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Florida Keys Cruise (March 2004)

We were lucky this year because Iva's grad school spring break coincided with David's dad's scheduled cruise to the Florida Keys with another few boats from his yacht club. Dad has a 34-foot catamaran called Crossing, which he likes to tinker with and clean at all possible times. He and Michelle sailed and motored Crossing to the Keys the preceding week. Then we flew in, had a dinner at Margaritaville with them, took Michelle to the airport, and helped dad bring Crossing back home. Besides Captain Ted and First Mates Dave and Iva, we also had First Mate Misty with us - very appropriate for a boat whose model is the Endeavorcat.

We had a great first day of sailing from the Keys towards mainland Florida - nice breeze, blue water, dolphins and all. Somehow the other boats separated from us, taking a more direct way home, and we found ourselves at our next anchorage with just one other crew who invited us on their deck for some wine at sunset. Other than a few other boats, the place was pretty solitary. It was in the Ten Thousand Islands area which lines the seashore of the Florida Everglades National Park. The whole scene was very peaceful.

We spent a couple of days poking around these insland waterways, now just by ourselves, and did some boat maintenance. One engine seemed to have problems, and after we did everything possible to fix it, we discovered the problem was a crab pot with its rope wrapped around the propellers. Dad and David dove under, knife in their teeth, to cut the rope loose. Another day we woke up to realize we had been dragging anchor a bit back and forth with the tide. The anchor chain got thoroughly wrapped up around a large log that was too heavy for the Winless to pull up above the surface. This rescue operation involved David holding Iva upside down off the front of the boat so she could free the log - or rather, us.

Halfway back to Punta Gorda we stopped at Naples, which is a very nice though very touristy town. There we were joined by dad's friend John for the rest of the trip. He happens to be a fisherman, which proved very much to our benefit. The first day on board, he set up two lines that we dragged behind us. After a few baits stolen by (probably) sharks, we pulled up a 4-foot king mackerel. Can't say it was a fun process to take a fish out of its water and put it on the plate, but it was really fresh and delicious. We grilled it that night at a romantic anchorage among islands with not a soul around, just the setting sun and us. Of course, we ate fish for the entire rest of the week, even after we got back to dad's house in Punta Gorda.

What makes a trip like this especially beautiful is the coastal scenery of green islands and the wildlife along the way. A few dolphins followed us a couple of times, and many navigation markers had all kinds of large water foul and birds of prey to watch through our binoculars. We were also visited by a young pelican at one of our solitary anchorage spots. He was quite comfortable around people and allowed Iva to get very close to take a picture. We think that he may have confused Iva's camera for a silvery fish that he thought Iva was going to feed him. Unfortunately, he had some fishing line around his throat and there wasn't much we could do to help.

While in driving distances we really didn't sail all that far, it seemed like much further and we felt a sense of accomplishment as we pulled into the Ponce de Leon water canal back in Punta Gorda. First Mate Misty also felt a great sense of relief for having firm ground under her feet again.