Into the Florida Keys and onward to Tampa

First stop: Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove staying with S/V Nightingale and touring the area until the weather is good to sail farther.

The marina's shuttle boat has a regular schedule, unless the water become too rough.

Look for the vortex beyond the mooring buoy slightly right of center

Looking like no better weather yet

Even worse

We left the mooring field and sailed southbound in Biscayne Bay.  We were able to sail all the way to Buttonwood Sound and Key Largo.  We dropped anchor, but did not go ashore.

The next day we had light winds, but sailed to Isla Morada, dropped the hook and went ashore for dinner at Lorilei's.

The keys are known for their quirky characters...here the "Nautilimo."

We motored along the Intracoastal Waterway the following day, leaving it behind at Six Mile Bridge and sailed into Florida Bay, heading North.  Sandy Key is in the middle of Florida Bay and I thought that it would be a pleasant, isolated stop.  We stopped, but could not land.

Inviting, but a real disappointment.  The signs all say "No Entry."

We entered the Little Shark River and anchored in the first bend with the intent to avoid more mosquitos here than if we went farther upriver.  Our plan worked fairly well.  The mosquitos didn't find us until dusk.

Early the next morning we continued our journey north.  At Marco Island we came in Capri Pass from the Gulf and anchored in Factory Bay with three other boats.

We went to the Snook Inn for Dinner.

The following day, coming from the Gulf, we sailed through Matanzas Pass and took a mooring...

...behind Estero Island for about $13 a night and had easy access to showers, laundry, cheap diesel fuel, meetings with friends...

...several waterfront restaurants and the beautiful....

....Ft. Myers Beach.  A fifty-cent trolley ride took us to the publix grocery or all the way to Bonita Springs, where we found a wonderful little authentic Mexican restaurant for lunch, Fogarte's (??).

Barb's cousin, Don and his wife, Sue picked us up and together we toured the Edison and Ford Summer House Museums.  Edison liked the spot on the river and was engaged in researching plants that would, hopefully, produce latex in a large enough quantity to manufacture rubber during the war years.  The research yielded no commercially viable results.  He worked in a nice neighborhood though.

The Edisons loved Ft. Myers and had these Royal Palms planted along the streets to beautify the town.  This is Thomas Edison's Florida house. (above)

 This is his lab

 At one end of the lab is his desk and the cot upon which he took his catnaps

This is the view of Edison's house from his neighbor's house.  The neighbor was his very good friend, Henry Ford.  Ford built the house, but didn't like Florida as much as Edison and only spent about two weeks a year here.

Henry Ford's back yard

This is Sue, Barb and Cousin Don on Henry Ford's back porch.

As we visited this historic site, I couldn't help but remember our good friend Mina Arnn Weiler who was recently killed.  She was a great grand niece of Thomas and Mina Miller Edison.  Mina Edison was a great benefactrix to the town of Ft. Myers.  I thought nostalgically about our own Mina's civic contributions and her years as a teaching colleague in Colorado Springs.

We left Ft. Myers Beach, sailed into the Gulf and rounded Sanibel and Captiva Islands.  We entered Boca Grande Inlet and anchored in the bay in about 12 feet of water.  I called a friend of Christina's, who was also a boater, and he gave us advice about docking in Tampa, but he also encouraged us to explore the area around Charlotte Harbor.  One such place was Pelican Bay off Cayo Costa.  This is a Florida state park and it is a mostly uninhabited barrier island with a lovely anchorage.  We stayed here a few days waiting for the wind to shift around again so we could continue northward.

We sailed north bound in the Gulf using Boca Grande and Swash Cut to get out to the Gulf and then Venice inlet to get in from it.

This is the cut into the Venice area

The Venice town dock allows tying up for eighteen hours.

The docks are heavily patrolled

We went out into the Gulf again and used Passage Key Inlet to the north of Santa Maria Island to enter Lower Tampa Bay headed for de Soto Point.  This is a nice little anchorage in the Manatee River off Tampa Bay with a National Monument and museum dedicated to the landing of Hernando de Soto, in 1539.

 DeSoto and his troops were brutal and ruthless in their far reaching, but unsuccessful quest for gold.  They brought disease and enslavement to the Native Americans and their journey spread fear and loathing far and wide.

We sailed up Tampa Bay and under the Sunshine Bridge to the Davis Island Yacht Club and docked there for several days.   The members are nice folks and an active sailing club.  Since we are members of the Port of Washington Yacht Club we were extended benefits here.

Jupiter's Smile on the far right with downtown Tampa behind.

Larry picked us up and brought us to stay a couple of days with Christina and him at their home in Temple Terrace, just north of Tampa.  Christina is a professor at the University of South Florida and Larry is in the Engineering school in a PhD program there.  While Larry studied for one of his final exams we took Christina to St. Petersburg on Saturday.  We had lunch, visited the Farmers Market and then looked at the many boat yards nearby in Salt Creek.  

We had decided to put Jupiter's Smile on "the hard" in a boat yard and tie down the boat to weather the upcoming hurricane season.  We were shopping for a suitable location.  On Monday, after calling many yards, we settled on the Snead Island Boat Yard on the Manatee River in Palmetto with a haul out date of June 1st.  

Both Christina and Larry were very busy with their end of semester activities so we decided that we would leave and then get together again in Ft. Myers in a week and go sailing together for a few days.