Caya Costa Sailing
6 days on Argo II, a 1991 Island Packet 32 chartered from Southwest Florida Yachts in Cape Coral, Florida, December 26 - January 1 2015. With the usual suspects (Rachel, Kelly, Leah) plus Andrew, Kelly's boyfriend.
Arrived the afternoon of Friday, Dec 26 after a red eye flight out of Denver in the midst of a snow storm. Happy to have made it to the airport without a hitch having seen multiple cars in the ditch along the way. Andrew flew in from San Fran earlier that eve and met us at Gate B36 for that 1:20am departure to tropical warmth.
Provisioning in a Florida Publix sure is easier than in the BVI. Though it does gum things up when your credit cards fail. Note to self: always inform your banks when you plan to travel. After stocking the boat, we had a great sea food feast at the local Pinchers Crab Shack. Great facilities and nice folks at SFYachts and at the Tarpon Marina.
Day 1: Tarpon Marina to Roosevelt Channel, ~4 hrs of motoring, anchored off Picnic Island for lunch and south of green marker #21 in Roosevelt Channel in ~6-8ft
After our briefing by Mark, a very informative and laid back guy, we set out. I asked Mark to stay onboard while I motored out of the slip and practiced docking at the fuel dock. It's always good to get a handle on steerage with the local pro onboard :-) All went well.
The Inter Coastal Waterway and connector channels are your friends in these parts as the waters here are shallow. Without well marked, dredged channels, a keeled boat would not make it very far - even Argo with her 3'6" draft. Andrew was quick to get the lay of the land and to help spot the proper red and green channel markers. It's super important to keep tabs on the GPS plotter and charts. Leaving the short connecter from Tarpon Marina to the ICW, we quickly entered the fray of heavy holiday boat traffic. Zoom zoom zoom all around us as we chugged along at 4-5 kts with our 26 HP diesel beast clicking away below deck.
Andrew was happy to take the helm right off the bat and after an hour or so, we practiced our first anchoring to catch some lunch by Picnic Island. Nice way to kick things off with all boat systems working well, no nervousness on anyone's part, great weather, and interesting navigating.
After lunch, 3 hours of motoring to get to Roosevelt Channel off the east coast of Captiva Island and west of Buck Key. Good fun figuring out the channel markers and navigating through some narrow gauntlets to get into the channel. Pretty wild how in some places the waters just outside the channels can be 2ft deep; not a lot of room for error.
Roosevelt Channel leads past the east side of the town of Captiva and several small marinas and restaurants with docks. We motored past those to anchor as far back as possible in order to have shorter kayak and dinghy access to the beach.
After setting anchor, the kids took the dinghy and headed south to catch the pass between Sanibel and Captiva Islands about 1.5 miles in order to get some beach time. Rach and I followed behind in the kayaks. All was well until we returned to the dinghy to head back and I discovered that the gas canister in the little 2.5HP outboard was dry. And that I forgot to put the gas canister in the dinghy. Well, at least I did have the smarts to put the spare paddles in there. So Rach and I paddled the dinghy with Leah as coxswain while Andrew and Kelly kayaked ahead to go grab the fuel. We made it 80% of the way before Kelly got to us in the fading light of a beautiful sunset. Leah really enjoyed our slow passage through the mangroves.
Dinner care of Kelly and Andrew: a nice chicken curry rice dish.
Day 2: Roosevelt Channel to south end of Caya Costa, 2 hours of motoring to an anchorage in 9-10ft
Can't sleep in with Rachel onboard :-) Early morning kayaking through a lagoon and canoe trail that bisects Buck Key. Very cool. Spotted an otter, too many hunting Osprey's to count, herons, King Fishers, and one jumping fish after another. 
Breakfast than down time while Kelly and Andrew kayaked. Anchor up and a round of docking practice at Jensens Marina to refill the gas canister since we used more than expected on that first excursion; better to have more than you need. And fun to practice docking :-)
Motored back out the ICW and into a nice open area of deeper water to raise the sails for the first time. Not much of a breeze so that exercise didn't last very long but good fun to work the systems. An hour or so later, we motored into a nice spot to anchor just off the south end of Caya Costa and Captiva Pass. Set for the day and night! Warm, clear water, nearby beach, light winds, sunshine!
Kelly and Andrew swam to shore, Leah and Rach kayaked. I stayed on board to keep an eye on things since the tide flows by here at a clip. All was fine though and I got some down time to read the Chapman manual and drink an afternoon beer in the sun.
Day 3: South end of Caya Costa to Pelican Bay, 2 hrs of motoring past Cabbage and Useppa to anchor in ~6ft
Beach time!
Day 4: Pelican Bay to South Caya Costa, ~2hrs of motoring to anchor in the same spot
Dolphins in the wake!
Beach and kayak time in the little surf.
Weak cold front in the later afternoon brought 10kt winds clocking around from south to north to northeast making for a creaky night at anchor.
Day 5: South Caya Costa to Roosevelt Channel, 2 hrs of motoring and some sailing to anchor near the same spot
Sailed off the anchorage to get back to the ICW with Rachel at the helm. Nice 10kt breeze for an hour of sail time before motoring back into Roosevelt Channel.
Day 6: Roosevelt Channel to Tarpon Marina, ~4 hrs of motor sailing, fuel dock to tank up and clean out holding tank, docked back in slip C76
Pancake breakfast underway! Patient precision maneuvering to dock in our slip.
Off to Jupiter for 3 nights of wining and dining with Julian and Siggy
