Englewood to Cayo Costa

The winds were calm overnight, so there was no wappa-wappa noise on the hull. That made for a quiet, restful night. The last 2 days we’ve had cloudless, blue skies and today was no exception. We did our morning routine and hauled anchor at 9:00. We motored slowly south and attracted a pod of 4 or 5 dolphins who swam alongside the boat for a mile or two.

We passed many boat that were tarpon fishing in Boca Grande Pass and saw the Boca Grande Light that marked the southern end of Gasparilla Island.

Our destination today was Pelican Bay anchorage, on the northern end of Cayo Costa Island, which is also a state park. You can only get to this island by boat or ferry. It offers a beautiful white sand beach, tent camping, cabin rentals, hiking trails, and a boat dock with slips. It’s a great place to hang out for a couple of days and that’s just what we plan to do. Arriving in Pelican Bay around noon, we dropped anchor among 19 other boats for the night.

We chose a spot close to the park dock in order to take Auggie conveniently to shore.

After getting settled, we took a dinghy ride to the park to let Auggie stretch his legs and also rode around the anchorage to check out the boats that were here. Back at our boat, we whiled away the afternoon hours reading and watching boats come and go. There would be more boats arriving as the day went on. We were both tuned in to the “relaxation mode” of being on vacation. Auggie was too.

Before dinner, we took a dinghy ride to the east bay of the anchorage to see who might be there. To our surprise, Rick and Pat of Sea Gator were anchored there. We had run into them in Ft. Myers Beach two years ago, but haven’t seen them since. We chatted a bit and made plans to get together tomorrow for happy hour at their boat. We had cocktails before dinner on our boat and later took Auggie for a cool walk in the park among the Sabal palms as the sun was setting. Back at the boat, we turned on the colorful Christmas lights and enjoyed listening to some tunes while we waited for the stars to come out. Tonight there would be 38 boats sharing the anchorage with us. Tomorrow we would do some exploring of the island.