Naples, Fl

January 27, 2017

Underway this morning at 8am heading to Marathon, a 24 - 27 hour sail, weather looks good. Winds NNE 10 - 15 kts and seas 5-6 feet.
We have picked up a couple of more boats that want to follow us south. S.V. Rebel Soul with Mike and Terry, this one we picked up in Carabelle, then we met S.V. Running Free with Jeffery a Dutch man, in Fort Myers along with S.V. Aruba and Guy, a Frenchman... we will have a flotilla eventually.

Set sails on a beam reach doing 6.5 kts, then the crab traps start to appear, this is worse than a mine field. We are 7 mi out and with the swells it is hard to spot them until you are very close. We try hard to avoid these as not to get one caught on prop or rudder, I don't feel like going swimming, water still too cold here for me.

About three hours into the trip the Frenchman pulls along side and yells..."I have no electronics, no radio, no lights..." and he wants to stay close so he can follow us.  I don't think so!!!  Did I mention all these guys have very little to no experience out at sea?
We needed to find a port to go before night fall, the closest was Naples, Fl. going thru Gordon Pass. We are fortunate that we will be entering at high tide since there is some bad shoaling in the Pass. Florida has beautiful beaches because they have no water, from here to Marathon there is no place we can go into with a 6 foot draft, most places have only 4-5 feet depth.

Entered Gordon Pass at 2:30 pm, passed several areas that we had only 1 foot of water under us, hoping I would not run aground, favoring green markers was a bit better but not much. Had called City Marina and had dock reserved, as we approached the marina they called on the radio and said we were too long for their docks... now what.
Found Naples Boat Club, the only marina that could accommodate us. Now we sit in between million dollar yachts, swimming pool, lounge, free washer & drier... and me, just a meager cruiser, sea gypsy. Like we fit here, OH I forgot we are in Naples, FL, duh!
We fixed Guy's problem, a bad house bank switch, and several other issues. Jeffery was having overheating issues and could do only 3kts. He made it to port after dark, told him to check prop, and sure enough he had a piece of line around prop, thanks to crab traps.

January 28, 2017

Well we missed our weather window, there is another front moving thru tomorrow into Monday, so we will be here for a couple of days. Took the day to walk into town and relax. Hope to be going Tuesday morning 11am, the tide dictates the time on this one.

5th Ave- three blocks of sidewalk art