Traveling to Cape Coral

March 4, 2018 Monday in Cape Coral Florida

I’ve been remiss in updating the blog this week.  We are visiting with friends from home and I got out of my routine. More on this visit in the next blog entry.

We left St. Petersburg on Wednesday Feb 28th and anchored out two nights on the way to Cape Coral. We looked behind to say good bye St.Pete, traveled into the bay and under the bridge and traveled on bays and canals for about only 4 hours since we were tired from a rough night in the mooring fields due to strong winds blowing right into the bay most of the night.

As you can see from the above photos, the first anchorage was popular but there was plenty of room for us.

On Thursday we passed Sarasota and numerous lovely or ridiculously large homes along the water.

As we traveled south on the Intracostal we were once again blessed with dolphins playing with the boat along the way.

We took a slight risk heading into our somewhat shallower anchorage this evening but it was almost high tide and we made it. I was delighted because we were close to an opening inlet to the Gulf. Once we were settled I put on my bathing suit, got out the rope ladder so I could climb back on the boat when I returned and then swam ashore. There was a  small dock nearby, but the current took me further toward to channel than I expected. I noted that I’d have to be careful to start further up the current from the boat when I returned from my adventure.

I walked a mile or two along the Gulf coast, floated in sand dune ponds and the open gulf, and smiled and exchanged hellos with some people that pulled their motor boats ashore. With the smaller motor boats  people just come up to shore, raise the motor and set an anchor in sand – easy.  There were shells everywhere and I just had to bring a few back with me, even though I knew I’d have to stick them somewhere in my bathing suit while I swam to the boat. It was a lovely time.

When I returned to the dock near the boat I got lucky. A small boat was just pulling up near the dock, and I quickly said hello and asked them for a ride to our boat. They looked confused but I gave enough of an explanation (current is strong; don’t have a phone to ask my husband to get out the dingy) and they were nice enough to let me climb on board and take me to the boat. I was almost able to gracefully get onto the swim platform, but fell back in the water. I waved bye and and thanks and then struggled with the rope ladder for a while and finally got back on the boat.  But it was worth it! Loved that Gulf water.