I’m finally getting around to posting about our fantastic Memorial Day weekend (last weekend) on anchor at Captiva and then Cayo Costa.  Randy, Corey and I first anchored for a night in our favorite Captiva spot where we dinghied to shore at Jenson’s Marina and hiked over to the beach near The Mucky Duck. After a gorgeous afternoon at the beach, followed by a beer at The Mucky Duck and dinner at RC Otters we headed back to Blue Turtle to turn in for the night. The next morning, Corey’s friend Sam was brought to Captiva to meet us at The Green Flash’s docks and was picked up by Randy and Corey. Once we had Sam on board, we headed our for our 2 hour trip to Cayo Costa. Of course, there was some trawler surfing on the way…

Once we arrived at Cayo Costa, we anchored near the beach at the main entrance. We thought we would try it out because we were close enough to the beach that Corey and Sam could paddle the kayaks to beach on their own. Once we were anchored, we launched the kayaks and off they went.  They skim boarded for about an hour before a storm rolled in. The wind was so strong that the boys couldn’t paddle the kayaks back to the boat. Randy went and rescued them in the dinghy leaving the kayaks on the beach. The storm lasted for only about 15 minutes and after the storm, Randy took the boys back to the beach and later returned to get me and Sophie. We managed to enjoy the beach for 45 minutes or so when a larger storm rolled in. We all headed back to the boat just in time for it to hit. It was very windy and Corey clocked one wind gust at 40 mph. Randy’s father and April arrived on Sea Crazy right when this second storm hit us and had quite a time navigating through Pelican Bay and around all the sailboats. As the storm ended, they dropped anchor in the Hurricane Hole and called us. We were hoping to stay in our anchorage near the bay entrance, but we soon realized that wind and boat traffic made it too rough so we pulled anchor and headed in to raft up with Sea Crazy. Once rafted up, we had a drink with Randy’s dad and April on Sea Crazy. We soon realized that friends Ron and Mary were anchored behind us on their boat Royale Tease. Ron and Mary dinghied over to us for a brief visit on Sea Crazy before heading back to their boat.

The next morning, the boys took the kayaks out for a paddle to the beach. When they returned, we all got ready for a dinghy ride to the Love Canal followed by a late lunch at Cabbage Key. Johnny had a little issue with his dinghy motor on our way into the Love Canal—wouldn’t run at the low speed required to make it through the passage. We towed then and Corey walked them part of the way and we managed to make it through to the gorgeous beach. The water was unbelievably crystal clear and we had a wonderful afternoon there. After the Love Canal, we dinged over to Cabbage Key for a fabulous lunch. When we returned back to our anchorage, we saw a boat tied up to Blue Turtle. As we got closer, we realized it was friends Nick and Holly on their new boat. After a visit with Nick and Holly, Randy took the boys dinghy surfing for a bit before we settled in for the night.

The next morning, Memorial Day, the boys kayaked to the beach as usual and then it was time to head for the 5 hour journey home. It was great seeing Johnny and April and running into friends Ron & Mary and Nick & Holly.