Saturday morning, it was with a certain amount of trepidation that we left the safety of our marina in Punta Gorda for the little island of Cayo Costa. The reason for our concern was that there were conflicting weather reports of severe weather due to arrive later that day.
Friday, the report was for thunderstorms with strong winds
and possibly tornadoes to arrive at our destination island by 1:00 on Saturday,
about the time we would be anchoring. Ughhh.
Saturday morning, we woke to a fog-shrouded marina and some
reports saying the weather would arrive later and some saying it would be much
later. Decision time!
In the front of our ship log, we wrote, “A boat in the harbor
is safe, but that’s not what boats are made for”. At 9:10, we started the
engines and dropped the lines and headed out. Hardly 10 miles later, the US
Coast Guard came on the radio with severe weather warnings for boaters - - and
they kept at it. They said the whole west coast of Florida would see the storms
arrive at 4:00pm and there would be potentially dangerous wind, lightening,
rain and possibly tornadoes. Argghhh! We were hoping we could get sheltered
behind the island with a secure anchor before the storms hit.
More on that in a minute.
During the course of our 3 hour trip to Cayo Costa, we were again blessed with some wonderful dolphins. Some seemed to find pleasure bobbing around our bow and one of the larger ones delighted in launching himself from our wake.
Here are a couple of short video links for you to see how
fast we’re going and how easily they keep up and show off. The first one shows the 3 musketeers at our bow.
The entrance to Cayo Costa is notoriously tricky and for the
unaware mariner, an easy place to run aground. Jim spent quite a bit of time
studying our cruising notes from other boaters to make sure he got it right the
first time.
You first have to head for a warning sign in the water, then
head away from it, then head for and get dangerously close to this sand bar and
at just the right point, change course again. The good news, we made it. Phew!
We thought our granddaughter, Hannah, would enjoy this
little boat we passed on the way in.
Once into the anchorage, it turned out to be a wonderful place to hide out from the coming storms. Protected and good holding.
By the time we set
our anchor, the fog had lifted and the weather was clear so we grabbed a quick
bite of lunch & headed in to explore the island in the event it would be our
only opportunity to see it.
The walk to the beach was a mile down a sandy road. Sometimes tree-covered and sometimes dry & arid.
Ahhhh. Carol finally got to dip her toesies in the water.
This poor guy didn’t fare so well.
Someone spent quite a bit of time arranging this nice beach sculpture.
On the way back to the boat, we took a little side trip up this mangrove river. There wasn’t a lot to see except an osprey guarding her nest.
Carol found a number of nice shells to begin her 2021 collection with.
Well, come 4:00pm, the skies were still clear. Now, they
pushed the front timing back to between 3am & 5am on Sunday. Ughhh. Jim
felt the winds pick up around 4:00am so he got up & turned the instruments
on to check the wind speed. It was up around 20 knots but not much higher and
no rain. So far, so good.
As it turned out, the rains came around 9:00am on Sunday. Though
plentiful rain, the front was not too bad. Winds were under 20knots and no
lightening or thunder. God really is soooo good, isn’t He. Phew.
Sunday morning, once the rain began, it continued for most
of the rest of the morning so we hunkered down and worked on the computer or
practiced guitar.
After lunch, the skies cleared so we headed back to the park
to walk the beach some more.
What a great end to a weekend that started with dread and trepidation!
