Thursday 5/28/2020 - Ft Myers Yacht Basin to Marco Island Marina

After another good nights sleep at our tranquil slip we were both up early.   Our usual yogurt and granola for breakfast before we got started prepping for today's voyage.   The plan for today is to go out into the Gulf and travel just 3-4 miles offshore for about 56 miles down to Marco Island.   We took a little time to double check the weather forecast.....rain not expected till mid/late afternoon.  We took another look at a couple of Apps/sites that we utilize for wind and wave predictions.....light winds (6-8 knots) predicted today with average wave height of .9 to 1.2 ft.   Those are more than acceptable conditions for us so we motored over to the fuel dock and topped off the tanks and then shoved off.

Leaving Ft Myers Yacht Basin.  This guy wants to race us to Marco Island Erik thinks

View getting ready to go back out into the Gulf of the Sanibel Island lighthouse

Out into the great blue

It was a non eventful slow cruise along the coast.  A little rougher than we expected because the wave timing was short (ie. 3 seconds between waves) which gave us the occasional spray up on the bridge.  Nothing to unreasonable though.   It was a hot day and we kind of wished we could have picked up the pace just a bit, but, given that we were running on only one engine we thought it prudent to take things slow and easy.   About 2/3 of the way through the cruise Renee drove for a spell while Erik tried his hand at fishing at a 4-6 knot troll.   No luck!  I guess it's pork chops for dinner rather than fresh snapper :-(  

As we were coming into the Marco Island bay/inlet we watched a couple of dolphins following directly behind a small boat that was next to us.   They were jumping and turning and playing in the wake immediately behind the boat.   Very cool and entertaining to watch. 

Pulling into Marco Island Marina it was VERY apparent that we were going to again be the hooptie boat of the day.    The marina is filled with beautiful boats and with many multi million dollar yachts.  We are definitely the outcasts, BUT, my money is on the fact that we get way more hours of cruising the waterways on our hooptie than any of these that likely sit in their slips most of the time.  The dock hand was very friendly and even refused our tip $$ for helping us to tie up at the slip.

Funny boat name at Marco Island Marina

After getting hooked up to electric and ensuring we were tied off well we changed into bathing suits and walked up toward the marina office to check in and pay for the slip.   We were very hot from the long slow cruise and figured we would immediately take a dip in the pool.  It was nice to get some movement in and bring our body temps down. 

Should Renee swim laps?

Or just chill and relax!  

We had once again skipped lunch so we both were very hungry.   We grilled up some pork chops and made some rice for an early dinner before settling into the couch for a late afternoon nap in the A/C.  Somewhat rested and cooled down we got the bikes down and started off toward Tiger Tail Beach to enjoy the sunset.   Marco is a very pedestrian/biker friendly city with wide sidewalks and bike lanes along the roads.  It appears a good part of the island is residential and is actually a series of canals with boat docks that service the back yards of almost every home on the island.   The homes are quite impressive.  

About half way to the beach we heard some screeching and as we looked down just a few feet off the sidewalk on a vacant lot there were multiple burrowing owls just a few feet from us.  Very interesting birds.  Small and very cute although they did not sound particularly happy that we were so close.  They come in and out of holes in the sand and were flying around.   Some reading later in the evening found that there are about 500 of them on the island and that they are very rare anywhere else.

burrowing owls

Cute little guys, but not too excited about us being as close as we were to them so we moved along

Tiger Tail Beach was not your typical 'beach'.   It is actually on a lagoon a few hundred feet inland of the actual gulf shore.   Walking out onto the 'beach' of the lagoon in our bare feet proved to be quite painful because there were millions of shells.   Very nice shells; too bad we didn't bring a bag or something to collect some in to carry on our bike ride.   In addition to shells, the lagoon was teaming with wildlife; multiple kinds of birds and fish jumping everywhere.   As the sun was getting low and preparing to set in 30 minutes or so, a small insect (likely a "no-see-um".....scientific name "Ceratopogonidae".....accurate name "evil little bastards") landed on Erik and we both had flashbacks to Cayo Casto last year and decided it might be time to leave the stagnant lagoon area before we experienced a blood sucking disaster. 

Close to sunset at Tiger Tale Beach / Lagoon

One of many different birds at Tiger Tale 

A little to small to eat!  

We got back on our bikes and rode down the road another mile or so to a different public beach access point.   This was the 'real' beach; white, soft sand :-)    The sun was setting and just a few people were milling around.   There were thunderstorms not too far away and it was considerably cloudy which did not make for a spectacular sunset but it was nice nonetheless.   We took a stroll down the beach a ways and then turned around to walk back to the bikes and head to the most important stop of the evening for any day.....Ice Cream!    Todays stop was at 'Sweet Annie's' which was just a mile or so from the marina.  Rather than getting cones, we purchased two pints to bring back to the boat with us.   When we got back we showered up, made our nightly cups of coffee and relaxed with our hot and cold treats. 

The obligatory sunset selfie

LOVE the sound of the waves coming ashore

We are pretty certain that we are going to stay here in Marco for two nights because we did receive the tracking on our water pumps being shipped and it now appears that they will not be to Everglades City until Tuesday 6/2.   Kind of a bummer but at the same time not a bad thing because it will force us to slow down a bit to continue enjoying the towns we stop in.