After 5 days in Sarasota we decided to make a bee line for the Keys. There were numerous other places which we would have liked to visit, such as, St. Petersburg, Braedeton, and Ft. Meyers, but we were now eager to get to the keys and have a vacation....some place where we could rest and not worry about getting up and travelling to a new place. I figured that we could always go back to these places, if not by boat, then at least by car.
We decided to anchor out on this leg of the journey and just off Cayo Costa Island was supposed to be a good anchorage. We found it easily enough and followed the directions precisely in an attempt to get over a sand bar that was across the iopening to the anchorage. Well we first started stirring up sand and then we started rubbing the bottom and that is when we decided to abandon the idea of staying here. We got off easily kicking sand as we went.
We then decided to try around the back of an island, maybe it was Cabbage Key, I can't remember. Anyway, things were going well until we encountered another shoal across the opening of the channel. This was was a little more difficult to get off of but we did manage to do so without calling Towboat US. We were getting tired and stressed so we decided to anchor just off the GICW near Useppa Island. We were exposed but the weather was good and we had a good BBQ and sleep on the hook.
Useppa Island to Naples
(Thursday Dec 16 - Dist: 55.2 mi; Avg Speed:11.8 mph; TTT: 5:20 hrs)
T'was another fine day for travelling until these terrorists in a speed boat ran us aground. We were approaching Boca Grande Pass when three masked men appeared unexpectedly on our starboard side and was crowding us to the left. I slowed down and kept moving left in order to avoid a collision but they kept coming. It was the US Border Patrol.
It was cool out but these guys were dressed all in black and were wearing ski masks. Well when I stopped for them the wind promptly pushed us outside the channel onto the sand so I told them that they had to let me maintain steerage or they would have to pull me off the sand bar. They agreed and then propmtly came close again and two officers jumped aboard. In the end they were decent guys and we had some good conversations. I think that they were actually overwhelmed with all of the official numbers that we were throwing at them. The officer in charge took most but not all and called it in for verification. I asked for another number and he wouldn't give us anything. So for all I know they were terrorists in a fast boat with a decal on the side looking for official names and identification numbers.
The delay was not long and we carried on to Naples. Naples is a cute little town, abit
on the hautie-tautie side but quite nice none the less. The houses along the river were not bad and even the condos and docks in the harbor were quite nice as well. I'll leave this post with a few random photos from the area.
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