So we departed Marco Island and were headed to Everglade City. On the way we called the marina we were hoping to go to and was told they had changed ownership and the fee was now a flat rate of $115 per night plus $8 for electric! This would be $123 for the night!? I called down to Lauren and asked her to come upstairs. I told her the rates and she looked at me like I was crazy. That’s how I felt when I heard the rates! Lauren got online immediately and started looking for another marina, but there are only two marinas listed as options there, and the other one seems to be closed. Hmmm…
Finally after discussing what we should do, we decided to continue on to an anchorage about thirty miles past our intended stop. This now made it a sixty mile trip today instead of an easy thirty miles. Since we had started fairly early we should still make it before dusk. We continued on our way and had to skirt around the Cape Romano Shoals. This is a know shallow area that extends about ten miles south of Marco Island and is as shallow as a foot or less in some places and some are above water. You want to stay far away from here if you’re in a boat like ours. After passing the shoals we continued south toward our new destination: Little Shark River
Once past the shoals the water depths change dramatically. We were about three miles off shore and the water depth was only about nine to ten feet deep. Picture that. You could look down and see the bottom clearly, and as we got closer to our destination we turned to head toward the mouth of the river. The depths kept dropping and I commented to Lauren how I wasn’t too comfortable with this. “Come on, if we saw six feet yesterday, we would have been jumping for joy!”- what a great perspective and she was right! We continued on getting closer to shore and more shallow waters, but it never went under five feet. We saw a couple of other boats approaching about the same time we were and we hoped there was room for a few boats to anchor in the river. We entered the river just behind two boats, and we slowed down a little to let them do their thing. One of the boats turned around and passed us on the way out and it made me curious to why. We watched the other boat pull close to shore and start dropping its anchor. There was already another sailboat in there anchored, but there was enough room for us between the two. I turned and saw the retreating boat drop anchor out in the Gulf, but somewhat close to shore- maybe they wanted privacy? We’ll never know.
As we were dropping our anchor, the boat that had entered before us came over the radio and advised us how much they had put out and thought we might be too close to them. Well this is awkward. I had already started dropping anchor, but relented to their request and pulled it back up. I advised them I would move further forward, and a little deeper than them. I arranged a new position and dropped anchor. Protocol is whoever gets there first has the ‘right’ to put out as much anchor line as they like and everyone else should follow suit, BUT you can do whatever you want, and if someone doesn’t like it, then they should move. As long as no one is going to collide with you or you to them, all is good per the official rules and regulation, but everyone is responsible for their own boat. Once the anchor was down and we were securely set, I took Frank in the dinghy in search of land.
The tides had gone down so there was a good amount of shoreline visible from where we were. Upon approach, it looked like it was going to be muddy. The water was shallow so I had to row the dinghy in closer to land as the motor was dragging in the mud so I propped it up out of the water. We got close enough and Frank jumped out, only to sink in the mud. Great. Now it was my turn- I stepped out and promptly sank all the way to my knees in the mud. I was stuck! I tried to pull my foot out and felt my flip flop get sucked off. Holy crap! I was still hanging on to the dinghy and Frank was looking at me like “Lets go!” I took a step back and my foot felt the flip flop that had become disengaged from me. I was able to pull it up with my toes and retrieve it. I tossed it in the dinghy along with the other and made another attempt to get to shore. I took one more step, still sinking up to my knees and stepped on a tree or something under the mud. Nope. This is not going to happen. “Sorry Frank- pee there!” I tried to get him to go, but he was too unsure of what to do, as he kept sinking too. I was able to get him back to the dinghy and lift him in. Now we were both covered in mud and the dinghy was too. I got us back to the boat and Lauren helped me wash Frank and myself up, as well as the dinghy. Unfortunately for Frank, this was the second time on this trip we haven’t been able to access shore. He can do his business on the boat, but he is not too keen on it. As we were going through this debacle, the people on the boat near us had taken their dinghy out for a cruise. It was starting to get to be dusk now and they were returning and stopped by to visit. They were on a trip from Virginia to Ft. Myers Beach in their boat and had some guests/friends with them. We all chatted a bit about our trips and then they had to get back as it was getting dark. Lauren made dinner and we sat on the deck looking at the stars and planning our next move. We will now get to Marathon, Florida tomorrow if all goes well. We are now racing the weather as rain and high winds are heading our way according to the Weather Channel. Marathon is only about forty miles away, and one step closer to Key West, which will be our southern most stop on this whole trip.