our favorite motorcycling and camping stops so we know the town well.  They, too, were pretty new at sailing and cruising and we had fun sharing woopsie stories over a few cocktails.  We headed off in different directions but hope to run into them again.

After navigating the very shallow and narrow passage referred to as the Miserable Mile, we are anchored in front of Chino Island, a small uninhabited island within view of Sanibel.  It is a mangrove filled with a wide variety of  birds.  We are very close to a great bird and wildlife sanctuary, Ding Darling, and these sanctuary suburbs are splendid.  I was helming while we anchored and as I was supposed to be paying attention an osprey flew by not 10 yards from the boat with a big fat fish.  And eagle came out of nowhere and attacked the osprey who dropped his catch.  The eagle swooped down and scooped up the fish and flew off with the osprey in hot pursuit.  Welcome to Chino!

We anchored on January 30th and enjoyed the solitude so much that we decided to spend all of the 31st in her hushed waters with the occasional company of a passing fisherman.  John tossed a line but only caught a hope.  Since he lacked a bobber he used a wine cork.  I fished for him while he showered and managed to foul up his line in a dramatically short period of time.  It has been cold, a breezy 60’s during the day and 45 degrees at night.  We have no heater on the boat but red wine and multiple layers work well.  The bugs are few, the sunsets are spectacular and the solitude is exactly what we had in mind. The waters here are skinny, very shallow.  Our options are far more limited than I had hoped because of the depth of our keel.   I wanted to check out the Ding Darling wildlife sanctuary and the artist colony at Matchala but they are surrounded by a lot of threatening sand.  Today we think will head to anchor off of Useppa and check out Cabbage Key.

We hunkered down on a mooring in Fort Meyers Beach until Jan 30th to let some foul weather roll through and to shake out some continued problems with Sea Alice (what we affectionately call our dingy).  We enjoyed checking out the beach and the colorful people that visit and live there.  We heard some great blues at a beach side pub and had a memorable meal at S.O.B’s.

What we will probably remember the most about Fort Meyers Beach is an argument between a couple on the sailboat next us.   The woman was standing in her dinghy pulled up next to their boat ripping him a fresh new one.  He was calmly sitting there taking it whilst feeding the seagulls scrap bread.  The gulls were working themselves into a similar squealing frenzy.  The more she yelled the closer to her the man would toss the bread until he was tossing it over her head and she was screeching exactly like the gulls swooping around her.  I wondered if perhaps she would turn into a seagull and fly away leaving a little something on his head.  Maybe this is how seagulls were created.  I will be far more careful the next time I yell at John as I do not think I’d like being a gull.  Maybe if I’m peaceful and playful enough I will learn the dolphin’s creation story and join them.

We left the mooring Monday morning, dieseled up and headed to the inner coastal.  We rolled passed shrimping boats on the way out.  We met a man from the shrimping business the night before.  He told us that generally 3 crew members go out on a shrimping boat for about 3 weeks.  They work sun down to sun up casting and dragging enormous nets almost a third of a mile long 90 feet deep into the gulf.  They haul in the shrimp, hand sort them according to size and immediately freeze them in salted brine and in nets not unlike onion sacks.  This man’s business was picking up the shrimp when the boats come in and having the shrimp transported to a wholesaler in St Petersburg and other locations.

One observation John had about Fort Myers Beach Marina and parts of Florida in general is that now he knows where the Apple River deposits it’s float-sum into the Gulf of Mexico.  Apparently people who don’t work like it where its warm!  Also, one cool thing about Florida is that all the music is from our era.

And we’re off on the slowest race in the universe to nowhere.

Echoes purrs like a kitten after having all of her insides tended to and her surfaces massaged and waxed.  We pulled out of Marco Thursday morning, January 26th, waving to my  parents in their condo.

My parent’s condo is just off of John’s left shoulder.

We mostly motored due to the nonexistent wind and point of sail we were on.  We’re not complaining as the weather was beautiful.  Here we are going by Naples.

We did throw out the jib for a while to sail.

We are currently moored at Fort Meyers Beach.  We spent the evening on the boat and plan to go inland today.  From here  we will venture out to Pine Island Sound and Boca Grande.

The Grill Master spent half of a year researching the perfect grill and mount complete with custom wood chip smoker.  His efforts paid off with two awesome tenderloins to kick this adventure off right.