Crab Pots

Hi All-
From Ft Myers Beach all the way to Marathon, the thought for the day is "crab pots". They are everywhere. From Ft Meyers Beach to Naples, our first stop, there were quite a few we had to dodge. The main issue was the wind and waves, we had more than enough of both. It was some of the roughest water we'd been in. We stayed in Naples for one night and then had a little bit of excitement the next morning when we were leaving. The inlet in and out of Naples is pretty well marked. Unfortunately there is one marker missing and that one is rather important. We had the tide behind us and were moving at a pretty good clip when the water went from 15 feet to 6 feet and we hit bottom, hard. The wind was creating some decent waves in the inlet where the water was going one direction and the wind another. I lost count of how many times we hit the bottom but I cringed every time. We eventually got off the shoal and were on our way with no further excitement. What a difference a day makes. Almost no wind and calm seas after an uncomfortable trip the previous day. No excitement with the exception of thousands of crab pots to dodge.

The next night we anchored just inside Little Shark River in the Everglades. It was beautiful there and we met Ed and Maureen on Manatee that had been on a mooring ball close to us in Ft Myers Beach. It was nice sitting in the cockpit talking with them until about sunset when the bugs came out. The mosquitoes were bad but the noseeums were worse. We all scattered to get below in our perspective boats. The sky was gorgeous that night, seen through screens in the hatches.

The next day was from Little Shark River to Marathon. Somewhere shortly after we left Little Shark River the AIS stopped working. I'm still trying to figure out what's wrong with it. It has to be a cable problem but so far the cable checks out fine. Hope to get that going again soon but it doesn't look like we'll have it for crossing the Gulf Stream to Bimini. More crab pots. We just thought we'd seen a lot in the two previous days. It was about a 7 hour trip and we spent the entire time zigging and zagging to avoid crab pots. No exaggeration, I could sit down for about 10 to 15 seconds and then have to stand up for 10 to 15 minutes threading our way through the pots. Then I could sit down for a few seconds before I was up again. Allen was standing in the aft seats built into the dinghy davits and was calling out everything he saw to make sure I saw them too. Fortunately the water was smooth which made it easier to see the floats.

Getting to Marathon City Marina from the Gulf side requires either going all the way around Key West or going under the Seven Mile Bridge. Reports said the bridge height may not be correct. The charts say there is a clearance of 63'. Our mast is 63' with a VHF antennae on top that adds another 12 - 18". We went through a couple of hours after high tide and the boards on the bridge showed the clearance to be 66'. I'm not sure I believe that as it appeared we had only two or three inches to spare above the antennae.

But we made it and then motored on into Boot Key Harbor and picked up a mooring ball at the City Marina. That's all for this post so as to not make it too long. Next post I'll cover our time in Marathon.

Take care.
Brian