Captiva to Marathon- by Dolphin Dani

Crew's log - Captiva to Marathon

May 30, 2012, 1115
Today we said good bye to Captiva. We have lived here for several months and had so much fun but it's time to continue our journey. We left for Fort Myers Beach about 1100. The weather was good, minus a chance of showers. There’s some nasty looking stuff out on the Gulf.

Kids waving as we entered Matanzas Pass, Ft Myers Beach

Cloudy weather

May 30, 2012, 1600
We’re here at Fort Myers Beach! On the other side of the sandbar, there’s an old World War II ship, the USS Mohawk. The skies are clear and it’s going to be a beautiful sunset!!



May 31, 2012, 912
We just left for Marco Island! Pretty cloudy.



May 31, 2012, 1415
The weather’s still cloudy, but, hey- like the Bob Marley once sang,” don’t worry about a thing, ‘cause every little thing’s gonna be alright!” The waves are fun to ride. I got strapped in and sat at the bow, riding the waves felt like a roller coaster. It is so much fun! Plus, we some dolphins ride our bow with us!

Sophie not worrying 'bout a thing

Waves crashing

Me riding the waves–hard to see how big they were but it was AWESOME!

May 31, 2012, about 1830
We’re here at Marco! Our next stop is Indian Key!
We are staying off a little beach were we took the dogs for a walk and collected some nice shells.



June 1, 2012, 1230
The trip to Indian Key was canceled by the weather. Oh well, safety first and hey, we are headed to Smokehouse Bay with 2 dolphins leading the way! Smokehouse Bay is really nice place to anchor. We can dinghy to the grocery store’s dinghy dock and walk around Marco Island. Spent 2 days waiting out the weather.



No Mas anchored in Smokehouse bay



The McDonald's was a tiki hut!

Jake really likes chocolate

Pretty sunsets

Pretty flowering trees

June 3, 2012, 730
We hoisted anchor! The weather’s totally clear! Captain said we have a “GO”! Off to Indian Key!!



June 3, 2012, 1330
We just dropped anchor and… is that a bull shark?! Dad just got Bruce (from “Finding Nemo”) on a hook but he broke the line. We saw it from the boat, it was at least 5 1/2 feet! On a prettier note, we took an adventure walk around the island. We found are 6 sea turtle nests! Sadly, 2 had been raided by raccoons. I didn’t know raccoon’s could live all the way out here on a tiny little island! We didn’t even see any but the dogs did. Sophie treed one and started barking to let us know. Then Ralph ran into the trees and came out with a huge raccoon in his mouth!! He was so proud to show us his prize. Oh, I call this “Karma,” or “Turtle’s revenge.”


Indian Key at high tide



Turtle nest

June 4, 2012, 1125
We’re leaving behind Indian Key and Bruce. (Phew!!) We’re headed for New Turkey Key. I’m not the one who names these places! I wonder if there are turkey’s on New Turkey Key? We’ll find out.



We are here

June 4, 2012, unknown time.
We’re here, and now we’re hanging! Well, except we’re walking sideways. Let’s just call this incident “The Great Tilt.” Dad cleaned the bottom on one side while we were here. We saw lots of HUGE stingrays and dolphins bow- rode  the dinghy!! SO COOL! But no turkeys.




June 4, 2012, 1000
During the middle of the night, Dad and Mom raised anchor and left New Turkey Key behind us. The mosquitoes are terrible! Even with our netting, they find a way in. Traveling at night, we get to sleep and Mom and Dad get to avoid the mosquitoes while out to sea.

June 5, 2012, 0900
We pulled into Little Shark River. Mom and Dad hadn’t slept so once we were safe at anchor, they slept. Jake and I played, our favorite thing to do! Once the sun started going down, the mosquitoes found us again!! They were horrible so Captain said “Onward we go!”, so we had another night voyage ahead of us.



June 6-7, 2012
We found a cool spot by Flamingo. We’re about a mile off shore so we can stay away from those nasty mosquitoes! We’re going to stay here a couple days so we can rest a little and have some fun. While here, we fished A LOT! Dad caught a SHARK! I caught 2 fish at the same time. And once, I even caught a small fish, only to have a shark attack it when I was reeling it in and eat half of it!! It was crazy. We also did our laundry and managed to clean up a ton of trash off the island we were exploring. I wish people would be more aware of all the trash they just throw out. It has to end up somewhere you know!

 

Blacktip shark

June 8, 2012, 1030
We’ll be in the Keys today! Whoa, that’s a BIG turtle! Sweet.

June 8, 2012, 1750
I can now see the bottom… under 10 feet of water. We’re parallel to the 7 Mile Bridge.



June 8, 2012, 1920
We’re here at Marathon, Florida, home to the Turtle Hospital, the awesome Dolphin Research Center and the (from what I’ve read) only live coral reef in North America, Sombrero Reef. Super cool! 


I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip as much as we enjoyed the trip!

~Dolphin Dani