Marco Island from Naples is only about fifteen miles. I had mentioned we would be taking the ‘old’ ICW, as the only other option would be to go out in the Gulf and come back in at Big Marco Pass. We didn’t want to do this due to the winds, which were gusting around twenty mile per hour and creating large waves out in the Gulf. I had asked around and everyone told me if we were going to try the inside passage, make sure it is on a rising or high tide. I should have paid more attention to “if you’re going to TRY it”…
We left early in the morning at first light. High tide was expected to be around 10am, so we wanted to be on the way while the tide was rising and get there at high tide. The anchorage we were going for was in Smokehouse Bay. When we left Naples, we followed the chart and tried to make sure we were in the center of the channel. Almost immediately when we got to the ‘old’ part of the channel, the water depths dropped. We kept moving forward at a cautious pace, trying to maintain some depth under our keel. We would go along and watch the depth finder go from 4, 3, 2 feet! We would feel a slight scrape ion the bottom and hold our breaths. I turned to Lauren and asked “which way should I go?” “Just keep moving forward!” was her reply! We continued on with the depth now showing 1.9 feet, sometime less. UGHH! What could we do, but keep moving forward?! We continued on our stressful course and thought we were doing pretty good, until it happened. We were coming through a pass, we felt the bottom of the boat scraping the sand underneath us, then we came to complete stop. UGHH! We were now grounded. Again. In my conversation with another captain in Naples, we were talking about getting grounded, and he said the best thing to do is try to reverse off of it and not try to turn out of it. This came back to me as I was trying to throttle over it. A small fishing boat approached from around the corner and slowed down a bit to call out to me: “Are you ok?” he asked. “I’m grounded!” was my reply. “Yeah- there’s a big sand bar there- stay toward the green buoy” and off he went. What the what!?!? I KNOW there is a sand bar here because I’m stuck on it! A couple of more fishing boats came flying around the corner and passed us without stopping. I figured I would try to use their wakes and reverse to try to get us off, otherwise we would just have to wait for the tide to rise some more and/or call SeaTow again for help. In hindsight, I think the boats that came flying by us were actually trying to help with their wakes. I straightened out the rudder and continued to try to back us off. I noticed we were moving a little bit backwards, which was progress! I continued to go in reverse and soon we were moving! We eventually got moving pretty good, then I had to turn us around to avoid the sandbar we were just on. “Stick to the green side” was repeating in my head! We made it past this sandbar and continued on- only a few more miles to our destination! We continued on and touched bottom a couple more times. This was probably the most stressful short trip we’ve had. We eventually came to Capri Pass, which is the beginning of Marco Island. Almost there. We could see the Gulf just on the other side of the pass and breaking waves were crashing in. Could this get any worse? We skirted our way just outside of the breaking waves and turned toward our destination. Our research told us that the channel to Smokehouse Bay is shallow and to stay along the shore as close as possible. We followed the directions and only saw one spot where it was less that four feet, but it soon became much deeper. As we entered the bay, we saw other boats anchored about. We finally made it! We turned toward the other boats and found a spot to drop our anchor in about ten feet of water. Yay! A big sigh of relief was let out as we turned off the engine and I popped open my ‘anchor beer’ and I didn’t care that it was only 11am- this beer was being had, now.
Now that we were settled in, we let Tori know we were in Marco Island. She was going to meet us and show us around town a bit. First I had to take Frank to shore, and there was a Winn-Dixie grocery store around the corner which also has a dinghy dock for people to use for shopping while at anchor. What a nice touch from a chain grocery store; that really means a lot to people like us on a boat who need access to groceries. I found the dock and realized it was going to be difficult to get Frank up as the dock was at least eight feet above water. If I stood on the seat of the dinghy I still had to raise Frank about five feet up and on to the dock. Frank wasn’t too happy with this and the first attempt had him clawing at anything he could get a hold of, including me. After recovering from his clawing, I hoisted him again and this time got him up and on to the dock. I could then climb the ladder there up to the top. We walked around the grocery store and made our way to a small marina that is there also. I went to the dockmaster and asked if I could use their dinghy dock for shore access for the dog. He was nice and said yes we could as they were not busy due to the weather. All of the reviews I had read said this marina does NOT allow dinghy access if your anchored, only if you pay for a dock with them. Now that I had secured access, I still had to get Frank back on the dinghy where we tied up at the grocery store. I knew he would object, so I had to act swiftly. We got to the dock and I climbed down the ladder a few steps, then grabbed the back of his life jacket which has a handle. As soon as he braced to stop, I lifted him off his feet and over the side. His legs went straight out to catch something, anything I’m sure, but it was too late. I was already swinging him toward the boat as I took the final step down. We both made it safely inside the boat and I started the engine. As we were pulling out, Tori called out to me. She had come down to meet us and was here already! I told her I was taking Frank back and would pick up Lauren, and we would meet on the dock at the marina. We made the switch and off we went to explore Marco Island.
Tori took us around and we ended up at the Snook Inn for lunch. We had a nice time there and a short tour of the island. We finished our day at the Marriott Beach enjoying the sun and sand. Eventually we had to be dropped off and our day was coming to an end. Frank got another walk in, this time getting off and on at the marina dock, which was much more agreeable than the other dock. The evening was quiet and tomorrow we planned on going to Everglade City and finally stopping at a marina to recharge. We still haven’t been to a marina since Christmas, so it will be nice to let the batteries regroup and have some amenities for a day or two…