Sunday - Aground and Marco Island

We parted company with Bob and Cece on Second Wind Sunday morning. They headed north and we headed south. We soon realized that our "shake down" had not ended yet, because within an hour we ran aground right in the middle of the channel. The water is very shallow in southern Florida. We draw only 4’4”, and the tide was rising, but it wasn't high enough yet. With amazing luck, the SeaTow guy was right behind us! He pulled us off the sandbar and we were going again within a few minutes. He guided us through that particularly low channel until we turned into an inlet, Rookery Bay, to drop anchor and wait two hours for the high tide. 

SeaTow Guy to the Rescue

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and we did not actually mind sitting there. But as you may know, Sunday afternoon on the water means TRAFFIC! Especially here in southern Florida where everyone has a boat. And they don’t go slow either. So we’ve made a resolution that we WILL NOT TRAVEL on the ICW on weekends. We will find a spot to wait until everyone else goes back to work on Monday. 

After we arrived at Marco Island, we took the dinghy to the dock and walked to some stores - West Marine, CVS. All the same stores in all the same places. We mentioned to the cashier at CVS that we were looking for a Thermacell mosquito repellent. The man behind us overhead and offered to drive us to Walmart to look for one. What we didn’t know was that Walmart was about a half hour away, and as it turned out, it was in Rookery Bay, the same place where we had waited for high tide earlier that day!

We heard the story of his life. Another fascinating character that we have met on our travels. Then back to our boat and dinner.