Ft Myers to Key West

Dolphin "Floating' in the water

Our time at Legacy Harbour Marina in Ft Myers came to an end two days after Christmas.  We waited a day for a weather window, to make our way to Key West.  We will miss the boaters at Legacy. they could not have been any friendlier.

The day before we departed Ft Myers we topped our tanks off......$2.65/gal Are you serious?

B/W  Of Legacy Harbour 'B dock'
We are there on 'Wall Street'
Somewhere

Our planned route would take us from Ft Myers to Marco Island, to Everglade City,  to Flamingo, to Marathon, then arrive at Stock Island (which is right adjacent to Key West.  We took this route because of Daisy.  There are simply few places to let Daisy do her business.  Reasons for this include: Daylight traveling time, Everglades National Park restriction of dogs on NP key property, alligators,  crab pots, and mangroves (zero place to get a place to pee or poo).  I worked on this small portion of the trip as much as any other segment.  It was simply a PIA to plan.

Typical Conditions From Ft  Myers
to Stock Island

The weather for the duration of this segment was nothing short of FANTASTIC. Warm/Hot, very light winds if any, and plenty of sunshine, and even clouds when it was too hot.  Very special.

On this segment, we saw so many dolphins it was unreal.  The dolphins react to our boat (I assume the sound) nearly 300 yards away. They will make a small leap, and do another one, and make a 180 degree turn about 20 yards just to the side of the boat, and then proceed to get right under the anchor pulpit.  They usually stay for about 5 minutes, some less, and several stay longer.  The antics that do is highly amusing. Of particular note is the "I'm Peeking at You' look.  This is when while swimming they tilt their head and look at us!  We never get tired of them, it is great fun.  At one time, we had six dolphins right below the anchor pulpit leaping over one another..... what a show, and what fun it was, Daisy enjoys the dolphins too.  She now perks her ears and wags her tail when they are with us.     Please CLICK for Video1    and  CLICK for Video2. Again, we cannot get tired of seeing these awesome mammals.

Jelly Anyone?

We have seen many other critters too.  We have seen Jellies, Manatee, fish of all types,   One fish, near Flamingo, five feet long and a foot thick, was swimming at us.  It then decided to leap up, and basically touch the starboard side.  It breached the water entirely, and made a huge splash.  Vicki said  'What the Heck was that?'  I was impressed.

Crab Pots.  Put as many swear words as you care to use here (but use a lot). 10,000's of them.  Hate them, always in my way, always white knuckled, always worried that I may grab one on the prop shaft.  After 8 hours of dodging them, one gets kinda pissed.  Why in the hell would anyone use black, dark blue indicators?  I have a plan if I snag one of these.  I plan to take the dingy and proceed to cut the lines off as many floats as I can,  and finally place a note on the last one saying 'If you cannot find your crab pot floats, keep looking, they blend in with the water'.

First stop Marco Island.  What a great trip great sights.  We anchored in the middle of a residential area.  As a friend said ' There are not many teachers that live here'.  True.  It was opulence on a grand scale.

Crab Boat 

Blue Willow in
Everglades City

Notice the 'Daisy' ramp angle.
It was angled down the other way
when we arrived.

We then proceeded to make our way to Everglade City.  We had a slight concern as we were entering the inlet at low tide, ...kinda shallow, but all was okay.  We knew this was a working port, meaning there would be commercial crabbing and shrimping. But, damn,  3:45 AM? and nearby was a public launch.  Okay, this is a good thing.  As we needed to travel 10 hours to get to Flamingo.  We got up early 5ish, and had coffee etc, and then made our way out the inlet, heading for Flamingo
In Everglades City there is the famous Rod and Gun Club.  This place has been visited by presidents, movie stars, yada yada yada.  Very nice place, cool stuff on the walls. Pricy food.

Vicki and Daisy enjoying
the evening sun at Flamingo

Vicki enjoying the LLOOONNG
Ride to Flamingo
Whats with the over the glasses look?

Our longest day of this segment was the Flamingo portion.  We  made great time nothing exceptional about the trip.  Flamingo is part of the Everglades National Park system.  What a surprise.  There was all kinds of stuff going on.  Kayaks, canoes, tour boats, and many many fishermen and boats.  Very busy place.  When we registered, the guy says make sure you get a grouper sandwich at the restaurant.  Okay, we went there, then from the waitress No shrimp, No Scallops, No Fish including Grouper.  HHmmmm  Okay.

Marathon Sunset.

Marine City at Marathon

A short day to Marathon was next. Totally uneventful, until we went under seven mile bridge, and entered Boot Key Harbor.  Must be 100 boats at anchor, and then add 270 boats in the mooring field, and marinas too..  WOW.  City on the water.  We anchored as the mooring field had a waiting list (12 boats).  All was fine, met several people.  One couple were parents of a Ferris alum.  Wearing my Ferris swag, I had a great talk with them.  They are very proud of their Ferris connection.  Near the marina office, there must bee 1,000 bikes that boaters use.  The dingy docks are huge as well.  the channels are like I75, and I saw 12 dingies running at the same time, like a slow motion highway.

Our View from our slip in
Stock Island Key West

We made it to Stock Island Marina okay, nothing of note except:  On the dock waiting to catch our lines was a friend from Legacy.  Wow that was weird.  Left him at Legacy, and he greets me at Stock Island.

Addendum
Christmas Day 2014
While we celebrated our official Christmas with our Grandson, we still had a nice Christmas dinner with Just Us.  I cooked the prime rib, Vicki did the beans and potatoes, and Michelle brought over some home made bread with dipping oils.  Dave and I had the King Cut, and the ladies had the Queen cut of Prime rib.  We had an awesome time.  Not our traditional Christmas, but one to remember.

Prime Rib Christmas Dinner with
Dave and Michelle

Michelle juicing up the carolers
at Legacy Christmas Eve.

As Red Skelton said many times: 'Good Night for now, May God Bless'