We awoke at anchor at St James City which is located just west of Fort Myers. This was the point where we had to make the decision whether to travel the Okeechobee Waterway or go south through the Florida Keys. We had been monitoring the Okeechobee water levels for the last couple of weeks and they have continued to drop due to the drought conditions. A call to the lock master at the Franklin locks was not promising with a 3’ 9” minimum depth. Our published draft of Don’t Cha is 3’ 6” but we were fully loaded which added an unknown additional draft. Brian concluded it wasn’t worth a $5000 propeller repair to chance the passage so we set off at 10:00 for Marco Island and the outside route.
Leaving the Sanibel Causeway
Sanibel Light House at Ybel Point
It was a beautiful day with offshore winds and minimal chop which allowed us to tour the coastline and view the familiar beaches at Lover’s Key, Bonita Beach, Vanderbuilt Beach and Lowdermilk Beach.
Bonita Beach
Vanderburg Beach from the cockpit
We arrived at Marco Island at 15:40 and refuelled at the Marco River Marina and stayed on the main floating dock. We travelled 41.1 miles today. Our fuel burn rate on this leg was 0.9 gpm.
Chris and I did a quick walk to the Publix in Marco to re-stock provisions while Brian and Joan washed down the boat.
We went to the Snook Inn for supper and had a fabulous dinner. We had wi-fi and were able to update some of the Blog until we got too tired and went to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment