Sunday May 25, 2008 Gulf of Mexico. Lat 26° 29.17’ N, Long 82° 12.33’ W (for the benefit of mailasail plotting I think our position needs to appear as 26:29.17N, 82:12.33W)

We stayed for about 24 hours in Uncle Henry’s Marina in Boca Grande, doing laundry, getting groceries, and cleaning the salt off the boat, and taking 3 showers each during that time. We were trying hard to make up for all the water conservation on the boat (although I find it hard to just let water run after living on a boat with limited water supply). Most of the boats there were open tarpon fishing boats, which go out to Boca Grande Pass this season, supposed to be some of the best tarpon fishing anywhere.  We were told there are lots of sharks around when the tarpon are there so I don’t think we’ll go swimming, even though the water is a beautiful clear aqua green, so different from Texas coast water.

We called our friends Theresa and Peter who now live in the area. I met them 13 years ago when he was dockmaster (or something like that) at St. Georges, Bermuda, when I sailed there on Melos the first time. It’s amazing how quickly you make lifelong friends while cruising. Luck would have it that they were planning to anchor out for the weekend on their Cape Dory trawler, Jolly Mon, in Pelican Bay, right off Boca Grande Pass. So yesterday we rafted up and then anchored next to them there behind Cayo Costa where there is a Florida state park. We took their dinghy to Manatee Pocket, a little mangrove rimmed circle where manatees breed. I have never seen so many, and they come right up close to the boat. After a walk to the beach on the gulf side, we barbequed on their boat, or rather watched them do it, while we were completely lazy, for the first time in weeks of getting ready for this trip, and then pushing to make it here. Even though we didn’t originally plan to come here, it was one of the best days we’ve had, and we will definitely come back sometime. .

This morning we upped anchor and threaded our way out of the anchorage through the pass. We are now in about the most ideal sailing conditions: flat seas with a breeze of about 10 knots from the NE just a few miles off the coast watching Captiva and Sanibel Islands slip by. If this keeps up, it should be about 24 hrs.to Channel 5 bridge close to Long Key where we plan to enter the Hawk Channel.

Janet