First of all, the tuna-fest continues. Although I’ve seen The Snook Inn twice now on my way into Marco Inlet, the good folks at Rose Marina pointed out that Dolphin Tiki Bar was just about 500 feet south of our slip. (Although you have to walk out to the road and back into Anglers Cover condominiums to get there.)
Yesterday, Our Friend Bill and I were in need of sustenance after our 20-hour (including nap at anchor) crossing, so we headed over to the Dolphin Tiki Bar and, besides an adult beverage, split what I believe they call “Ahi Tuna Nachos.” Which is “crispy wontons, seaweed salad, freshly diced tuna, avocado, cucumber, wasabi aioli, boom boom sauce, and sesame seeds.” It was so delicious, I had it again for a late dinner while watching some football team play some other team.
It’s a true sign of exhaustion if I don’t remember which teams were playing, and didn’t watch the whole thing. (Well…or that I don’t really care about either team. But don’t “at” me if your team was playing on MNF on the 25th of November. Maybe they were two great teams and I was just tired.)
Irregardless, Bill had volunteered to do laundry, but the marina store closed before we got around to it; and Bill walked down the road to a gas station only to find they had no detergent. So after dinner, we just got to sleep at a semi-reasonable hour, and got ready for…
Today
35.72 NM
6h 10m
5.9 kts avg speed
Today was some pretty uneventful motoring for six hours…WHICH WE LOVE. (Well, I’d rather be sailing for six hours. But motoring “not downwind” on an almost glassy calm sea with no engine issues is pretty damned acceptable.) I just basically put on Ol’ Otto (the autohelm) and watched the shorelines of Marco Island, Naples, Bonita Springs, and finally Fort Myers Beach pass by.
Tomorrow, we are aiming for a rendezvous with the previous owners of Jacie Sails (which was not named Jacie Sails at the time) in Punta Gorda. A slight deviation from the rhumb line, but there’s no way Our Friend Bill and I are gonna be back in Georgia for Thanksgiving anyway, without killing ourselves.
(Maybe that’s a bit dramatic. But all I can say is that my back and neck are truly barking; and I feel like someone has beat me with a two-by-four. Every day.) This is, hopefully, not by way of bitching–just telling it like it is. I am SUPER grateful to have found Jacie alive and well. Nonetheless, this trying to get her recovered, hauled out, surveyed, out of the crazy yard, and back to her slip in St. Pete…has been “quite special,” as my drummer friend Derryl might say.
Moss Marina
I booked a slip as Moss Marina, where I’ve stayed a couple of times before. I figured they’d taken a huge hit in Hurricane Ian a couple of years ago, and I’ve always been satisfied with my stay there.
So I don’t wanna pile on…but I have to report they are most certainly still a work in progress, as far as rebuilding. No showers, no laundry. And a large chunk of their income seems to come from the fuel dock and from tugboats–big ones–which come and go almost 24/7. (We had a break from maybe 1 a.m. until 5:30 a.m.) One 50-footer backed into the slip next to us not long after we arrived, and at first I thought they were done and squaring things away for the evening.
They were not. They shoved off again after an hour or so, and another tug took their place not long after. Tugs were stopping and fueling at the end of our dock, a few slips away, and using the slip next to us, as well as the end of the adjacent dock. Plenty of noise and diesel exhaust.
Again, I don’t want to be mean. But I feel like a have a duty to tell it like it is for my fellow travelers. And my advice for the moment would be to skip this place for now while they use the tug concession (and perhaps insurance) to rebuild. I understand they have big plans to basically buy the whole block, so they seem in no dire staits financially. And it’s not like they gave us a “we’re not quite ready for prime time” discount, either. Looking at my receipt, I see I paid the healthy sum of $202 for our overnight stay.
A different option, if you plan in advance, might be Sanibel Marina, across San Carlos Bay. Last we were there, they only had a couple of slips for sailboats…but you will probably find no tugs.
Oh…and I discovered later, after sending Our Friend Bill to the fuel dock with our yellow diesel jerry can: the attendant filled it with gasoline.
More Great Tuna (Snug Harbor Restaurant)
Continuing what we might call our “Eat More Tuna” tour… I think Bill and I both had a super-delicious tuna-and-prawn-on-rice dish at Snug Harbor Restaurant, just a stone’s throw from the marina. I’d say the name of it, but I don’t see it on the online menu.
Here’s a picture, though.
Next: A visit with the previous owners of Jacie Sails. (You can catch up on the history at HowNotToSail.com/5 .)
