March 18 & 19, Sunday and Monday
We left Naples Sunday morning with much turbulence – not the weather – the other boats! Strangely enough, to us anyway, there were no speeding restrictions on the river/inlet running up to Naples so we were tossed this way and that again. Bookcase on the floor etc. But once we were on the Gulf it was smooth cruising. How’s that for a switch?
An inside passage exists between the Naples inlet and Marco island, but with the weather so perfect we decided not to take any chances meeting up with shallow shoals. We had thought of stopping at popular Marco Island, but from the Gulf we could only see tons of high rise condos so passed it by.
Using our paper and online guides we found a lovely anchorage for Sunday night (called Panther Key), settled in and checked weather and winds for the rest of the week. Since strong winds are predicted for Tuesday through Thursday we arranged for a marina in Everglade City starting Tuesday evening.
Monday we traveled to a another anchorage (Russell Key) closer to Everglade City – again a great place to see the Milky Way after dark. I’ll be missing these great anchorages and views soon.
We’ve arrived at our slip in Everglade City at the Everglade Isle Marina and RV Resort. It’s a very special RV Park with large paved and landscaped spots for each individual RV (also high end) and a includes a pretty luxurious lodge. The floating docks and boat slips are excellent as well. Maybe a little over our price range but there isn’t much choice around here. 🙂 The only (big) downside is the almost constant airboat noises as they run back and forth up and down the channel near us. They are very loud – kind of like staying next to a small airport! But when I went inside the boat to whine about it to Dirk he was sleeping! So I guess they aren’t that bad!!!
Here are some sites as we came to the marina and one from the lighthouse actually in the marina lodge. The photo of the eagle on a post also had an airport in the background – and an airplane was landing as we cruised by. The overhead view is from a tower built into the marina building.
Wandering Star 