Thursday, April 17, 2014 We got up and got ourselves and the boat ready for departure. Auggie got his last chance to hunt for geckos in the lanai before we left.
It was a beautiful day–sunny, blue skies, but with a chance of showers this afternoon. We said our goodbyes and pulled away from their dock around 9:00.
We had a wonderful visit at the “Heinemann Resort and Spa” with our dear friends.
We motored through the canals of their community to the lock.
We had to wait for one boat and then it was our turn. The lock can only hold us and maybe one other small boat. It drops only 6 inches. Why bother???
We finally reached the main channel around 10:00 and motored at idle speed through the “Miserable Mile” and into the ICW channel starting at Mile Marker 0. Good thing there was a breeze because it was already getting warm. Being the week before Easter, there were quite a few boats on Pine Island Sound–fishing and just running around. It will be busy through next week, as well, as all the spring breaks finish up. We spied these 2 kayaks with sails resting on the banks of this island. The sails give the kayaks a little more speed, I guess.
It was a little wavier in the more open water of Pine Island Sound, so we picked up our speed to 19 mph to stay dry. The blue of the sky and the green of the water make for an interesting picture when they meet.
It must be osprey birthing season. We saw many osprey pairs with chicks in their nests along the ICW.
In passing Cabbage Key, we saw that it was getting busy at the restaurant. The ferry brought people to the island for lunch.
We arrived at our anchorage in Cayo Costa at 12:30 and motored in slowly.
We will choose a spot to anchor based on the wind forecast for tonight. We entered the deep channel to the bay and to our amazement there were only 6 boats anchored there. What a shock! Usually it’s filled with boats and sometimes even hard to find a good spot. This time we had our pick. We went way around into the back bay and found 2 more boats anchored. We dropped anchor, set the alarm, and were ready to enjoy the day. We just sat in the back in the shade and watched boats come and go. One of the ferries made it way into the park and out again. The ferry comes from Captiva Island and brings people to the park here.
They weren’t wrong about the rain forecast. Around 5:00, the storm blew in and it rained hard for about an hour. We cooked dinner in between the rain showers and took Auggie to shore before dark. There was a decent sunset after the rain.
We spent the rest of the evening enjoying the cooler air and watching a little TV. It was windy and the boat was moving around quite a bit on the anchor. We’ll spend another day here exploring the beach by dinghy.
