MARATHON TO EVERGLADES CITY

We were up at 6:00 AM after a crystal clear calm night with a beautiful full moon.  The air is still, not a ripple of wind in the air.  I bet it’s going to be hot and muggy in Everglades City.  Maybe we’ll be stuck way up in the swamp, with bugs, and not a breeze to catch a breath of air.  After weeks of wind this is a contrast to say the least. 

BRIEFING

Larry briefs me on our trip today showing me page after page of our journey on the paper charts.  I mark the journey with a pink marker and circle the next page number to go to at the completion of each page.  It’s the first time I’ve ever taken a marker to our expensive paper charts but we’re covering do many pages in such wide open spaces that it was the easiest way to keep track of the route.  The route travels across several pages, some in blown up scale and some miniscule detail.  I hope the wind stays quiet so we have an easy ride.  I notice Hawk’s Channel on the chart.  The name is big and bold and ironically plopped on the chart right next to a sunken ship icon.  I’m so glad we aren’t going by way of Hawk’s Channel again.  I’m sick of getting beat up, and so is Ziggy. 

DAY LIGHT SAVINGS

Rats, we just changed the clocks to daylight savings time and now it’s dark as tar this morning.   It’s still dark at 7:00 AM.  Larry is rustling papers and stuff around making a racket.  I tell him to “shush” because he’ll wake up our close quarter’s neighbors.  He says their lights are already on so they are up and I say that’s probably because we’ve been flushing the toilet making too much noise.  But, then I hear the gardeners over at the Golf Course again running those silly lawn mowers and who could sleep with that going on?  P-hew, I get a whiff of their exhaust, so much for the idea of being in a remote area, this is as bad as living Santa Barbara and endless days of listening to the drone of mowers and hedge trimmers. 

I look to see why Larry’s making so much noise.  What’s he looking for?  Turns out to be a tooth brush, the one I used to clean the rust off the swim step yesterday.  He broke his electronic one yesterday and forgot to get a replacement while we were at the market.  I warned him that he better not put that thing in his mouth.  He said he’s going to clean it really good, sterilize it and it’ll be just fine. 

I’m stowing things, anything thing, that might get thrown across the boat.  After our last two rides, I’m not taking any chances.  The French people still aren’t up.  I thought they were leaving at 8:00 today. 

“PARADISE”

I take Zig for a long walk in the dark by the golf course.  This will be a long day today about 100 miles so he better be empty before we leave.  I can’t believe these gardeners.  They are actually mowing the lawns in the complete darkness and the mowers even have headlights like cars.   So much for peace and quiet in “paradise”.  I forgot how hectic the Keys can be.  I guess I wanted to come here again because of the beautiful water but I’ve concluded the Keys are just not my thing.  There’s too much traffic here for one thing.  You can barely drive anywhere without a hassle.  I don’t need to come all this way to experience this.   I think we got spoiled in the Bahamas.

Zig is good and empty and so we head back to the boat.  I redo the lines so I will be able to get them off the poles easily.  The French people are up now and he comes out to see if we need help.  He really is a nice guy and is always ready to help in any way.  I’m sure we would have had lots of fun with them if they were not such chain smokers.   Sad but we just couldn’t take the smoke.  I tell him we’re not leaving until 8:00 so no big rush.  It was about 7:45 then.  He says, “Good, because I haven’t had my coffee yet and I can’t do anything until I’ve had my coffee.”

Pretty soon it was time to go.  The tide was up and Larry started the engine.  Everyone came out from both boats to help and say “goodbye”.   And just that quick we were on our way.  

ON OUR WAY

It was a glorious morning.  The sun was coming up clear and crisp and lighting up the boats at anchor. The sky was dark and the contrast made for an impressive view.  The water was flat calm and the reflections were at their best after days and days of wind rippling across it obscuring any clear images.   

I’ll miss our little seagulls that liked to perch on the post by our front windshield.  They would cuddle next to each other on that post most of the day.  They stared in at us through the window watching everything we did and then make these crazy noises that sounded like they were laughing at us.  They were so cute. 

We passed one marker after another as we made that long trek back out the marina and each one had another little character perched on top whether a cormorant, pelican or sea gull.  They looked so comical.

Again we were amazed at the number of boats here on moorings or anchored out.

  A sailboat pulls out from the mooring field and heads out the channel front of us.  His hailing port is Fairbanks, Alaska.   We follow him out and finally pass him by the Seven Mile Bridge.  Wonder where he’s off to this day. 

WHAT’S THE WATER GOING TO BE LIKE?

It’s a little wobbly out here, once we leave the protection of the harbor.   Ziggy’s tongue begins to hang out as he starts to get nervous.   I’ll bet he’s wondering if we’re going to have another one of those days.  Here’s to wondering what the day is going to throw at us. 

We follow the 7 Mile Bridge a longs ways down until we reach the red marker and make out turn to go under the bridge and for the very first time head north. 

Our cruise today starts with page 19A of the chart pack today. 

The sea swells are big but soft and widespread as we ride them slowly up and down.

We’re getting ready to go under the bridge when our first Jack Ass of the day arrives.  He literally races under the bridge as we go through and wakes us.  The water splashes up all over the front of the windshield and the top of the boat.  Well, there went the nice clean boat!  Thanks a lot!

HEADING NORTH!

Yep, for weeks now we’ve been heading in basically one direction and that’s been south with the sun coming up on our portside and going down on our starboard.  It felt so weird to see it shining low and bright this morning on our starboard side.

We leave the bridge, the Keys and ocean swells behind us.  We head out into what looks like nothing but wide open space.  It will be like this for most of the day, water on all sides and no land in view.  The seas are just what we’d call a moderate chop, very good so far.  It’s so nice to be out in the open water again, away from the strict regime of following markers and worrying about shallow waters.  The only thing we’ve got to pay attention to are the crab or lobster floats.  Remember, the ones that look like toilet bowl floats?  Yep, that’s them.  We’ll be looking for toilet bowl floats all day. 

TROUBLE ON THE RADIO ALL DAY

OK, turn to page 3A now. 

It’s miniscule scale so I guess we’ll be looking at this one for a few hours.   We hear someone hailing Sea Tow on the radio.  They’ve gone aground in Pigeon Key with a 6 foot draft.

NOTES ON THE CHARTS

Boy, we don’t feel like dealing with these darn lobster traps today.  It would be so nice to just put her in auto pilot and sit back, but no, they are everywhere and you can’t take your eyes off what was ahead for a second.  I looked at the chart and we are going through the Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge.  I look around and there is nothing but water about 20 feet deep, no land, no islands nothing.  That’s weird.  How this could be a refuge for the great white heron? 

Okay, its 9:00 AM and now time to turn to page 27A. 

The seas have been great.  It’s been a very comfortable ride so far.  This area is noted on the chart as a “Particularly Sensitive Sea Area”.    Wonder why.  We’ve been averaging about 8 to 11 feet below us all morning. 

NO MORE ALARMS

Larry says it looks like the fuel in the water tank problem is resolved as we haven’t had an alarm go off yet.  Well, I’ll wait until we have some rough seas again and see how she does.  It seems like that’s when we have the problems but I’m sure he’s right.  Larry also said we can assume the depth sounder problem is fixed too.   We haven’t had a problem with that since he figured out the power problem.

When we left this morning we had some ominous looking clouds in the sky but mid morning they just dissipated into thin air.  It’s been like that every morning here in the Keys.  You wake up to these big dark clouds on the horizon and think you are going to get a squall and then it burns off mid morning.  If it was later in the year, those clouds would turn into thunder storms and some scary squalls.

We’re beginning to get some waves on our starboard forward quarter but it’s still a very comfortable ride.  We’ve seen lots of dolphin throughout the morning, a few sting rays and a couple turtles floating by. 

We’re still dealing with the toilet bowl floats except every once in awhile we get a batch that look like floating coconuts.    Well, that’s my impression at least.  Larry thinks they look more like little bombs with fuses.

COAST GUARD IS BUSY

The US Coast Guard comes on the radio.  There’s a report of a missing diver.  The day Larry went to Palm Beach there was a report of another lost diver.   I listened to the radio most of the day to see if they found him but never heard.  Wow, that’s two missing divers in a week. 

A little bit later the USCG comes back on and announces a vessel in distress.  We hear the one sided conversation on the radio.  We can’t hear the vessel in distress but hear the Coast Guard asking the usual but unnerving questions; they position, the description of boat, the number of people aboard, and nature of distress. 

 A little bit later we hear them again and the USCG is assuring the vessel in distress that a rescue boat is in route.  It’s always scary to hear these things on the radio.  It puts you right there.  You hope it all turns out for the best but most of the time you never hear or find out about the results. 

I get out one of the cruising books to pass the time and of course I immediately come across some really terrible picture of someone that has lost their boat on the treacherous reef in bad seas.  Now see, that’s why I don’t look at those cruising guides anymore.  I slap it shut.  It’s a good thing I didn’t look at that before we came down here.   We started talking about how they always seem to scare you needlessly.  Larry agreed saying more and more he’s beginning to disregard a lot of the stuff because really what it all gets down to is just plain common sense. 

Time to turn to page 6 on the charts.  It’s 10:00 AM.

We hear the USCG now hailing another vessel in distress.  Over and over they call but get no answer back.  Then they request anyone in the area to be on look out for a vessel in distress and notify the Coast Guard immediately. 

We’re just off Cape Sable now which is part of the southern part of the Everglades National Park.  We still can’t see land. 

Larry had to figure the tide today both for leaving Marathon and for our arrival to Everglades City as both areas have some shallow waters.  We have extreme tides right now because of the full moon so have to make compensations for that. 

We begin to see a low scratch of land off to our starboard side in the distance.  That’s our first glimpse of the Everglades.  We’ve gone about 50 miles since we left this morning. 

Wow, now we hear of a boat in distress 1 ½ miles off Marathon.      Hope it’s not the French people.  They said they were going to go back north up Hawk’s Channel.  That will be the first time they will be in semi unprotected waters.  Hope it’s going well for them today. 

Time for Page 7.  It’s 12:00 noon. 

Weird, we see a straight line across the water in the distance.  On one side it’s flat calm and on the other it’s a chop.  It must be slack tide there and the current beginning to turn.   We picked up a knot in speed as we crossed over the line.  Larry put the trim tabs down to put the bow down a bit and picked up another four tenths of a knot in speed. 

Page  8. 12:45PM. 

We’re officially in the Gulf of Mexico now.  That’s a first I think.  A fishing boat comes out of nowhere and heads straight for our boat, goes right by and wakes us.  What’s with that?  They’ve got the whole sea out here and they do that.

After we crossed that line I mentioned between the flat calm and the chop, the seas for the rest of the afternoon were flat calm with not even a ripple across the water. 

Page 35, 1:00 PM.

ENTERING TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS

We’re in the area of the Ten Thousand Islands.  I look on the chart and there are thousands of little islets.  They are mangrove islands.  It’s amazing.  We are going to weave our way through there along a marker channel that has been dredged.   We see the channel marker and begin our wavy up the river to Everglades City.  It’s a beautiful area with little mangrove islets and white sandy beaches along the edges.    We see ospreys, egrets, pelicans, cormorants, fish jumping out of the water, and people fishing and kayakers exploring.  The river entrance looks scary on the chart and I really wondered if we should be going in here.  The chart also said the depths were only 5 feet.  Larry’s done some research though and talked with people on the chat rooms that have come here.  He assures me that others say there is enough depth if you come in at high tide.  He said there is one shallow area to watch out for at marker #17  and other than that it should be fine. 

We follow the markers carefully.  The further we go up into the river the more the water starts to flow like a rapid.  Larry says we’ve got a 3 knot current in here.  We make it through the shallow spot the same time a Gill Netter comes out.  It’s always our luck, but no problem. 

It’s a long channel weaving a snaky trail around the islands but once you get to Everglades City it looks like a really neat place.  I don’t have time to gawk too much as I have to get the lines ready and we don’t know for sure where we are supposed to dock.  Our dock for the next couple nights is going to be at the Rod and Gun Club and Larry said no one will be there to take the lines so I should be prepared to lasso some poles. 

We continue up the river past little modest houses, palm trees, old docks and mangroves.  It looks like what I imagined old Florida to look like. 

Still, there is no sign of the Rod and Gun Club.  Larry says to yell out at this guy on a skiff and ask where it is.  He’s a park ranger.  He says “It’s just around the corner with the yellow awnings.  You can’t miss it!”  He then asks where we are from.  I answer back, “San Juan Island, Washington.”  “Wow, welcome to the Everglades!” he answers.

ROD & GUN CLUB

I can see the two story colonial building up ahead with yellow awnings. “There it is!” 

Wow, the current was running really strong now.  We don’t even need to put the throttle in forward as we’re going a good clip with the river.  We float quickly by the club and their dock in neutral and the dock is packed, completely full with boats.  Uh oh, we didn’t count on that.  Now what do we do? 

We can see inside their big wrap around screened in porch that the dining room was packed with people having lunch.  People must come here by boats to have lunch.  Larry says that “Hopefully someone will leave when they get done with lunch”.  He spies a group coming down the stairs to a boat.  “Ask them if they are leaving.”

I yell out to ask and they say there are in about 5 minutes.  Okay great.  At least we will have a spot to stay for the night.    We waited patiently in the river with the throttle going just enough to keep us in one spot with the strong river current.  Soon they left the dock and then a small boat behind them left also.  Great, that’s even better!  Now we have plenty of room.  We begin in to head to the dock and people from all directions came to help with the lines.  Did Larry say there would be no one here to help with the lines?  I guess whoever told him that forgot to tell him that the boaters all chip in and help. 

Wow, this place is fantastic!  I feel like we dropped back in time.  We’re docked right in front of this charming old lodge dating back to 1862 and it looks pretty much just like I imagine it did back then in its heyday.   Across the river from us is the “jungle”.  We are at a fork in the river and can watch all the traffic and activity that goes by.  This is going to be a great stop!  This is more like it!!!!

EVERGLADES CITY

ROD & GUN CLUB

This place is fantastic.  I’ve been lookin’ and lookin’ for old Florida and by golly here it was.  It was like taking a step back in time.  This was what I imagined old Florida to look like.  The Rod and Gun Club is a beautiful old lodge that hasn’t changed much since its inception.  The inside lobby is garnished with beautiful old wood paneling, a large carved reception desk, old wood stairs leading up to the second story where the rooms are.  Exotic stuffed animals adorn the high ceilinged walls, like wild boar and alligators and much more.  There’s a huge screened in wraparound porch where everyone likes to have lunch and dinner and watch the activity on the river.  The grounds are big open lawn areas, with tall old palm trees swaying in the wind.  Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing sheik about this place, it just looks like a place from the past, a place frozen in time.  

There are no overly landscaped grounds with atmospheric night lighting.  Nope when the sun goes down and the dining room closes it’s dark here like the world used to be before street lights, mall lighting, landscape lighting and highways and guess what you can see stars!  Remember those little bright things up in the sky at night?  Yep and there’s no big asphalt parking lots with curbs, nope, just gravel and grass as this place looks just like it did in the old days. 

There are a few small cottages just off the old lodge and dock.  They too are from a different era, nothing fancy and very small, like little doll houses, but the way it used to be when families vacationed together the good old fashioned way.   Everything is well taken care of too but the key is nothing has changed. 

If you walk the few surrounding blocks, it too hasn’t changed much.  There is the tall Georgian style City Hall and equally impressive Water Building that seem ironically flamboyant for the rest of the area but it gives you a glimpse of the life style that once was here.

QUIET AT NIGHT

We had a nice long leisurely dinner on their veranda that night.  It is the only night time activity around here and once the dining room closes it gets quiet and still.  We decided to stay here an extra day or so as this place was just too good to be true.  It is so special and unique.  Some of you may not agree and may not like its old backward ways but we did.  At night, you can drink in the whisper quietness of the place with the only audible sounds being the ever changing sound of water rippling in the river as the tide comes in, rests awhile at slack and then starts the migration out again.  Everything reacts to the ways of the river and tide.  The pelicans and cormorants know when the fishing is good according to the current and so do the locals and there’s lots of fish here.   You don’t hear the distant drone of cars or anything else out of order from nature.  This place was too good to be true. 

There are no big condos or strip malls either, just little old modest bungalows.  The only traffic that comes to this little town is from the daily tourists that come to take an air boat ride through the mangrove swamps.  There are no chain restaurants and all the other stuff that sadly overwhelms the rest of Florida and no grocery store to speak of.  This place literally shuts down after dinner and you felt like you were some where truly remote.

CHANGE ON THE HORIZON?

Of course like every place change is on the horizon.  Just down the river some ridiculous developer has bought a ¼ acre of river front, scraped down whatever old funky stuff must have been then and has put in a high end RV park fully landscaped with night lighting and a big fluffy club house that contrasts sharply from the town.  We heard from a local that they are selling each little concrete pad which is only big enough to put your RV on it for a whopping $700,000!  I think it comes with a small slip for your fishing skiff too.  Well, I doubt if it’s going to make it in this economy and if it does then we sure will start to see a big change in this area because if a pad of land can go for almost a million then the locals will be selling everything piece of dirt they own I’m sure.  It would be the start of the ruin this place and all its charm.

NO HELP IN THE KITCHEN

The next morning, we had breakfast again in the lodge on the veranda.  You quickly notice that guests staying at the lodge feel like they are part of one big family.  They all talk to each other like old friends and aren’t shy about going into the kitchen to get the coffee pot to refill everyone’s coffee cups. 

The service was a little slow that morning.  We finally got our breakfast and the eggs but they were cooked hard as a rock.  Larry likes jam for his toast and the waitress was nowhere to be seen to ask for some so I finally got up to see about getting some jam.  Having no success finding anyone to help me I finally had poked my nose through the kitchen door and it became evident why things were moving so slowly around here this morning.  The cook hadn’t shown up for work that day and perhaps even one of the waitresses so our waitress was waiting tables and at the same time cooking and serving everyone’s breakfast that morning! No wonder the eggs were over cooked! 

There was some old codger in the kitchen trying to help out and a little Mexican guy that didn’t speak a word of English.  Both were doing their best to help but were probably more in the way than anything.  Neither of them seemed to know a thing about fixing food or where anything was in the kitchen.  So, between the old codger and the Mexican, the three of us managed to find where the jam was stored and I took it back to the table.  It was comical. 

ON YOUR OWN AT THE DOCKS

You are on your own at the docks too.  There’s no dock master.  You have to figure out the power and where you dock and the posts are starting to rot, but it was kind of fun anyway.  There even was a pool near the restaurant that boaters can use.

EXPLORING THE RIVER 

That morning we got the dinghy down.  We decided to take a ride down the river to check this place out and also see about getting an air boat ride.  We passed one old wooden dock after another lined with fishing boats and fishermen some working on their nets and others pulling out a full load of fish. 

“What’d you catch?” we asked. 

“snook!” they answered.   The guests back at the lodge were catching snook at the docks too.  We’ve never heard of snook. 

We scooted past little bungalows with dogs poking their heads out to bark at Ziggy going by in a dinghy.  We motored past several small little home-style dock cafes built out over the water on posts, some looking a bit like shanties.  It reminded us of Panama in a way, like Bocas Del Toro. 

Well, that is until we made the bend and that’s where all the air boat enterprises were.  That area is definitely a tourist magnet and gathering spot for those wanting to take a fast ride through the mangroves.   You can’t help but hear the roar of these things too.  They are loud and obnoxious but somehow they didn’t bother me so much today as I was excited to take a ride on one.  We signed up for a 3:00 PM ride which means we’ll come back this afternoon.

DOLPHINS

We continued down the river and back into the mangroves.  There are a million paths to take and they go on for miles. It’s like a maze and you could easily get lost so we didn’t venture too far. We saw a pair of dolphins swimming right by the dinghy too.  They were working the fish in the river, herding them up to the shore in a frenzy and feeding on them.  It was amazing.   The first time we heard of them doing that was on Jekyll Island and now we actually got to see it!

HEY A MANATEE!

We saw a manatee too, a couple of them, who just happen to hang out by the air boat places.  We can’t figure out why though because is it so darn noisy there but our only thoughts are that they must be feeding them to keep them there for the tourists.

MY DEMISE, LUNCH  

We decided to stop and have some lunch at one of the funky waterfront cafes.  We pulled the dinghy up to their dock and found a seat on one of their rustic benches.  I ordered some peel and eat shrimp and Larry had the fried grouper.  It was a popular place.  The food and fish looked fresh and clean, BUT, it wasn’t the greatest lunch as the shrimp were cold and not deveined and well, they were pretty bad.  I ate a few but just couldn’t finish them.   Little did I know I would regret stopping there?

SWAMP BUGGY RIDE

Later that afternoon we took our fun ride on the air boat.   We chose the air boat company that boasts it’s the only one that also takes you through the grasslands.  It was great fun and well worth the trip.  We were told there were no alligators here this time of year as it’s the dry time of year.  The fresh water doesn’t come down the river this far in the dry season so the alligators all move up farther into the Everglades to get the fresh water.  I can’t imagine any alligator in his right mind hanging around here very long with all the noise of these air boats even if fresh water is here. 

Anyway, been there, done that now.  It was fun but too brief and only gave us a little glimpse of the beauty and mystic the Everglades has to offer.  It left us, or me, with the desire of wanting to explore more.  The Everglades have always intrigued me.  What really intrigued me was reading about a 100 mile canoe trail that you can take from Everglades City to Flamingo.  It’s totally in the wilderness and the only way you can go through there is by shallow boat, like a canoe or out board.  I had noticed the trail on the charts when we came from marathon yesterday.  Now that would be a fascinating trip!

SICK AS a DOG!

We ate on the boat that night but I was feeling a bit wheezy from lunch and by early morning the revenge of the shrimp took over.  I was sick as a dog for the next several days and couldn’t leave the confines of the boat.  My stay at the Everglades from that point on turned into a terrible blur.  Having food poisoning on a boat in hot muggy weather is not my cup of tea and by the time I started to feel just a little bit better I wanted to leave.  I couldn’t explain it but I just wanted to go.  In fact, back home sounded good even if it was snowing.

It was so disappointing to get sick here.  Larry said we could stay longer if I wanted but when you’ve been sick you just need to go. (we had been there 4 days but I do not remember 2 of them)

SO MUCH MORE TO SEE AND ENJOY 

I hated to leave as I felt like this was such a special place.  It’s a shame too as it was so much fun to watch the fishing boats come and go, day and night loaded with catches of snook and we loved watching the comical and talented pelicans that liked to fly up and the down the river by our boat using the river like a landing strip looking for fish.  We would have liked to explore more in the dinghy but sadly I just had to go.   The people that came to the lodge were so friendly and would come and talk with you on the boat.  It was a great stop. 

NEXT STOP NAPLES

So we left as soon as I felt like I could.  We heading out the river again and fought it’s strong current; back out through the Ten Thousand Islands towards our next stop Naples.  I spent most of the trip lying down and thank goodness it was a smooth ride.