Ft. Myers Beach.

Still hanging on the ball

The bow eye is done. As usual, Mark was right about using ½” line for the snubber. I so want him to be wrong just one time. After I got the 5/8” snubber line attached that I wanted I can see, just by looking, ½” would, will be better.

Thank you Mark.

We have had a nice time, here in Ft. Myers Beach visiting with Steve and Susan, whom we originally met at Grand Mariner on the Dog River in Mobile. They are in the process of starting a charter business that sounds exciting.

We had intended on leaving yesterday morning heading south for the Keys, however, after reviewing the weather window which was rapidly closing, we felt like staying right here until this front passes through and the winds settle a bit and turns more favorable in direction and intensity. We know we could have made it to a well protected anchorage but we like it here and there is no reason to lump it when the seas will be perfectly flat in a day or two. We will have the need at various times in the future to test our mettle against the sea. No sense in going just for the experience.

Joe & Dolly, who we met up the Suwannee River in May, live in Key Largo and have shared with us a route some cruisers do not know about that would bring us to Islamorada rather then Marathon. It is called the “yacht Channel”. They have indicated Boot Key will be very crowded and that they have some excellent cruising grounds and anchorages near Key Largo. Local knowledge is always good so we will visit with them and then decide our Keys cruising plans.

Their route, which we had heard of but had not figured out till now, involves leaving the Little Shark River, curling around Cape Sable to a flashing Red south of East Cape at 25 05.00 N by 081 05.00 W and following a series of lights along the Colregs Demarcation line to 24 52.3 N by 80 53.0 W. Then we can jump into the Yacht Channel and pick up the ICW in either direction. There are some shallows or should we say this whole route is shallow to be sure and we will need to be constantly vigilante. It will be good practice for the Bahamas. Here the shallows are more sand, in the Bahamas lots more coral. (Practice here good. Practice in Bahamas not so good.)

We believe we will head east to Peterson Key Bank and then over to Lignumvitae Key where we understand they have free mooring balls available on a first come first serve basis. Our friends suggested they would meet us there by boat. They have indicated this is wonderful area to explore and would like to share it with us. We look forward to enjoying there cruising grounds.