Sanibel Island

Dec. 15

Day 34

Weather conditions: very nice

Our plan for the day is to get to the Fort Myers area where we will come to the end of this section of the ICW.  After our last experience with gulf waters we want to enjoy one more day of the calm waters inside.  We have planned a relatively short trip down to the Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve where we hope to be able to stretch our legs.  Just as we are preparing to enter the anchorage, we meet up with fellow loopers on Simpatico who are headed in to drop anchor also.  It was nice to hear about their adventures so far.  

                    

Preparing for our adventure of the day got off to a slightly bad start.  "Someone" didn't use proper knot tying skills.  As we were preparing to put the motor on the dinghy, I noticed that it had decided to go for a ride on its own.  Luckily Jess did empty his pockets before diving in for retrieval.  As you can see the water is quite shallow here, so it didn't turn out to be a really big deal, thank goodness!

                    

Not enough depth to run the motor, so Jess jumped in and performed well as a draft horse.  He assured me that it was not too cold!

Very quite spot wit a few fishermen and many birds.  After watching these guys catch a few we returned to get our equipment.

                    

Not sure what this guy was (was told it was a red drum), but he put up enough of a fight to enjoy catching him.  Jess also caught a snook, but for some reason I didn't take a picture.