Little Shark River

This area is a bit farther south near Ponce de Leon Bay and still in the Everglades.  I couldn't get the Tripline site to recognize either one so it's not showing up on the trip map.  The trip was about 36 miles and we had some of the best sailing of the entire trip so far.  The winds were strong but steady and out of the right direction, the northeast.  This meant that we had a beam reach, the most comfortable point of sail.  We reefed the main and jib and watched the water go by.  The waves were not that high but every once in a while, our wake would meet one of the waves rolling towards us and create a beautiful splash.  We were on a bit of a heel so that means I don't try to move around a lot.  I have never had a great sense of balance or any grace so I minimize bruising by staying put.  Mr. Agile on the other hand could probably perform brain surgery while underway.  Hopefully I never have to find out!  Anyway we both tried not to be in a hurry to arrive and enjoy the ride.
We had heard of Little Shark as a great anchorage but never put the time in the agenda to make the stop.  Are we glad we did.  Aside from too many mosquitoes, the place was a unique encounter with God and nature for us.  For starters, we had dolphins following us in the entire way and then hang out for a while along side of us.  Then, the shear number and variety of birds is something we'd never seen outside of a zoo.  It was so quiet and peaceful.  The mosquitoes were pesky but we come prepared with citronella and screens.
  We had paralleled another sailboat all day and we ended up anchoring close by.  We invited him over for drinks and dinner.  Very nice guy named Harvey who is taking the boat to Marathon for the winter.  His wife will join him in a week after the birth of their 24th grandchild!  We were impressed both with his sailing history and progeny.  We look forward to catching up with them Marathon.
The morning was overcast but still the area was beautiful.  We were the last ones out of the anchorage and taking our time.  We had a bit of a scare when the engine wouldn't start due to low batteries.  This was very perplexing to say the least since the wind had blown all night and should have charged the battery bank.  Fortunately we keep a genius on board and he quickly ran down the problem to a disconnected wire and we were off and running in less than half an hour.