Marco Island

1282 nm   N25 57.865  W081 43.408

Compared to pulling up the anchor, dropping off of a mooring ball is a breeze.  Drop one line, coil it up, drop the other, and motor away.  No chain, no mud, no effort!

We got our usual early start, and retraced our path behind Estero Island, through the narrow pass, and out onto the Gulf, setting our course for Marco Island, about 35 NM away.

The Gulf was calm, and we had a light west wind, so we were able to motorsail with both sails most of the way.  I think its the first time we've had the mainsail up since the Pamlico Sound!

The trip was pretty uneventful.  Because of the curve of the coastline, we ended up going outside of the three-mile boundary for the middle part of the trip.  Just needed to keep an eye out for crabpots. (its only 25 ft deep)

The entrance channel was busy and a bit confusing.  The shoal off of Coconut Island was quite pronounced.

Coconut Island

We anchored up in Factory Bay, although any trace of factories is long gone, replaced by wall-to-wall condos.  We were told of another anchorage at Smokehouse Bay, but its further inside.  It was our fallback if Factory Bay didn't work out.

But we had no problems.  There were several sailboats (both "locals" and cruisers), as well as a 4-boat powerboat raft.  We had seen these 4 powerboats come down the coast in a line and overtake us, and I had assumed they were traveling together.  There was some wakes from the traffic outside of the bay, but it calmed down at night. All in all, a recommended anchorage.

Sunset on Factory Bay

Around sunset, I tried phoning S/V Our Log.  They had left Marathon the day before, and it was possible that they were close.  To my great surprise, when I reached them, I found that they were in Marco Island too!  But more than that, they were in Factory Bay, tied up at Rose Marina, less than a thousand yards from where we were anchored!  They were just going out for dinner, and we were panning on leaving early in the morning, so once again, we crossed paths but failed to connect by the smallest of margins!  Its really odd how our paths keep crossing this way (Titusville, Ft Pierce, Marco Island), especially when you consider that we went 'round southern Florida in opposite directions!

Tomorrow, we will head for Everglades City.  It's a little out of the way, but an airboat ride through the Everglades is on Joanie's "bucket list", and we're told that Everglade City is the place to get one. The weather is also closing in, with a front passing through the day after tomorrow, so we will probably stay there 3 days (Sat, Sun, Mon), wait out the storm securely tied up, and do the airboat ride on Monday.

Life is good.