The day we landed in Ft. Myers, we had some extra
baggage with us. Gary's dad and our
nephew had flown down to spend the week with us. Originally, Gary's mom was supposed to come,
but their dog had been injured and needed heavy-duty care, so she stayed back
and the nephew came in her stead. I
don't think my MIL was too upset as she really hates to fly. I was a little freaked out about how this was
going to work as the nephew is allergic to peanuts. We know how to use an Epi-Pen, but I didn't
want to have to use my skills. It turned
out to be not a big deal at all.
We put Al, Gary's dad, in Elliott's cabin, and
Xander, the nephew, into the bunkroom.
Elliott slept on the dinette or anywhere else he could get some
shuteye. Gary went through all the cabinets,
relegating all the nutty goodness to a box that went right into the rental car
for the week. He even took my Milky Way
bar!!! There was almost a mutiny over
that, but I decided to be a grown-up, for once.
Our plan for the week would be to sail up to Cayo
Costa to explore the park there with a few shorter stops on the way back at
smaller islands. We hoped to meet up
with John and Sharon again while there, but found out that Sharon was not
feeling well and so we'd have to have them on board again when we returned.
Cayo Costa was a wonderful stop with a great beach,
but the water was so, so cold. It didn't
seem fair that such beauty was not accessible.
Well, at least by normal people.
Elliott decided to go in the water no matter what; it hurt me to watch
him splash through the surf and then dive into a wave, but he seemed to enjoy
it. The boys played on the beach,
meeting a new friend named Nem. They
made sand castles and trenches and tried not to be too disappointed when the
sea claimed the structures for her own.
From the beach, we took a long trail walk to get to
the old docks area. Jungle to almost
desert-like plains; it was rather amazing the different zones on one small
island. It's funny because I was all about taking the
shortest possible stroll around the island, but as we walked, I wanted to see
more and more.
We anchored overnight and the next day, the four
guys decided to take the dinghy over to the island again, this time going in
the opposite direction in search of the lagoon, which was recommended highly by
John.
I stayed on board and enjoyed the quiet and
stillness while reading my book, knitting, and writing.
They rode up
a channel pretty much as wide as the dinghy, having to avoid logs and shallows by
walking the dinghy along. Gary's dad,
Al, got out of the dinghy to help pull it along and slipped just enough to dunk
his phone. Gary had jumped in the water
of Pelican Bay (where we anchored) the day before and dunked his phone. Al's eventually got better; Gary's did not
survive even after a rice infusion.
They were surprised by a dolphin swimming along with
them in the shallows, his dorsal fin way above the water. The shells were fantastic there, too, as not
many people get in this small canal to explore.
After the Cayo Costa excursions, we set sail out
into the Gulf of Mexico to head south along the coast to Redfish Pass. We were heading to York Island to anchor
before heading to Picnic Island the next day.
The sun had just set as were approaching the outermost channel
mark. I was down below and noticed the
depth sounder getting lower and lower even though the charts were reading 14
feet. Cappy initiated a sharp turn, but
it was too late and we hit pretty hard. Al and Elliott were down below and raced up
the steps to the cockpit. Elliott raced to
the bow and furled the genoa to keep us from being driven further into the
shallows.
Cappy fired up the engine, threw the helm over hard
to starboard and thrust the engine into forward to spin the boat around to put
the bow back towards deeper water. After
a few thumps up and down, during which we made a little progress each time, we
moved the few feet needed to hit deeper water.
We changed our course to a few hundred feet more off shore to get off
the shallows and made headway with no further incidents.
Gary laughed afterwards because earlier in the day, he
had portended that " . . . the weather conditions were ideal for
attempting an unfamiliar inlet because the weather was settled but there was
just enough of a swell to help float a boat off if you did bump." Oh
yes.
At this point, it was getting quite dark (have I told you I don't like sailing in the dark?), so
teamwork was needed to call out marks as they appeared within sight and to use
the spotlight to highlight those that weren't as visible.
We were happy to reach York Island and anchor. I cooked up some marinated chicken, kielbasa,
broccoli, and rice, which my nephew drooled over that night and talked about for
days after. A win!
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