Sanibel Island

Today we made the transition from vacation get-away to  “Loopers on-the-way”.

Kim, Scott and Autumn departed for the frozen tundra this afternoon and we put the boat back into traveling mode.  Dennis has been charting the next section of the journey, we got the laundry done, everything buttoned down and put away  so we are ready to start out again first thing in the morning.

We plan to go from here at Sanibel Marina down to Marco Island.  We will take the “outside” route down the Gulf of Mexico rather than the inside route of the old Intracoastal Waterway.  The inside route is more protected from wind and storm, but is frequently shallow and full of twists and turns.  Since the weather promises to be kind to us the next few days we will take the more direct route. 

Active Captain on our iPad

One of the tools that we use to chart our routes and check on anchorage locations is called “Active Captain” and it is a great web tool.  Every waterway is carefully charted and traveling boats post their reviews of locations, marinas, bays and harbors as they go along.  So we have up to the minute information if a bridge is out of order, or if the fuel prices are particularly good or bad at any given spot. 

Active Captain tells us Smokehouse Harbor will be a good place to anchor the boat overnight in Marco Island tomorrow night.

Our Planned Anchorage at Marco Is