Everglades National Park, January 2015

On January 1 we left Ft. Myers, and headed south.  The Gulf was calm for our run down to Gordon Pass just south of Naples.  We went inside and continued south to Little Marco Pass and anchored for the night.

There was lots of small boat traffic running the inside channel, and nobody slows down.

On most day markers you will find a Osprey nest.

On Friday, January 2nd we continued south behind Marco Island and out into the Gulf at Coon Key Light.  From there it was a 50 mile off shore run to the Little Shark River entrance in Everglades National Park.

The Gulf was calm for a smooth crossing.

 We got around the first bend in the river and dropped anchor for the night.

The view up river.

 Sunset from our anchorage.







On Saturday we were determined to see how far up the Shark River system we could get.  We found plenty of water up to Tarpon Bay, 13 miles up the river.  There was a strong SE wind blowing so anchoring at the west end of Tarpon Bay wasn't going to be pleasant, so we went back down the river about a mile to wide spot and put the hook down.  At this point the river is part of the 99 mile wilderness waterway for small boats that runs from Everglades City to Flamingo.

A view looking up the river, lots of mangrove wilderness.

ODYSSEE anchored for the night.









Once anchored we took the borrowed kayaks for a ride and a spin in the Dingy.  You can see all three hanging off the back of the boat.

On Sunday we went back down the river 7 miles and turned left in to the north end of Oyster Bay and anchored for the night.  This was a delightful spot with small islands in every direction.  We again took a Kayak ride around several islands.

 

As the sun set to the west, the almost full moon rose to the east.

 



 Monday we pulled anchor, headed back down the river, and turned left to go around Cape Sable and into Flamingo. It was another beautiful day the Gulf.  The Flamingo marina is operated by an outside contractor who cares less about operating the marina part, he's more interested in renting canoes, kayaks, and tour boats then making sure transient boats are taken care of.  They don't answer the phone and their radio doesn't work, so you go in in hopes they have room.  They normally do, most won't go in without some promise there will be space.

 Tuesday morning we got up early to join the ranger run bird walk.  The sun went behind a cloud as it rose over Florida Bay.











On Osprey perched in a tree.














A Red-shouldered Hawk perched in a tree.













An Osprey balanced on a dead Palm tree.














That afternoon I took a kayak trip up to Coot Lake and back.

The forecast for the Gulf was to get nasty with winds from the NW at up to 35 knots on Thursday, so we elected to depart on Wednesday and get up to Indian Key near Everglades City.  We left the Flamingo Marina at 7:00 to get out while we still had some water, with the strong northerly wind and the full moon, the water is going negative at low tide.  We ran most of the way at hull speed but at 11:15 the wind started kicking up so we put ODYSSEE up on top and altered our course 10 degrees to the east to get in under the National Park shore and inside the park boundry for shelter and to avoid crab trap buoys.  After running for an hour we were inside the park boundry and slowed back down to 9 mph for the rest of the trip. 

As we came in the entrance channel there was a large group of white pelicans an a sand bar.  They were flying in and out, looking for a good landing spot when they returned.  The Park tour boats from Everglades City were out watching the birds and the dolphin.

We were anchored by 3:00 behind Indian Key.

On Thursday our intend was to take the boat up to Everglades City and have lunch at the Historic Rod and Gun Club.  We started up at about 10:00 but ran out of water in the entrance channel at 10:50.  We anchored until 1:00 to let the tide to come in some and managed to get in.  We had lunch and will go back out to the Indian Key anchorage again tonight so we can get out tomorrow and head back up behind Marco Island.

Friday morning anchor was up at 10:00, timed so we didn't get to Coon Key too early, there isn't much water there at low tide.

Remember all of the White Pelicans we saw on the sand bar when we came into Indian Key on Wednesday afternoon?  At low tide they were all swimming along the mangrow banks looking for food.

 At 10:55 we turned NW, 302 degrees for a 6.6 mile run up to Coon Key, and the channel behind Marco Island.  Once we got to the north end of Marco, we turned north up the inside passage to Naples.  We ducked into Rookery Bay, about half way up the channel from Marco to Naples and anchored for the night.

The forecast is for the wind to kick up an unpleasant sea on the Gulf on Saturday, with Mondays prediction to be the best sea conditions, so we made arrangements to go into Naples, and were able to get a slip for two nights at Old Naples Seaport.  Well, we expected the Old Naples Seaport and were not aware that it had been just completely redone with new floating docks, pump out at your slip, free washer dryers, free ice, all for $2.00 a ft. per night.  We tried to get into the Naples City Dock with fixed docks at $2.50 per ft.  Glad they were full!  But, in the process of developing the old waterfront, they now have concrete office buildings and condos where some neat shops use to be, to a point our antenna TV doesn't work, so instead of having 26 crystal clear channels like we did 7 miles south of here last night, we have 77 analog channels on their cable system. 

We will head up to Ft. Myers Beach on Monday to pick up our mail and hopefully our new replacement battery charger  Oh, forgot to tell you that our 5 year old battery charger quit with apparently no way to repair.  This NEW Technology battery charger replaced the 39 year old charger that was original to the boat.  We have more trouble with the new stuff on the boat than we do the good old original stuff!

Monday we went back to Snook Bight Marina for the night.  Tuesday we went into Legacy Harbour Marina in Fort Myers to join other "loopers" at the 2015 Gold Looper Reunion on Wednesday and Thursday.