Fort Myers Beach to Marco Island

 Our marina at the Pink Shell Resort on Fort Myers Beach was a nice place to hang for a few days. We we did some laundry and boat projects while we awaited the arrival of John & Barb Gauger from Warsaw.

Several times a day, the local pirate ship would ply the waters in front of Samba. They were quite entertaining.

We thought it interesting that Indianapolis was listed on this sign.

The resort's "octo pool" was pretty kewl and the resident octopus was really quite amazing!

With crazy winter storms locking down most of the country's airports, we were concerned that the Gaugers would not be able to fly out of Fort Wayne.  Theirs was the first flight out that morning and, fortunately, one of few that got out that day. We were so happy they made it!

They arrived late afternoon so after moving in, we headed downtown to explore & see if we could find a place for a relaxing dinner. The Yucatan fit the bill nicely. check out their swinging bar stools. Boy could that be interesting after a few!

Wednesday morning was a little foggy and cool but not much wind - woo hoo! Before dropping the lines, we had a neighbor take a picture and then we were off.

Because of the shallow water, we generally travelled 2 to 3 miles off shore on our 35 mile, 4 hour trip to Marco Island.

 

We decided to put out a couple of lines to see if any monsters were lurking out here.

Well, as it turns out, there WERE MONSTERS lurking out here! About an hour into our trolling, the reel started singing - - loudly!

It turns out, our monster was a crab pot that was perfectly snagged by our squid lure! That had to be a million to one chance! Jim quickly stopped the boat and began backing up to the crab pot. If you look over John's right shoulder below, you can see the crab pot. Ughhh!

Though tempting, we didn't try to see what was in the crab trap. Instead, we cut the lure and continued our journey.

Fortunately, the sun came out, the winds died down and we were able to enjoy the ride with no other incidents.

The entrance to Marco Island was a bit challenging due to some interesting markers we had to follow to avoid shoaling and sand bars. During the trip in, Carol and John readied the lines. The dockmaster met us at the dock and helped secure us.

Once secure, we headed to town to see if we could find a place for lunch and to see what was downtown Marco Island.

We found a cute little locals hang out on the water for lunch and then hoofed it the 2 miles into the heart of Marco Island. It was pretty disappointing so we returned to Samba and spent the rest of the afternoon chilling. Jim even did some reading. Whoah!

The forecast for Thursday was for a little higher wind and more chop but not too uncomfortable. Wish us luck as we enter the 7 mile long "river" that would lead us to Everglades City.