Sunny Days: Anchorage at Useppa Island

Terry came in close to sunset (a very important event to be celebrated daily) and asked the question, “Why are the other boats anchored with us rocking and we aren’t?” We were just outside the ICW with 6 other boats—we had dragged our anchor and were sitting in mud/sand. Good call by the captain because in an hour the tide would have left us high and dry. Not a good thing. So we re-anchored farther out, poured a cocktail and happily rocked with the others—all facing the same way into the wind. We had anchored near a fabulous home and one of the fellas came out in a kayak and we talked—a bunch of guys on Spring Break from Auburn, down to enjoy the Grandparents home—we should all be so lucky. At 8:30 that night there were only 2 TV’s on in the whole house. I got up at 1:30am and every light in the house was on—they were partying hard. We left out of Useppa Island/Cabbage Key the next morning after an absolutely perfect night at anchor. We headed down stream past Captiva Island where the owners of the huge homes lining the waterway must pay the dolphin because they were out in force. As we got past the power lines taking electricity to Sanibel Island we turned down the Caloosahatchee River toward Fort Myers. This was Saturday between noon and 1 pm and it looked like they had had a fire alarm in Ft. Myers. We have never seen so many boats in a skinny channel all going the same way. We were going upstream and they down so at least we could set our slow steady pace but it was remarkable the number of boats. We got into Ft. Myers and anchored out in the bay downtown. It was a great night to be anchored out and the lights of Fort Myers are picturesque. This is the land of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford –we plan on visiting the museum, home, gardens and labs tomorrow.