Day 196 – Esplanade Marina to Little Shark River anchorage - January 18, 2012

Now is where the weather watching really kicks in.  We have two passages to make in the Gulf – one to an anchorage in Little Shark River and the second from Little Shark to Marathon.  Our weather expert (Fred) says today and tomorrow are perfect travel days so we get an early start and head to Little Shark River.  Fred is exactly right.  The conditions are perfect and we have an uneventful ride to our anchorage.  In fact, I didn’t think the ocean could actually get calm, but we certainly saw that today.  The only mar on the day was the number of crab pots we had to avoid.  Everyone talks about how bad the crab pots are in this area, but you have to see it to believe it.

We have talked to many people who spent the night in Little Shark River as the only boat at anchor.  That was not our experience.  There were fourteen boats anchored there for the night.  There is plenty of room in the river, so lots of boats is no problem at all.  This was our first experience anchoring where there is a tide, so Fred set the alarm so he could wake up a couple of times in the night to check the anchor to make sure it made the switch from an incoming tide to and outgoing one.  Everything was fine and other than the sleep interruptions, it was a great night.  Little Shark River is far away from any towns (with their ambient light) so we got to see the best display of stars we have seen in a long time. 

             Miles: 60.0      Bridges: 0        Locks: 0

looking back at the Esplanade Shops, Residences and Marina

another view of the Esplanade Shops and marina as we depart

as we left Smokehouse Bay, I was able to capture pictures of
some of the osprey sitting on their nests

the nests and the birds are both amazing

there are many different nest materials used
by the osprey - some are a bit difficult to identify

the incredibly calm Gulf

our anchorage at Little Shark River

the root structure of mangrove trees

sunset from our anchorage at Little Shark River