Sarasota to Marco Island

After studying my charts and referring to the Active Captain web-sight  we settled on an anchorage in Lemon bay inside of Englewood Beach on Manasota Key.  The water in the ICW here is not really very deep and you need to watch the tides, which can vary around 2 feet.  We traveled the 26 miles and arrived at around 2:00, leaving us some time to explore. After setting anchor in 2 or 3 different places, I was finally satisfied with the depth and swing room. All of the better anchorages were taken up by rows of crab pots. We dinghyed to a state park near Stump Pass, looked out into the Gulf, and went back to the beach for some shelling. After we got back to the boat, the wind and tide had changed and we were in some pretty shallow water, so we raised anchor and moved again. This time I was REALLY satisfied with our location and we remained in one spot overnight.


Cindy's Observations:  We dinghyed to the inlet at the end of Stump State Park were I found some shells for my collection.  Returning half way back to the boat we parked the dinghy and walked to the gulf side of the park and took a picture.

Stump State Park gulf side

Cindy's Observations:  Traveling through this section gave the flair of a Mediterranean canal lined European city.  Homes with terra cotta roofs and arched portico's along with ornate baluster railings added to the charm of the ICW.  Passing by Venice was a waterfront mural.  The average age of Venice residents is almost 70.  It is also known as the shark tooth capital of the world.

Venice mural



Available

Cindy's Observations:  This little place caught my eye in dreams for my grand daughter, Tristyn.  She has a contemporary flair in style and white is her design color.  Marine life and animals have always interested her, so just maybe, she quite possibly could live in this environment.


In the morning we continued on to Ft Myers. It was to be a fairly long day, not because of the distance, but a lot of narrow channels and areas where I felt the need to go slower, not that it stopped any of the locals who buzzed by us on a regular basis. I think we must have passed or been passed by every boat in Florida, at least all of the SeaRays. We traveled about 45 miles and arrived at around 4:00. We called the marina and they gave us a number for a mooring ball. When we got to it, it was occupied, so they gave us a couple of others to look for. We finally found an empty one but the mooring pendant was tangled around the base of the mooring ball and wouldn't come loose. A friendly boater came over and helped us get a line attached. We were a considerable distance from the marina and was quite a dinghy ride. Especially when it seems the tide was always going the other direction.

Cindy's Observations:  This sign set the pace for most of the day.  The fact that the osprey were nesting seemed appropriate.  We not only were passed by what seemed to be every boat in the state of Florida but also had the most dolphins surrounding us on our trip to date, heading into Ft Meyers Beach.  Boaters were stopped in the channel taking videos and pictures of the plethora of dolphins.  As we passed the stopped boaters a pair of wave riding daredevil dolphins were on our tail performing a great show for 10 minutes. 

Ft Meyers Beach

We stayed 4 nights in the mooring field at Matanzas.  Ron and Jeanie, who moved here from Illinois were there to ferry us around.  We would usually dinghy to the "dinghy dock" at the Marina in the morning, lock up the dinghy and be gone for the day.  The first day we visited the winter homes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison and did some other sightseeing.   The next day, we took a boat ride in their center console fishing boat over to Naples, going offshore a mile or two on the way. The third day we shopped - West Marine (twice), Publix grocery store and a few T-shirt and beach towel stores.  Ron and Jeanie had us over to their house in Bonita Springs for a fantastic Salmon dinner.



Edison House - Caloosahatchee River view

Cindy's Observations: It was especially nice at Ft Meyers to visit my girlfriend Jeanie and her husband Ron. They became Floridians about 2 1/2 years ago. They were sweet enough to haul our rears around for 3 days. First stop was the Edison & Ford winter estates.

Edison purchased the property in 1885 at the same time when the frontier town of Fort Meyers was incorporated. In 1910 one of the states first modern day swimming pools was constructed for Mina Edison.

The lodge home estate was a winter retreat for the Edison family for a few weeks out of the year.
 In 1947 Mina Edison deeds the estate to the city, opening to the public in 1990.

Edison's  laboratory



Ford's house - Caloosahatchee River view

Ford purchased the adjacent property in 1916.  In 1934, Ford visited for the last time.  1988, the Ford estate was acquired by Florida.

Ford's  model T's



Jeanie

Cindy's Observations:  Edison planted the grounds in search of rubber producing plants.  Over 17,000 were tested.  His work on hybridization contributed to the Plant Patent Act of 1930.

Largest Banyan tree on the continental US
planted in 1925

Cindy's Observations:  Harvey Firestone gifted the 4 ft banyan tree to Edison in 1925.  Edison, Ford and Firestone were working on research to find a domestic source of natural rubber.  The banyan tree (Ficus benghalenis) planted in 1925 now measures about an acre in diameter.  The milky white sap (latex) produced by this tree can be used to create rubber.  There are 13 types of ficus trees growing on the estate. However, methods proved to be too labor intensive and cost prohibitive from this source. The plants for rubber making were mostly his hybridized goldenrod. 
Our next stop was on Jeanie's secret beach for finding Florida fighting conch shells.  We also found an assortment of worm snails, slippersnails, sharks eye, welks, olive, baby's ear, turkey wing arks, calico scallops, kittenpaws, gingle shells, oyster and coquina clam shells.
On the way back to our boat we invited Ron and Jeanie to come aboard.  We had brought extra life jackets for them to wear in the dinghy.  We planned the next day and took them back to the dock.

Ron and Larry doing what they love to do

Cindy's Observations:  Ron loves boating as much as Larry.  He kept idle speed past the no wake sign then throttled up for an invigorating ride in their Grady White.  We left from Fish Tail marina for Naples City Marina.  Jeanie and I were seated in the back and left the driving to Ron while we took in the sights.  Each home was beautiful.  On the way back we stopped  and ate our lunch we had packed while drifting in the gulf. 

Naples home

Naples home

Naples home
 

Cindy's Observations:  These homes were spectacular.  We couldn't imagine what the owners did for a living.

After docking their boat we rode to their lovely home were Jeanie prepared a superb salmon dinner.  We made our plans for our last day together and went back to our boat.

Our last day was to pick up a few supplies from West Marine, groceries and find a book on shells.  All was accomplished thanks to Ron and Jeanie.  We said our good byes and dinghyed back to our boat.  Thanks for a great visit and hauling our bottoms around.

Before turning in, we went to see the girls from LOUISE.  While visiting with Katie, we met  BOUT TIME, also doing the loop.  After some docktails we said goodbye and left.

We left the next morning but not early. We fueled up at a commercial fuel dock before we pulled out of the harbor. The price was right and it wasn't out of our way.  Our destination for the day was Marco Island (or Mark-up Island as Ron calls it) a rather affluent  community on the coast.  I had already called and reserved a place to stay.  They were proud of their marina and we paid a little more than I wanted to, but tomorrow was going to be a long day and we wanted a good nights rest someplace close to our departure point for a quick get-a-way.