Author: Steve

Captain’s Log – Tue 3/11/25

We were stuck in port as a stiff northern wind churned the seas up to a state that would have made an unpleasant sail to Marco Island according to our weather service. After an overnight low of 55 degrees, it warmed up to the low 70’s and made for a nice relaxing afternoon at the pool, strategically wind blocked by a mountain of sand for beach repairs after the hurricanes. There are definitely worse places to get stuck!

I also decided to sign up for Sea Tow. I’m a member of Boat US for towing assistance but it occurred to me they may not have much if any service in the Bahamas. Just in case…

We head for Marco Island first thing in the morning.

Captain’s Log – Mon 3/10/25

The weather kept us in place, so we took advantage of the rainy and windy day to get some chores done. We multi-tasked by doing laundry while we ate breakfast at the resort restaurant. Breakfast was free, laundry was free… sweet!

I then sat through a 1 hour zoom meeting with the meteorology service. Man, that was starting to feel like I was back at work. Anyway, we came up with a plan to get to Marathon. I was hoping to catch the tailwind from the cold front that just blew through but he believes the sea state will be too elevated, possibly 7’, to make Marco Island tomorrow. It might be possible to hug the coast where it would be somewhat tamer but still rough. Best to wait for it to calm down.

The plan is to stay in Ft Myers one more day, then head for Marco Island on Wednesday morning with some sailing and some motoring. We would the plan to head for Marathon Thursday afternoon, sailing through the night to arrive Friday morning in Marathon. It will take about 16 hours to make the passage. It’s then looking like we’ll be Marathon at least through mid week if not longer before a window to the Bahamas opens. Plan made, I revised all the dock reservations. This took about an hour to get everything settled.

That done, we took the tram to the grocery store. I’ve never really used public transportation much, but we were able to get to the store and back for $3. We picked up a Coppola Claret and a Caymus Bonanza Cabernet. While we were at it we took an inventory of what we had.

I unpacked the Bimini top for the dinghy. That thing is huge, much larger than I envisioned but i think we can make it work.

We went to the Margaritaville resort for dinner tonight. Not much of a sunset with the clouds tonight.

Captain’s Log – Sun 3/9/25

We walked up the beach a bit this morning for breakfast at The Green Flash. We had sailed past this place yesterday and it looked really cool, so we wanted to try it. The bottomless mimosas were tempting but we needed to get moving, so black coffee it was. Need to stay longer in Captiva next time.

Afterwards we topped off the fuel as it was convenient. We used 10.5 gallons, which is higher than normal for us at this point but we’ve had a few days we had to motor either into the wind or simply had none at all. Thankfully, we did get a nice sail into Ft Myers Beach. We will wait out the rainy weather tomorrow here, doing laundry, groceries, trip planning…

Spent some time planning the next leg. Options are to sail straight through to Marathon Tuesday, stop at Marco Island Tue night then motor to Marathon Wed, arriving after dark or wait till the next weather window which might not be till Monday. Will get the latest weather forecast in the morning and decide.

A friend of Art’s that was driving to Ft Myers Beach dropped off our mail and a bimini top for our dinghy that Art picked up in Vero Beach. Sailing Ohana, can’t think them enough!

We walked downtown for dinner at The Yucatan, our local favorite tiki bar. They had me at pineapple!