HOT Conditions

Pictures: Old tree in the southern Everglades, with bromeliads in the branches; Joel and Heidi at Marco Island Marine; snowy egret on our bow; nature walk with leaders in green t-shirts and their cart with samples and buckets for more discoveries; Sand Spit at Tigertail Beach and the deep layer of shells in the foreground

Transmission problems caught up with us on RISING TIDE and we have been in Marco Island for a week trying to get everything fixed and put back together. Marco is just north of the last visitor center in the Everglades National Park. It is a very well developed island with tons of housing and commercial properties, but it has a good boat yard for service and a great west-facing (Gulf of Mexico) beach. The weather this week has been setting records for the hottest February.

Before the transmission tanked we did cruise across Florida Bay from Marathon to the southernmost part of the Everglades, Flamingo. There is a Visitor Center there, bike and hiking trails, camping, boat rentals and tours, and great wildlife. We watched crocodiles and manatees there in the boat basin where we had a slip. Neither species was looking to get too close to humans; the crocs were sunning and the manatees were feeding. We didn’t, luckily, see any of the pythons that are non-native species and are said to be living and breeding in the area.

We had two more days in the Everglades, at Little Shark River on the Gulf of Mexico side of the park and at Russell Pass, near Everglade City at the northwest corner of the park. The gnats in Little Shark River were horrendous and only allowed us about an hour outside watching wildlife. After that we hunkered down behind screens and could still watch the dozens of bird flocks skimming over us and over the water flying north at sunset (to rookeries?) and heard dolphins passing in the dark. Before the gnats overwhelmed us we were entertained by a large loggerhead turtle with a huge orange head (we both thought it was an orange float ball at first). The turtle popped up when we first set our anchor and then about every 3-4 minutes, just quick enough to see if we were still there, circling our boat, too quickly diving  before we could get any pictures. Loggerheads are said to weigh several hundred pounds at full adult size.

At Russell Pass we anchored with several other boats. We stayed as far from the edges of the pass, lined with mangroves, as we could and had less bugs this night. The sunset from there was beautiful and it was a very peaceful night. Earlier that day Heidi had kayaked through Oyster Bay off of the Little Shark River, trying to find one of the chickees that are provided by the park for the overnight kayakers and canoeists. It was an unsuccessful search but good exercise paddling against current and wind. When we googled “chickee Everglades” we found a picture of a wooden structure built over the mangrove roots at the waters’ edge, just a platform with a roof and an outhouse.

 The transmission repair has been dragged out partly because we arrived on a Friday at noon and partly because Ken drove the old transmission to Miami to be rebuilt and it takes another day pretty much to drive back to pick it up. Thanks to Scott Stephens and Linda Wallace for a car. But it saved $2000 over the quote from the place the boatyard was going to send it. It has been a hot, uncomfortable week to be working in the bilge. Ken and our mechanic Mark deserve a lot of credit.

Here at the marina where the boatyard is, there are lots of distractions: a fast catamaran to Key West (like the Boston commuter boats), day trip sightseeing boats, captained small catamarans for half-day sails, fishing charter boats, a large Ships Store, and two small bars. We also have lots of birds and a resident snook that swims around the docks (it’s a large-sized protected species of fish) .

There’s a beach in Marco Island called Tigertail that has a great lagoon and a “sand spit” to wade to. The lagoon is full of birds and small creatures; there’s a nature walk-and-talk every weekday morning to point them out.  Many invertebrates, sea worms and egg cases were seen and examined, as well as some “new” birds such as the reddish heron with a long pink bill, tipped with black. There’s an osprey feeding fresh fish to its chick in a nest. The sand spit has piles of small shells washed up there and lots of beach walkers.

Strangely enough we have had visitors here! Joel (Heidi’s brother) and Marie drove over from their vacation condo in Ft. Lauderdale, Jack and Peggy (Canadian boating friends) stopped by after driving to St. Petersburg to look at a possible new boat, and Scott Stephens (long-time friend of Ken’s) is staying in Naples and took Ken to the Goodland Sunday Afternoon Celebration, in the next town over, and also took us by boat to Naples.