Everglades

Wednesday -Friday, February 17-19 - On Wednesday, February 17 we departed Naples Boat Club for Everglade City, a trip of about 45 miles.  The weather and water conditions were both great for cruising.  Everglades City's claim to fame is the Rod and Gun Club which is a hotel and restaurant popular in the 1950's and a place that has been visited by many famous people.  The Rod and Gun Club and the balance of Everglade City is about 5 miles up the Barron River.   We intended to spend 2 nights in Everglade City and on the second day take an airboat ride into Everglades National Park.  Unfortunately, we heard that the Barron River was shallow and that a couple of boats we know touched bottom on the way out.  Having just run aground, we decided to not take a chance going up the river to the Rod and Gun Club.  Instead, we anchored near the mouth of the Barron River at an anchorage named Russel Pass #1.  It was a beautiful anchorage, the water was deep (10 feet) and the anchor held well.  

                                                  Beautiful Sunset In The Everglades

On Thursday, we left the Everglade City anchorage and cruised to the Little Shark River, another trip of about 45 miles.  Little Shark River is the premier anchorage on the way to and from Marathon in the Florida Keys. Just inside the river entrance is a bay on the left side.  There were two sailboats already there so we chose to anchor on the right side of the river at an anchorage called Shark River Point.  This anchorage is directly in line with the river itself and because there were strong east northeast winds, the boat was rocking and rolling!  Since we were convinced the anchor would hold through the night, we decided to stick it out.  We experienced one really high tide and one really low tide while anchored off the point.  Interestingly, the boat responds to the tidal flow more than to the wind so it seemed to change directions a lot during the day,  At the end of the day, several more sailboats came in and anchored in the cove.

The next day we decided to move the boat over into the cove to escape the strong east northeast winds.  Midday, another Looper boat arrived and we took the dinghy over to say hello.  Because the winds were so strong, we were not able to take the dinghy up the river as we planned.  Instead, we went back to visit with Dave and Sallie on Roamer.  The winds calmed down later in the day and we had a peaceful night at anchor.

                                                   Low Tide In Shark River