We left Little Shark River at approximately 0730… Wind direction had changed and was now from the Northwest and the temperature also dropped… was a bit chilly pulling the anchor this morning. I had anticipated a muddy anchor and chain, but it came up quite clean… which is nice….

We again were following FULL MOON out of the anchorage… this morning they were only 10 minutes ahead of us… After leaving the river he headed quite far offshore for some reason… We hugged the shore to get as much wind protection as we could from it… winds were NW at 15-20 knots and seas 2 to 3 feet with a few bigger rogue waves but it was a following seas and produces an entirely different ride… much more comfortable than the last couple of days pounding into the waves.

At Cabe Sable we took a 40 degree turn to follow the shoreline and the get even more wind protection from land… heading for the Florida Yacht Channel that would take us to the keys entering about Long Key area. FULL MOON left us at Cap Sable area continuing their SW path… they evidently were heading to Marathon.

I had forgotten how shallow Florida Bay is… we never saw anything over 10 feet all day… in fact most of the time we were running in 6-7 feet of water or less a few times the depth alarm sounded… it’s set to 5.5 feet.

We had not really decided where we were going to stop for the day… marina dockage is virtually nonexistent in the keys this time of year or if available so expensive we are not stopping… the max we like to pay for dockage is $2.50 per foot.. prefer the $1.00 to $1.50 per foot range… these marinas are hard to find anymore… and not it the Florida Keys for sure… cheapest I saw was $3.20 per foot and we have stayed there in the past… it’s not a fancy place and sort of run down…. SAD.

After an hour or two of browsing the available anchorage areas we came upon a state park… Lignumvitae Key. They had 5 mooring balls available and were FREE… can’t beat that. We figured when we arrived, they would be full.

We arrived at approximately 1415 and found the mooring balls… all 5 were open surprisingly… We were secure on the mooring ball for the night at approximately 1430. Our Position for the night is N24°54.619', W080°42.064'. We traveled today for 7.0 hours covering 45.81 nautical miles averaging 6.5 knots.

We departed from Marco Island at 0800… forecast today winds SE 10-15 knots seas 2 foot… and of course this was accurate… NOT!

The forecast did eventually become accurate about 6 hours after we left Marco… be this seas were 3 to 4 feet… SE winds 20 knots… Was not the best day.

Destination for the day Little Shark River in the Everglades National Park… The boat that we had anchored beside in Marco… FULL MOON and 49 Ft Defever from Punta Gorda… It appears they had the same destination planned as we did were anchored in Little Shark River when we arrived.

We were securely anchored for the night at approximately 1700. Our Position for the night is N25°19.653', W081°08.547'. We traveled today for 9.0 hours covering 57.14 nautical miles averaging 6.35 knots.

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...