After a week at anchor, it was time to head back to Salty Sam's for the week. I had to take a business trip to Dallas and Wendy decided to head home to get our taxes and other things done. We waited for the tide to come up as much as possible and weighed anchor … Continue reading Bimini Basin to Salty Sam’s… last time

It really does feel like we're going in circles. We decided to head back to Bimini Basin in Cape Coral again to anchor for the week. It saves a few bucks and it's peaceful. We set sail at about 11 am and stopped by the fuel dock at Diversified Yacht Services for a bit of … Continue reading Salty Sam’s to Bimini Basin… again

It's starting to feel like we're going in circles, but we are treading water a bit on this side of Florida before we make the trek through the Keys. We needed to find a marina for the week because I needed to catch a flight for a business trip. We tried the marinas around Naples … Continue reading Ding Darling back to Salty Sam’s

We enjoyed a few days at anchor in Bimini Basin. We had to move a few hundred feet to the north one evening to give us some distance from some workers building a dock, but other than that, it was very quiet. We took the dinghy to shore and went to dinner, West Marine, groceries, … Continue reading Bimini Basin back to Ding Darling

After a few days in downtown Ft. Myers, the weather settled down and we wanted to get back on the hook to save some money. Also, we really like the experience of being at anchor. Tuesday was a workday for me, so we decided to try to cast off early go the short 13.7 miles … Continue reading Ft. Myers Yacht Basin to Bimini Basin

We were planning to stay on the hook for the first few days of the New Year and find a marina on the 3rd or 4th. Mother Nature had other plans. We had been watching the forecast and it was getting worse and worse. By Friday, the Sunday forecast was showing winds picking up to … Continue reading Ding Darling to Ft. Myers Yacht Basin

We returned from spending Christmas in Wisconsin with our family on the 27th and had intended to shove off to our next destination the next morning. Upon further consideration, we decided to stay one more day at Salty Sam's to give us time for a few chores. It took a little bit of discussing, but … Continue reading Salty Sam’s to Ding Darling

As Wendy and our son slept in a little, I got up in time to watch a wonderful sunrise. I sat on the bow with a cup of coffee listening to The Joshua Tree album. It was a great way to start the day. Once we were up and moving, we took the dinghy over … Continue reading Cayo Costa to Salty Sam’s Marina

After a quiet night at Otter Key, we pulled anchor at 0715 for the 52.4 mile trip in the ICW to Cayo Costa. In the morning, the ICW was quiet, but traffic really started to pick up around 1100. We enjoyed a nice cruise at about 10 mph. We had to slow down quite a … Continue reading Otter Key to Pelican Bay, Cayo Costa

It was a bit of an adventure, but we made "The Crossing." For the non-Loopers in the bunch, The Crossing is a much-anticipated, and occasionally feared, part of the loop. The issue is that the elbow of Florida that separates the panhandle from southern Florida is very shallow and full of crab pots. To go … Continue reading Apalachicola to Clearwater: The Crossing