.........--- Factory Bay to North of Whitehorse ---
.............................................--- March 25 and 26, 2011 ---
Nights Anchorage: 025o 52.963' N -- 081o 33.850' W -- Factory BayTrip Odometer: 167.2 miles
Days Mileage...: 16.5 miles
We started the day by going ashore and walking down to the doctor's office that is right where everything else is in Marco Island at the main intersection of town.
The doctor couldn't tell us anything conclusive about what was going on. He figured that it looked like some kind of bug bite to him and declared it 'non-life threatening'. He was at a lose as to what kind of bug had done it, but felt that it could of been a bed-bug. We had been in motels some days earlier, but at this point had been on the boat for some time. We left worried that somehow we had gotten into bed bugs at a motel and then transferred them to the boat. If that was the case it would be a real mess trying to get rid of them on the boat with all of the supplies and bedding we had there. We decided to go back out and see what transpired. I'm glad to report that over the next few days the rash or bites on Ruth went away and there wasn't anything new, so we are still unsure and will probably never know what it was.
We made a quick stop at the nearby book store, West Marine and the Publix store before returning to the boat by noon. We didn't want to spend another night in Factory Bay, so hauled the anchor up and reversed our course back under the bridge and along The Big Marco River and past Goodland once again. We now had this section of water down pat and it seemed to fly by compared to the first time.
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It was back out into the gulf and we were actually able to sail! A real treat on this trip. We sailed south on just the Genoa at 4-5 knots. We should of put the main up, but were too tired and lazy.
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We passed the channel up past Turtle where we had gone a few days earlier and set our course on a channel next to Whitehorse Key, described below. You will see white sand/shell beaches on a lot of the islands/keys in this area. We want to go back and explore more of them with the dinghy.
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Turning from the Gulf up into the channel Whitehorse Key is to starboard and ....
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... you pass very close to a sand spit there, above. The trees in the background are actually across a small bay and are not on the sand spit. We continued further in about 1 1/2 miles and tucked in next to an unnamed key there.
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The temperatures had started to climb some and we wanted to prepare for even hotter temps, so while we were back at Marco Island we went to the West Marine and tried out some of the fans they had on a working display and settled on the Caframo Sirocco Model 807 fan shown above. I took a scrap piece of wood we had on board and with the tools that we carry mounted it to the wood first and then forward up in the V-Berth. There is more on the fan ( HERE ).
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To charge the 12 volt tool batteries, bottom two arrows, and the camera batteries, top arrow, we have a Wagan Pure Sine Inverter on board. This is about the only need for 110 volt AC that we have, so the 180 watt inverter is plenty and is under $100.
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Here you can see the fan mounted in the V-Berth. It has a double gimbaled mount that lets you ....
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... point it in any direction you want. We hardly ever used it on any setting other than low and on that setting it only uses 210 mA or 2.5 watts on low or 4 watts on high. That isn't much electricity. We loved it so much that later in the trip we bought a second and have it so that we can move it to wherever it is needed. I wired both to cords that have a standard 12 volt cigarette lighter plug on the end.
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Since I had straightened up a bit for the fan pictures here are a couple more of the V-Berth area starting with my junk and ....
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... cloths on the starboard side. I learned to roll cloths up in the Navy and if you do that you can pack an amazing amount into a small area. Also show above is the hose for my CPAP machine used for sleep apnea. The machine runs on 12 volts or 110 with the inverter that comes with it and is under the hose next to the mattress.
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Here is Ruth's side and you can see the 12 volt outlet that I wired with wiring we had taken down at the end of the bed for the fan. The foot of the bed actually extends forward where the pillows have been stuffed. The fan moves cool air that drops through the hatch onto us.
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Above is Ruth's clothing storage, she also uses a shelf on my side, and ahead of that our main food storage unit that we use out of. When it is low we add to it from food stored under the V-Berth and back where the aft berth would be if we used one. We did spend some of the day doing just that.
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Above is the computer monitor that also doubles as our chartplotter when SeaClear II is running on the computer. It is on an arm, left arrow, that I made that allows the monitor to swing into about any position for viewing in the cabin any place or from the cockpit. More ( HERE ). Below and beyond the computer is the aft berth area that is our 'main storeroom' and as you can see a mess a lot of the time.
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We enjoyed this anchorage and the first night we believe that some Manatee's spouted right next to us. We never heard anything like it the rest of the trip. They were so loud that it woke us up and if I wouldn't of know better would of thought it was a whale. We never saw one the time we were in Florida, so that is still on the 'hope we see that' list.
===== Route and Waypoints Using SeaClear II =====
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When we left Marco and retraced our steps past Goodland we proceeded down the coast a little further past the anchorage near Turtle Key, top arrow and turned back in ....
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... by White Horse, bottom right arrow. We then proceed in a ways until we started getting into shallow water, top right.
====== Google Images of Same Route Shown Above ======
(NOTE: Google Images and SeaClear Routes might be from different angles)
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If we wouldn't of had to return to Marco Island we could of taken the route shown above to the next anchorage. It is back out just into the Gulf and then a short ways south and back up the pass that passes right next to Whitehorse and further inland. Whitehorse is the distinctive key just above the right two arrows with the nice white beach sticking out. We ended up in pretty shallow water at the upper arrow in a pretty protected spot and passed about 3 other boats anchored before that, but no one past us.
I believe that a person might be able to leave the one anchorage, top left arrow, and go up and around to the final anchorage without going out to the Gulf. Looking at the charts and at the photo leads me to believe that a shoal draft trailer boat could venture that way, but of course we didn't. If we wouldn't of returned to Marco I think we would of tried it.
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Above is the chart of the area I described with our one anchorage to the left and the new one to the right. Again I need to stress that we 'did not' take this route, so you are on your own.
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