Sorry, no photos today ... With not one but three cold fronts due to come through before Sunday (today is Wednesday), we were looking at the hourly Weather.com forecasts to see when it was forecast to rain today.
Forecast says 2 - 3 PM... OK, so by 10 AM we're off in the dinghy to explore Smokehouse Bay - another anchorage here by Marco Island, but supposedly too shallow for us. We sounded it last year & it seemed deep enough, so David wanted to try it again just to make sure. It would be the perfect hide-out for a serious blow -- surrounded on all sides and small enough that there's no room for fetch. Probably would hold 4 boats easily. Today we went in & sure enough, the winding channel was deep enough. Only one boat was anchored.
Nice anchorage, but nothing going on. It would have it's advantages, there's a nice marina there - Esplanade - with very upscale shops and restaurants/bars on the bay. It's also close to Winn Dixie for groceries - we dinghied under the bridge and the grocery store actually has it's own dinghy dock! Plus they had fresh mahi mahi on sale for $5.99 a pound. Guess what we had for dinner tonight! YUM! Only too bad we didn't catch it.
We prefer to anchor in Factory Bay here at Marco Island, not a romantic sounding location, but we like watching all the boats come & go, including the Key West Fast Ferry & the Marco Island Princess Lunch & Dinner cruisers. Lots of tourist options -- from fishing to sightseeing to photography expeditions on pontoon boats. Makes the anchorage a bit rolly during the day with all the boat traffic, but lots of fun to watch. Plus there are dolphins cavorting, rays jumping and ospreys & pelicans competing to see who can execute the perfect kamikaze dive and come up with the biggest fish!
We got drizzled on a couple of times during our dinghy excursion, but the rain began in earnest about 5 PM ... just after David raised the dinghy and decided he didn't need to remove the drain plug... :)
It did subside long enough to grill the fresh mahi mahi blackened which we inhaled. Then the rains set in again. Good news is the new leaks we found last week & David bandaided - didn't leak today & it rained hard for awhile. All good!
Forecast says 2 - 3 PM... OK, so by 10 AM we're off in the dinghy to explore Smokehouse Bay - another anchorage here by Marco Island, but supposedly too shallow for us. We sounded it last year & it seemed deep enough, so David wanted to try it again just to make sure. It would be the perfect hide-out for a serious blow -- surrounded on all sides and small enough that there's no room for fetch. Probably would hold 4 boats easily. Today we went in & sure enough, the winding channel was deep enough. Only one boat was anchored.
Nice anchorage, but nothing going on. It would have it's advantages, there's a nice marina there - Esplanade - with very upscale shops and restaurants/bars on the bay. It's also close to Winn Dixie for groceries - we dinghied under the bridge and the grocery store actually has it's own dinghy dock! Plus they had fresh mahi mahi on sale for $5.99 a pound. Guess what we had for dinner tonight! YUM! Only too bad we didn't catch it.
We prefer to anchor in Factory Bay here at Marco Island, not a romantic sounding location, but we like watching all the boats come & go, including the Key West Fast Ferry & the Marco Island Princess Lunch & Dinner cruisers. Lots of tourist options -- from fishing to sightseeing to photography expeditions on pontoon boats. Makes the anchorage a bit rolly during the day with all the boat traffic, but lots of fun to watch. Plus there are dolphins cavorting, rays jumping and ospreys & pelicans competing to see who can execute the perfect kamikaze dive and come up with the biggest fish!
We got drizzled on a couple of times during our dinghy excursion, but the rain began in earnest about 5 PM ... just after David raised the dinghy and decided he didn't need to remove the drain plug... :)
It did subside long enough to grill the fresh mahi mahi blackened which we inhaled. Then the rains set in again. Good news is the new leaks we found last week & David bandaided - didn't leak today & it rained hard for awhile. All good!
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