December
28, 2017
After
a few relaxing days at Hog Island, we were ready for some socializing and
headed over to Fisherman’s Village where we met up with some friends from “C”
dock at Regatta Pointe. Fun to get
caught up on people that we tangentally keep up with on Facebook or through
other people”s blogs. Lunch with Sher
and Steven with a stop-by from Robert and Joni filled our knowledge gap.
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| Sher, Steven, Joni, Robert (former "C" dockers) |
Sher and Steven took us to Publix for the a resupply
of milk and sent us back to the boat with homemade Christmas cookies. I predicted
they would not last until Christmas and they didn’t but they were a wonderful
treat!
Off
to Cabbage Key the next day for frozen key lime pie and then onto Ft. Myers to
take a few days to write Christmas letters and treat ourselves to a few
restaurant meals, laundry facilities and showers!
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| Matanza Bay Bar and Grill |
Our
sailing plans such as they were, had us making an overnight stop at Marco Island before heading to Camp Lulu in the 10,000 islands of the
Everglades for Christmas. After a false start trying
to enter on the wrong side of Factory Bay at Marco, a good Samaritan sailor
who saw we were headed for grounding trouble contacted us on the VHF radio, and
talked us in to a spot where we successfully anchored – on the second try.
The
next day, December 24 we planned to travel to Camp Lulu where we would spend
Christmas Eve and and Christmas Day.
Wrong. We were on our way out the
Marco Island channel when Jim popped up from down below to tell me to turn
around and go back. There was water in
the engine room which was coming from a leaking stuffing box - the last line of
defense to keep water from entering the boat from around the propeller shaft. We found an easy anchoring spot outside Factory
Bay and Jim worked on a repair. We
headed out again, but the leak persisted and we returned to the same anchor
spot knowing we would have to spend the night. I was disappointed, but at least there was no time pressure on Jim and after some
strategizing, he was able to fix it permanently. In the meantime, he remarked that the good news
was we had confirmation that our bilge pumps worked well and could handle
the incoming water!
After
our traditional caramel yeast rolls the next morning, we headed out to Camp Lulu and arrived in
time for a beautiful Christmas sunset.
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| Sunset at Camp Lulu |
This
was not the isolated island that we had anticipated and after several days of
being inundated by fishing boats and campers who arrived via kayak, we went to Russell Key, a delightful bay, further south and east into the
Everglades. Not another soul in sight and it was a beautiful spot to stay, do some dinghy exploring and
get a few boat projects done.
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| Our private anchorage at Russell Key - Well, Why Not? in the background |
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