Skip to main content

Day 2 and Day 3

 We left Lido Key and headed south in the Intracoastal Waterway through the towns of Sarasota, Venice and Englewood.  The bays-Little Sarasota, Blackburn and Lemon that separate the mainland from the barrier islands are our favorite cruising grounds.  In each bay, we were accompanied by dolphin running with us in our bow.  Never get tired of watching the dolphin’s antics!  





Blackburn Point bridge is the last swing bridge left on the west coast of Florida. A piece of history!



We continued into Gasparilla Sound behind Little Gasparilla and Gasparilla Island- lots of fancy vacation homes and an old fishing lodge which is a must see on the island.

Part of the old railroad bridge across the intracoastal to the island.  Been in disuse for years.


Crossing Boca Grande channel in the afternoon we headed into Pelican Bay by Cayo Costa Island to anchor for the night.  Cayo Costa is a state park accessible only by boat which has great beaches, hiking trails, some primitive camping sites and great shelling. 

As we entered the bay we found an anchoring spot among the other 20 or so boats already anchored.  Two of the boats were Grand Banks.  Was quite a coincidence to have three Grand Banks all lined up together in the anchorage!  






PS   Bill is still stowing his stuff away!  And he is still learning all the ins and outs of the new navigation systems.


Sunset at Cayo Costa Pelican Bay.  Ending our day having traveled 43.5 nm.


Day 3  April 4 


Just when you thought Bill had everything stowed!  Oh well, maybe tomorrow.




We headed out of Pelican Bay and Cayo Costa island to continue our trip south in Pine Island Sound, past the islands of Captiva, Cabbage Key, Useppa, and Sanibel Islands.  This area of West Florida has lots of resorts and vacation homes and great restaurants.




As we turned east, the FL west coast Intracoastal waterway ends and boaters must go into the Gulf of Mexico to go south or, if going east, enter the Caloosahatchee River which leads to the Okeechobee Waterway that cuts through Florida to the east coast.





We took the Caloosahatchee River route and found a protected anchorage in Glover Bight  -near Cape Coral on the north side of the river across from Ft Myers, ending our day having traveled 24.3 nm.






Popular posts from this blog

June 4-5. Day 63-64. On to Cape May New Jersey. 53.4nm. Total 1534 miles.

 Left Delaware City at 5:35am to be able to take advantage of the strong currents going with us while traversing Delaware River and Delaware Bay. The Delaware River goes south about 15 miles and flows into the Delaware Bay. As we travel south, New Jersey is to the east and Delaware is to our west. We are traveling just outside the shipping channel and are really moving at 10.9 knots.  That is three knots faster than we normally travel, as the outgoing tides are pushing us along.  Nice to have Mother Nature helps us save on fuel.  The Delaware River is about 8 miles wide so there is plenty of room for the freighters and the pleasure boats.  So far, we have not encountered any commercial traffic, but there is a large freighter behind us that will eventually pass us as they travel at 14 knots. The Delaware Bay proper varies from 23-29 miles wide and 26 miles long.  There are five lighthouses on the Delaware marking the shipping channel.  We went by Ship J...
Read more

Reflections on the Bahamas

Reflections on the Bahamas Over the past 10 weeks, we have traveled through Abaco,  Eleuthera and Exuma Islands and enjoyed the hospitality of the Bahamian people.  We have learned all about the islands, its unique geography - limestone, caves, blue holes and chalk cliffs; and colorful history-pirates and rum running, salt ponds and cotton plantations, boat building and wrecking/salvage.  Traveling over 1300 miles through narrow cuts and wide bays to vast depths of ocean, we negotiated the islands and found safe harbors, calm coves for anchoring, bays filled with moorings and marinas large and small.  This trip required us to pay close attention to the weather, the tides and currents as we traveled between and through the islands. The Bahamian people are warm and friendly, willing to give us rides, advice and directions, as well as some secret recipes!!  We enjoyed hiking trails, walking the beaches, snorkeling the coral rocks and reefs, discovering ruins and ol...
Read more

Day 64-65. May 25-26. On to Peck Lake, Jupiter, FL and then on to Indiantown/ Okeechobee Waterway. Miles 63.5/ 29.1 Total Miles 1122.1/1142.0

  Day 64 We started early to get ahead of the holiday boat traffic. Weighing anchor at Lake Sylvia in Fort Lauderdale, we traveled on the Intracoastal Waterway past the iconic Pier 66 Tower and Bahia Mar Marina.  We then turned north and passed the older sections of the city - Las Olas( older homes), Galt Ocean Mile (one mile of condominiums on the beach), and the famous miles of beaches on the Atlantic.  I used to live here in the early 70's and the biggest change I see is the older smaller homes on the water are being replaced with larger versions and a few more condo towers have been built. As we go further north towards Commercial Blvd, North Fort Lauderdale, and Pompano Beach and its Lighthouse at the cut, there is less reconstruction. The next town we traveled through was Boca Raton with its Spanish architecture, Camino Real and its  landmark tower. The sand bar at the cut was just beginning to fill up  with Memorial Day revelers as we went by. Next were t...
Read more