Returning to our Regularly Scheduled Content – Cruising Ten Thousand Islands

We have now been in Marathon, Florida for two months. TWO MONTHS!!

Where has the time gone?

Oh right, that little interruption we’ll just call Irma. We switched to real time updates during the evacuation, waiting for word on our boat and the initial recovery.

And honestly, there was a span of time we didn’t think we’d ever get back to sharing the travel adventures that lead us here in the first place.

But now that we’re provisioning to leave Marathon, it’s time to get back to our regularly scheduled content. And are we ever so thankful that we get to continue our Great Loop adventure aboard Y-Not.

So join us for a little time warp back to August, picking up on our cruise down to the Keys from Ft. Myers.

This post covers August 12-15, 2017

The Ten Thousand Islands

When last we left you hanging, we had just departed Marco Island after taking on fuel and finally pumping our poop out of the tanks.

We were ready to head into the wilderness of the Ten Thousand Islands (an area just south of Marco Island with – you guessed it – a lot of islands) and Everglades National Park.

We were full of excitement for our first longer passages, our first extended anchoring in isolated places and finding some amazing scenic locations.

Here’s the video version of this episode (at about 12 minutes)

Stop 1: Panther Key Anchorage

We checked in with the Marco Island TowBoat.US captain for routing guidance, and determined that the much more protected and scenic inland pass to Goodland was suitable for our vessel on a rising tide.

This saved us from backtracking back out into the open gulf to round Cape Romano.

It was another beautiful & relaxing mangrove lined cruise, with a dolphin escort.

We saw hardly any other boat traffic until we reached the gulf, and even then, it was pretty sparse.

We turned the boat south, and had our pick of anchorages to aim for. We selected Panther Key as our destination, mostly because of mentions in Active Captain that it had access to a beach.

It was an easy arrival to find an ideal anchoring spot and it felt fairly well protected – not that we’d need it, weather predictions had calm wind and seas for the coming days.

We enjoyed a lovely evening with gorgeous scenery, visiting dolphins and a short walk on the beach (for as long as we could endure the mosquitos!).

The cell signal was strong here, so we seriously contemplated staying a second night so we could catch up on some work. But it was the weekend, and sure enough by mid-morning there were arriving boats beaching themselves for a day ashore.

We took that as a sign it was time to force ourselves to find our next location.

Stop 2: West Pass Anchorage

A quick cruise back out into the gulf, and we motored a few miles south with an aim to check out West Pass.  Just as soon as we pulled in we both knew we had found our spot.

We anchored in the middle of a protected large cove and just oogled at the beauty.

Here we would be within dinghy access of a couple of beaches, providing we could survive the mosquitos.

And wow, cell signal on both AT&T and Verizon was still quite usable.

We stayed here two evenings – taking several dinghy rides to check out the beaches for quick walks (did we mention the mosquitos yet? Yeah, they were here too).

We also took afternoon swim breaks to keep cool at slack tides – as the tidal currents could be pretty strong. Even then, we always used swim lines to make sure neither of us got whisked away.

Had there been easier access to mosquito free beaches to walk – we may be been tempted to stay here a few more days.

It was absolutely lovely and everything we dreamed of for the area.

We decided it was time to keep moving southward.

Stop 3: Russell Pass Anchorage

According to ActiveCaptain, Russell Pass was a protected anchorage that would be about a 30 minute dinghy ride into the Everglades National Park Visitors Center.

We had visions of taking a nice long dinghy ride, and then getting out on shore for a few hours for exploring around “town”.

However, the anchorage was a bit less protected than we had gotten spoiled with. It was pretty rolly with tour boats passing by frequently kicking up wake.

We just didn’t feel comfortable enough here to leave the boat anchored on its own for that length of time, not to mention it was pretty darn hot and sunny out.

That afternoon we got on camera and shared some of the downsides we were experiencing with anchoring out – the lack of beaches, abundance of mosquitos and the heat (requiring constant generator time to run the AC).

Basically, we were getting a bit stir crazy by this point.

We stayed the night, enjoyed a lovely rainbow and headed out in the morning with intentions to cut our time short on this passage and get to the Keys sooner rather than later.

But first, we’d enjoy two more lovely stops in the Everglades… those adventures up next!

Great Loop Log (8/15/2017)

• Distance: 145 nm
• Stops: 12
• Marina Nights: 97
• Anchored Nights: 12
• Bridges : 9
• Locks: 0

Other Travel Posts in this Series:

• The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 1) — Ft. Myers to Naples
• The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 2) – Naples to Marco Island
• The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 3) – Cruising Ten Thousand Islands
• The Great Loop: South to the Keys (Part 4) – Everglades National Park — Little Shark River & Cape Sable
• Sometimes Nomads Need to Grow Some Barnacles (Two Months in Fort Myers)
• Starting the Great Loop — First Adventure: Punta Gorda, FL to Fort Myers, FL

Current Status & Plans Forward:

We’re waiting out some small storms predicted for this weekend, and then sometime early week we’re intending to fire up the engines and toss the lines – making our exit out of the Keys.

It seems surreal to even have the luxury of this option, especially as salvage efforts here in Boot Key Harbor are just ramping up to haul sunken boats (check out some drone footage we captured of boats being hauled out).

Our next destination is Ft. Pierce, Florida.

The 220 nm trip will nearly double our cumulative miles to date and cover some of the more congested areas of the Loop also recently impacted by Irma. We’ll be giving ourselves a couple of weeks to make the trip so we can take it slow and make stops along the way.

Once to Ft. Pierce, we are making arrangements to have the boat hauled out for a thorough inspection, attend to some of the comparatively minor hurricane repairs and proceed with some of our planned upgrades. 

More than likely, while the boat is on the hard (ie. on land) – we’ll be moving back into the RV during the process for sanity’s sake. We’ve also learned a thing or two since our bus renovations a couple years back, and have hired a marine project manager we’re coordinating projects with.

Being in Ft. Pierce will keep us also in easy range for spending the holidays with our parents this season.

We’re both eager and nervous to move on.

Even though the emotions have not fully caught up, our experience in the Keys will definitely go down as one of our most memorable.