The Adventures of Monk's Vineyard - The Great Loop and Beyond: February 4, Day 224

Today we decided to take the dinghy to town …. well to Everglades City to be exact. We had our choice of two different routes. One was to go back down Russell Pass to where it forked with Indian Key. Yesterday when we entered from the Gulf of Mexico we came in Indian Key, but then took the fork leading to Russell Pass. Indian Key Pass goes up to Everglades City. The second route was to make our way through the mangroves into Lane Cove and then into Chokoloskee Bay. We decided to be adventuresome and go by way of this route. There were many shallow spots, even for the dinghy, but it was scenic and the weather was pleasant. It took us a couple of hours as we had to "creep through" many spots. However, we finally worked our way over to the channel leading into Everglades City.

Our next adventure was docking the dinghy. We tied up along the seawall, but the tide was very low so we had to climb up oyster covered ladders and onto the dock. We figured by the time we left the tide would have come up and it would be easier to get back in the boats.

Our first stop was Susie’s Station Restaurant for some lunch. The décor was more interesting than the food; lots of old cars and gas pumps. After eating we headed around the circle where the Annual Seafood Festival will be held this weekend. Vendors were busy putting up food tents and carnival rides. We ended up at the Tru-Value Hardware Store which had a “little bit of everything”. While we didn’t buy everything …. we did buy a lot, including some more fishing stuff. Of course, according to the locals, this stuff was guaranteed to catch the local fish. We have many lures on board that have been championed by the locals that have failed to work for us. Maybe the secret is that they have to be used by the locals. Hummmmmm ….

On our way back to the boat, we opted to take the more direct route -- the channel directly down to Indian Key Pass and then back up into Russell Pass. It proved to be much faster, taking only 30 minutes.

Once back at the boat we did a few chores, had dinner, watched a little TV and then off to bed.

Picking our way through the mangroves. The tide was quite low and there were lots of exposed oyster beds and shoals.

Since it was low tide, alot of the roots from the mangroves are totally out of the water ... not being from this area it was very unusual looking to us.