This past weekend, we celebrated Randy’s birthday and Father’s Day with a weekend trip to Merwin Key. This is one of our favorite, nearby, anchorages since it only take 2 hours to get there. Merwin Key is a small island off of Pine Island and Sanibel Island and right near Picnic Island, a small oasis for day trippers and campers. It’s a nice protected area to anchor near the mangroves.

Randy, Johnny, Corey and I headed out Friday around 1pm and while on the way, we passed Lighthouse Beach on Sanibel Island. It was a gorgeous day and since we weren’t in a hurry, we decided to anchor just off the beach and dinghy into shore. None of us had ever been to Lighthouse Beach before, so it was nice to explore a new area. We stayed for a couple of hours before pulling up the anchor and heading to Merwin Key to anchor for the weekend. Once there, we had the usual happy hour cocktails and fired up the grill to get dinner over with before the sunset.

On Saturday, Randy, Corey and I took the dinghy over to the Sanibel Causeway to check out the beach. It was a bit of a ride from Merwin Key since we couldn’t get up on plane (too loaded down with coolers and toys) and once we got there, we were a little disappointed by how rocky the beach was. Randy didn’t want to beach the dinghy there since the rocks wouldn’t be good for the dinghy, so we decided to head back to Picnic Island and beach it there for a few hours.

Sunday morning, Father’s Day, came too fast and it was time to go. Since we were right near the Caloosahachee River and only a couple hours from my parents at Cape Coral Yacht Club, we decided to leave a little early and get there by noon. My sister picked up lunch from Rib City and met us at my parents’ boat, Island Time, where we celebrated the 3 dads with us—Randy, Johnny (Randy’s Dad) and my Dad. We had lunch and let the guys watch the US Open while my nephews and Corey played outside. We left Cape Coral around 3pm to head back to Fort Myers Beach. The weekend was over so fast and we wished we had more time…until next time!