On Tuesday we took the dinghy over to Cabbage Key for lunch as it also happened to be DJ's 33rd birthday. The restaruant has a money bar - where the walls and cieling are entirely covered with $1 bills - which was a bit unusual. The view was breathtaking - our boats across the way, and a forest in back. The cheeseburgers... well they were ok - but not worthy of a song.... After lunch we took a quick walk on the nature trail and then bought a few bags of over priced ice ($3 for a small bag). It was worth it to me to have ice for my afternoon iced tea :-)
I had the day off yesterday, so we took a very long dinghy ride to a place called the Tunnel of Love. It's a very small river (well more like a creek) that is overgrown with trees so that it resembles a tunnel. We had to paddle the dinghy through as it was too shallow for the outboard. It was moe lovely than I can describe - and absolutely full of fish! At the end of the tunnel was the Gulf beach. It was so lovely. We were the only people around. The water was so clear. We enjoyed a little swimming - until DJ saw a ray in sand - which pretty much ended that! We enjoyed a very long walk down the beach. There were several weather beaten dead trees on the shore -- and Coleen did her best to climb them all. We had a little picnic lunch and then headed back just after noon. I was so hot/tired I nearly fell asleep in the dinghy.
After arriving back at our boat we got ready to leave. I had a terrible time trying to raise my two anchors and very nearly passed out from the heat/exertion before I finally got them up! I almost just let them loose I was so very frustrated. Coleen very sweetly made me a huge glass of iced tea and we headed out for our 15 mile journey down the ICW.
Just around 5 p.m. we anchored off Sanibel Island. We were not able to get close to shore at all due to the shallow depth. Somewhere on shore is the DN Ding Darling National Wildlife Perserve. We may not be able to get over there though as a strong front is supposed to come through tomorrow - and we need to get to a safe haven. We're only about 10 miles from Ft. Myers - so at least we'll be able to come back here during better weather.