As I recall, when we last visited, we were on the way across Florida, lock by lock, bridge, by bridge. We ended up in Ft Myers, Florida on Sunday, the 21st. The Florida branch of my family, my 
son and his group, showed up to visit for the afternoon; at least until the monster T'storms came crashing thru. They ran for cover & the drive back to Sarasota, Scooter's crew hunkered down to ride out the storm. The visit was wonderful, the lunch fantastic thanks again guys!
son and his group, showed up to visit for the afternoon; at least until the monster T'storms came crashing thru. They ran for cover & the drive back to Sarasota, Scooter's crew hunkered down to ride out the storm. The visit was wonderful, the lunch fantastic thanks again guys!Our next proposed goal was "the keys"; a generic term for the string of islands trailing off to the Southwest from the tip of the US; Marathon, Key West, etc. The issue soon became a question of how bad will the Gulf of Mexico be weatherwise, & is all the hassle involved going to be worth it. It appeared that there might be a weather window today thru Thursday. A ideal window has to have light winds from the N, NE, or E. West &/or NW winds are trouble in a lot of cases. 'Course a lot of the "wisdom" presented regarding the Gulf & its weather seems to be very de
pendent on the "presenter". Today's forecast seemed to indicate that the winds would be out of the N to NW @ 7 to 12 kts, with 2' swells, seas 2' or less almost all day. Riiight! Talk about shaken and stirred! Things were good until noon or so, then went rapidly to pieces. The picture
is taken showing the seas running away from us (that's a laugh) in one of the few moments that the boat was straight & level. Could have been worse. The saving grace is that we were surfing most of the time @ 10 - 12 kts and made pretty good time to Marco Island. There is apparently no really good inside route for a deeper draft boat, so you go on the outside route thru the Gulf. . We blasted thru Capri Pass into the Marco River early afternoon and pulled into Factory Bay to anchor. Pretty posh would be an apt description I think.
pendent on the "presenter". Today's forecast seemed to indicate that the winds would be out of the N to NW @ 7 to 12 kts, with 2' swells, seas 2' or less almost all day. Riiight! Talk about shaken and stirred! Things were good until noon or so, then went rapidly to pieces. The picture
is taken showing the seas running away from us (that's a laugh) in one of the few moments that the boat was straight & level. Could have been worse. The saving grace is that we were surfing most of the time @ 10 - 12 kts and made pretty good time to Marco Island. There is apparently no really good inside route for a deeper draft boat, so you go on the outside route thru the Gulf. . We blasted thru Capri Pass into the Marco River early afternoon and pulled into Factory Bay to anchor. Pretty posh would be an apt description I think. We hope to be able to depart from here tomorrow early tomorrow morning in an attempt to catch the Gulf in a quiet frame of mind. destination is the Little Shark River, located in the Everglades. From there, we will jump off down the coast past Flamingo and across Florida Bay to Marathon & Boot Key. As soon as weather allows, we will then head North up Hawk Channel in the Atlantic Ocean to Miami to get back on the ICW and start our homeward bound odyssey. Have a great week, we'll stay in touch.
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