Marco and The Ten Thousand Islands
It’s been a while since we could run the outside to any destination. It’s been incredibly windy the last month or so and so it was a pleasure to have perfect conditions for our sail down to Marco Island, today being Easter Sunday. We anchored in the basin just outside Rose Marina and settled in for the next two days
We had packages to collect at the UPS store and a few errands to run while in Marco. We also refuel, pump out and fill our water tanks at the marina too. We found a beautiful new bright blue secluded dog beach that we could not believe we had all to ourselves
We saw a 3 to 4 hour gap in the winds coming up and quickly took it, which is all we needed to get to Tiger Key in the Ten Thousand Islands, our favorite anchorage with its own private beach
We anchored just in time on Tuesday afternoon and settled in for the coming days
We love our time in solitude here. It always amazes us that we can still manage to find a place of almost complete isolation in this vast country filled with so many people
Our days seem to develop their own cadence. Beach days in two halves, the mornings with a workout, the pups on the beach and coming back to the boat for lunch or having it on the beach. Then the afternoons where we’d go back to do some work, paint, do something creative or read before the afternoon beach session with the dogs, sundowners then prepare for dinner.
Whenever the weather is conducive, we celebrate the sun leaving us each night. Sometimes that’s on the beach, other times up on the helm, the bow or at the dining table if its too windy
On the first Friday night there I set the table for dinner. In town, we always have a weekly date night and on the boat I still like to keep that going. We cook something good and I love making each table setting unique with all the things I have onboard from our travels and so on
On Saturday we took the dinghy up to Everglades City for lunch at the Rod and Gun club. This 1864 hotel is a true step back in time. Everglades city dates back a thousand years! Famous guests have stayed here; from Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Hoover and Nixon to John Wayne, Ernest Hemmingway and Jack Nicklaus. We went to the store to pick up a few items after a lovely lunch and headed home to Happy Wife
We spent the next week and a half going to the beach, searching for new anchorages via dinghy, collecting shells and making crafts from them too. We had beautiful sunsets with sundowners every night, sometimes on the sand. We had lunches on dinners on the beach too often sitting in the water which is our favorite thing to do.
Indian Key is a fantastic little island with a long spit out to one side. It is so lovely and we had it all to ourselves for the day we spent there
I set the main table for 2 date night dinners while we were here and we went into Everglades city on 2 other days for lunch at little riverside restaurants.
On cinco de Mayo we saw the conditions would be perfect to do the run straight down to Key West without stopping in Marathon
We pulled up anchor at 5.15am and had a spectacular day on the water that started with the most most amazing sunrise. I love to watch how the day gradually changes as the world awakens, a distant lull that we love to leave behind.
The doggies napped, we napped with the boat on autopilot, and arrived fresh and ready for Key West Marina to grab a mooring ball at around 3pm.
We spent the next week and a half going to the beach, searching for new anchorages via dinghy, collecting shells and making crafts from them too. We had beautiful sunsets with sun downers every night, sometimes on the sand. We had lunches on dinners on the beach too often sitting in the water which is our favorite thing to do. sun downers then prepare for dinner.
