Wednesday February 10, 2010

Port Departed: North Captiva Island
Port Arrived: Fort Myers Beach
Miles Traveled: 25
Total Miles Traveled to Date: 1607
Hours Traveled Today: 5
Total Hours Traveled: 266

Wonderful weather, blue sky and just a few clouds. We loaded our bags onto Jim’s Carlolina skiff and Patt ferried us out to Water Mark. We weighed anchor and prepared to head out. Getting the anchors up was a chore. The holding ground in Safety Harbor is excellent and they were dug into the mud. It took us fifteen minutes to get the anchors up.

Shortly after pointing the bow toward the channel, the keel dug into a shoal. I tried to back out and could not. Just then a power boater came by. This stranger has rented a boat. We tossed him a line and he pulled us off the sand bar and headed out into the Pine Island Sound.

We traveled 25 miles to Fort Myers Beach and headed to the Fort Myers Beach Marina after realizing that we needed to cross under the Sanibel Island bridge at the east end.

Once we had the boat tied up at the Marina, if discovered a seafood store. I purchased a dozen oysters on the half shell and one dozen peel and eat shrimp. The owner of the seafood establishment let us pick out our oysters and the shrimp. He then cooked the shrimp and made us up a fresh batch of cocktail sauce. We walked back to the boat through the rain and ate like epicureans on Water Mark. I rigged up the rain fly and by 9AM we were in our bunks sound asleep. It is funny how being out on the water makes you tired at the end of the day.