Early Saturday morning the Key West Express raced past Pink Shell Resort on its way south to the Conch Republic.
Later that morning, R&R backed out of her Pink Shell Marina slip on Fort Myers Beach, rounded the North tip of the island, and set a course South for Marco Island. Our original line was 3-4 miles offshore, but strong southeast winds led to small craft warnings, with 6-8 foot waves far offshore. Our initial course bounced us some, with a few waves high enough to send salt spray up on the flybridge, so we moved closer to shore for protection from the wind. We got both a smoother ride and better views of Bonita Springs, Naples, and Rookery Bay.
Our trip came with a surprise: crab pots! We navigated around and through dozens of crab pot floats on our way south. Fortunately, our propellers did not meet any crab pot cables.
We arrived at the Marco Island Marina by mid-afternoon, and docked easily with good help from marina staff. After we used R&R’s davit to drop our new-and-improved Dandy Dinghy into the water, Matt and I washed the salt off of R&R and took a dinghy ride around the area.
Our good friend Marilyn, who lives only a few minutes from the Marco Island Marina, joined us for a fun sunset dinner on the boat.
We ended the evening with another rousing round of competitive puzzling, and called it a night around Looper Midnight (9PM).
Nice upgrade with the Deluxe Dinghy.
Thanks! We decided that it would be good to have a more usable dinghy. Both Rhonda and I, and Matt and Shirley, explored Marco Island today on the new dinghy. Enjoyed it!
Nice dinghy. Is it new? 😁😁. Looks like a good choice.
Yes, our old dinghy was very small and under powered. We think this new version will meet our needs and give us many more opportunities to explore.