We left Everglade City in the afternoon to avoid low tide in the morning. We anchored at Russel Pass with Cashelmara and Into the Mystic. It was a beautiful place with a nice breeze from the East. It was hard to imagine how close we were to the Gulf and it was so calm.
In the morning we left for Cape Sable at anchored at Middle Cape. It was gorgeous and pretty calm surprisingly since we were right out on the Gulf. We were concerned with the winds but we were protected being close to the shore since the winds were from the East. Again we had a peaceful night on the hook. Hal and I love anchoring out in areas like this. We were sad were unable to spend more time but we had reservations at Marathon and Sydney was meeting us there.
Getting to Marathon there was a lot of wind, 20 knots, and so there was a good chop on the bean for a while until we made turn and then it was on the port bow. It was nothing to bother us. There was a discussion of which bridge to go under because the closer bridge had a clearance of 19' and the other bridge was much taller but it added almost 9 miles to the trip. The closer bridge is what we went with. There were actually two bridges to go under. We made it without a problem since we let our mast down. Once we crossed under the bridge we were now in the Atlantic Ocean! The water is an unbelievable shade of light green and it was flat calm. Hard to believe we were in the ocean.
Marathon Marina had a floating dock for us. (Yeah) There was a lovely pool, a restaurant, and a gym. I made use of the gym. Sydney met us there on the second night and joined us for dinner. We never made it to the pool but we did go to the restaurant called Lazy Days. The food was really good but a little pricey but I think everything will be pricey on the islands. The restaurant Castaways, we went to with Sydney, Mary, Chris and Skipper was also pricey but good.
Derelict boats with homeless living anthem.
Out in the ocean on a dinghy.
Hal and I took a dinghy ride into Boot Key Harbor and out into the ocean. It was surreal to think we were out in the Atlantic on our dinghy. The water was calm and beautiful. We traveled quite a ways into the harbor. There are a lot of derelict boats there with the homeless population living on them. There's a city dock that charges $325 a month for a mooring ball and that includes using the bathroom and showers. If you anchor out and want to use the facilities it is $22 a day to dock the dinghy. It is still a 20 minute walk from there to get to the food store.
While cruising around on the dinghy I saw my first manatee. While watching him we actually saw either fart or poop because all of a sudden there were a lot of bubbles from its rear area, and it smelled.
Hal, Mary and I took a cab ride to the Publix. There is no walking into any town here, it is almost dangerous to ride your bikes to anywhere. It is a busy 2 and then 4 lane road. We provisioned at the grocery store which was extremely busy since it is so close to Christmas.
We are coming back here in January so I am looking forward to enjoying the pool and the gym.
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