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Site Rank - Old Salt |
Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2007 6:14 pm Posts: 3323 Location: South Florida
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Training Trip 2: Bokeelia to Everglades CityNov 30-Dec 4, 2016Much thanks to my wife, Nancy, for generously delivering us, 2 Hobie Islands, and all our gear to our launch. Thank you, Nancy!
We decided to launch from a dirt ramp at the north end of Bokeelia. DancesWithMullet (Channing Boswell), a local, provided us with useful info. For example, the area was suffering from red tide with lots of fish kill. The ramp had dead fish all over the place. SMELLY!!
This is our route out to Charlotte Harbor.
Dances with Team Partner, Debbie Turner.
Once we left the ramp area and made our way to Charlotte Harbor, it was much better, plus we had a perfect southerly wind which gave us a nice ride over to Cayo Costa State Park. We did have to avoid Jug Creek Shoal, a 2-mile coral rock reef which stretched across our path. Again, Dances provided us with useful info. This is our track over to Cayo Costa.
It had been a long day. Here Rick Parks is reflecting about it shortly after landing on Cayo Costa.
We set up camp just before dark. Debbie, a backpacker, provided us some Mountain House meals from her stash. They are quite good. Rick, who said he had enough of freeze dried meals in Viet Nam, was converted. He loved them by the end of the trip. Next morning we were refreshed and ready to go.
Over the next 4 days, we would make our way along the coast of FL for about 105 miles. Here are our tracks for each day.
Cayo Costa. Our camp was at the far right.
As we passed south through Pine Island Sound, we had very little wind—think, “Pedal, pedal, pedal.”
About sundown, we reached Picnic Key (also identified as Dump Key on my GPS), just southeast of St James City and the southern tip of Pine Island.
It was low tide when we left Picnic Key. Debbie hauling our boat out of the muck.
Day 3 of our trip we made our way down to Keewadin Island, north of Marco Island. With decent wind, we made 35 miles. Light surf made the landing interesting. It was enough that one wave engulfed our stern and hit me full force up to my shoulders. We made it in safely 10 minutes before sunset.
Keewadin sunset
Day 4, as usual, found us ready to go. It was 8:50 AM. Remember, these are practice runs, not the real Everglades Challenge.
Marco Island coming up.
This is our 4th day. We took our only mid-day break of the trip at Cape Romano.
The daily segments are shown on the Google Earth image. Day 4 is the yellow segment. We were on a nice reach from Keewadin to Cape Romano, but then our course altered, and we had to tack into the wind for the next 18 miles.
Since our tacking carried us close to Panther Key, we considered camping there, but then headed to Camp Lulu because it would be a bit closer to the finish for the final day.
Camp Lulu, an island on the Gulf of Mexico. Unknown to us, my good friend Alex Oancea was camped on the long beach around the corner. Alex was out training for the 2017 Everglades Challenge. He knows the area well. He left at 2:45 AM to catch a favorable tidal current back into Everglades City where his car was parked.
Unfortunately, when we left Camp Lulu, I left my camera above the beach in the grass. Next weekend, Alex found it laying where I left it 8 days previously.
Another great trip with wonderful friends. Thanks to Alex, I had pictures for this story. And, again, thanks to Nancy for picking me up in Everglades City. Great ground support!!
Keith
_________________ 2015 AI 2, 2014 Tandem
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex ... It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." A. Einstein
"Less is more" Anon
Last edited by Chekika on Sun Aug 27, 2017 8:55 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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