Anclote Key

Powerplant at the mouth of the Anclote River delta. This is a great landmark when arriving from the gulf. After long hours of sailing, you know you're almost there.

Park welcoming committee

Tidal flats

Tidal creek

Sea of grass

Egg shell

Lighthouse picnic area

Ibis hunting

Dry tidal flow bed

Trees downed by storms

Those little brown spots are crabs

Crab's sand balls

Full anchorage

Is this a new breed?

We now have another favorite place to visit, Anclote Key. We anchored behind the island on our trip back to FWB when we first purchased the boat. It was still a scary thing to us and it wasn't that great a stay. This time was nicely different. I suppose 6 years experience on the boat and hundreds of times anchoring made a bit of difference. We have a good chart and chartplotter so we were able to get fairly close to shore. In fact, there were about 8 sailboats in the same area and none of them came any where near us. Our location was a great advantage since we weren't as affected by the current and stayed with our bow into the wind. Since we count on the windscoop to keep the boat cool, that makes a difference. Once settled, we dingyed to shore to explore the state park. We tried walking to the light house but were attacked by mosquitoes. Again, we didn't think to bring spray. We're just not used to thinking about the bugs except at dusk. Hopefully we'll eventually learn. Anyway, we did see some really cool stuf as we slapped the little devils. We escaped to the dingy and went to the end of the island. The sea breeze kept the bugs at bay and we walked over to the gulf side. This area is a tidal flat that is completely covered during high tide. Lots of stuff to see. There were many sand sculptures left dry by the water's ebbing from high tide. Crabs dig holes with abandon and leave behind little balls to sand. Just before dusk and the return of water, the little crabs make a mass exodus from the beach to the area above the high tide mark. We haven't seen this since Okinawa. They scramble up the banks by the thousands and make such a racket. We also saw several osprey chicks poking their heads above the sticks. They are getting too big for mom to force them to stay down. We made it back to the boat in time to get our anchor light on and promise ourselves a return trip some day.