Ten Thousand Islands

We had a great time watching the Vikings beat up on the Cowboys with friends Gale and Maureen. Since they next have to take on the Saints, we planned a route to Marathon that would get us there by Sunday, with a couple of extra days built in, just in case. We topped off the fuel tanks at Ballard Oil in Fort Myers Beach Monday morning. At $2.71/gallon, much cheaper than the Keys and will get us into April. It was a beautiful day when we exited Matanzas for a short "outside" run, about 4 miles offshore, to Naples. The swells were pretty big, and it was a "hang onto the boat with one hand" cruise. Downtown Naples seen from the Gulf.

Gordon Pass brought us into the residential section of Naples. The homes here are larger and more luxurious than any we've seen. This is an average one in the neighborhood we transitted. The canals were wide, well marked and full of boating activity.

We turned into the "old ICW" which runs from Naples to just south of Marco Island. This narrow, undeveloped stretch was lined with mangroves and busy with boaters, but very scenic.

We found a cozy little anchorage off the waterway between Little Marco Island and Keewaden Island. Keewaden is a narrow barrier island where there are docks on the inside and Gulf Beach on the outside. The docks appear to have been put in by a developer and have "land for sale" signs, but only one had a home built on it. The next morning we took the dinghy down to the south end of Keewaden and walked across to one of the most gorgeous beaches we have seen. There were piles of shells and we found a couple to add to our collection along with 3 good sized perfect sand dollars.

The beach was deserted, but I would imagine it's quite busy on weekends being located between Naples and Marco Island. Can you see the condo's of Marco Island in the background of this picture?

Back on the old ICW, we began to see lots of Osprey nests on the channel markers. We could hear the babies chirping in some of them.

Can you see the second bird down in the nest in this one?

We wiggled our way through Marco Island with some shallow water and tricky markings and exited the old ICW for the last time at Coon Pass.

After Marco Island, we saw no more development and were in the Ten Thousand Islands, all covered with mangroves with small beaches on some of the shores. A dolphin with a baby swam with us for a short while.

Our second anchorage on the five day plan to Marathon is at Russell Pass. It's deserted, very dark and quiet at night. Here's this morning's view from the boat out into the Gulf, where we will head out soon for the next leg of the journey.