St. Pete Beach to Fort Myers, December 27-31

1. Leaving Venice, with a bridge to pass under

2. Slow down, there are manatees (somewhere in here)

3. A nice little retirement village in Venice

4. About to discover Cayo Costa State Park!

5. Our one mile hike to the Gulf




6. When oh when will I see an alligator?





7. An escape from the Michigan weather for Charlie



8. Onlya dolphin fin!

9. Cabbage Key

Leaving St. Pete Beach on December 29 on Freedom’s Turn, we traveled to Venice where we stayed at their free city dock and ate a simple dinner on the boat. The City police checked us for Florida rules and regulations as though we were guilty of some irregularities. We were clean! Coming out of the city to get to the Intracoastal again we went under a pretty bridge. 1* We also saw many signs to slow down because of the manatees. 2* There were many colorful doublewide homes and their docks along our way as well. 3*

The next day we anchored in Pelican Bay at Cayo Costa State Park. We had to go in cautiously due to the "skinny water at low tide at the bay's entrance. Earlier in the day we got stuck on sandy shoals twice and Charlie manuvered the boat well enough to get free of them. We were right on the channel!


Cayo Costa State Park is owned by the state of Florida and is the largest underdeveloped barrier island along the western shoreline of Florida. It has many mangrove swamps, pine forests, Oak Palms, a beautiful beach and a camp ground! It is known as a great bird watching place to go.


We took our dinghy to shore which looked very exotic with mangrove trees everywhere. 4* The hike to get to the beach on the Gulf side was about a mile and felt good. 5* 6*

I was on the lookout for an alligator sighting but still no such luck. 7* The next morning we saw many dolphins who swam in front and along the side of us in our boat’s wake. I managed to capture just the dolphin’s fin on camera! 8* No, it was not a shark!We went past Cabbage Key the next morning. The restaurant here boasts that Jimmy Buffett supposedly wrote ‘Cheeseburger in Paradise” while eating here. 8* Needless to say, the restaurant also boasts about their cheeseburgers. We chose not to stop as we were on a mission to get to Fort Myers by the afternoon; to get tucked into a slip in plenty of time to check out another city and this time, to welcome in the New Year.



It feels good to be back on the water again.