Weather today was forecast was not the best… morning would be our only window to move a bit farther south… by afternoon winds would be up to 25 kts with higher gusts… we decided to go to Marco Island approximately 30 nautical miles south of us… approximately 5 hours.

Alarm went off at 0630 about an hour before sunrise… we had pulled anchor and were underway at 0730.

Once out of Big Carlos Inlet and into the Gulf of Mexico we found it a bit rougher than what we had anticipated… seeing solid 2-3 foot waves. Winds were less than 10 knots out of the SE but the waves were coming from the SSW. As the morning progressed the winds picked up to a steady 20 knots plus with higher gusts… waves increased to 3 to 4 feet… NASTY! Thank goodness we were only going to Marco Island.

We arrived at our destination Marco Island and were secure at anchor in Factory Bay at approximately 1230. Our position tonight is N25°57.838', W081°43.445'. We traveled today for 5.0 hours covering 30.64 nautical miles averaging 6.13 knots.

Nice photo of Factory Bay at night...