My Adventure Story
The SUNCOAST GRADY WHITE CLUB began their adventures from Bradenton Florida and are headed for the FLORIDA KEYS.
Saturday, May 1st:
The day began when our boat, LIBERTY, met up with the three others in our flotilia on the ICW outside of Cannons Marina, our sponsor, to begin the trip south.
Liberty is a 28' Grady White, SAILFISH, with twin 250 hp Yamaha engines. Also, meeting with Liberty were Comodity, with Tom and Ellie, Irish Angel with Lou and Deanna, Hailey II with Rex and Terresa. In Sarasota we met up with Phamasea with Mike and Susan, Waterfaucet with Reg and Sally, North & Co. with Bill and Dianne. And Al and Kathy in their new GRADY WHITE RV.
Because of the rough wind and waves we all agreed to stay in the ICW all the way to Ft.Myers Beach before going into the Gulf. The trip down was mostly uneventful until crossing Charlotte Habor. We stopped to have lunch behind Ft. Myers Beach. From there the trip was really slow going through the no wake zones. The tweny mile ride in the Gulf was no fun. there was a 20MPH wind out of the South and it was a hard beat to Gordon Pass.
We arrived finally at about 5 PM at the Naples Yach Club dock, just in time to have the dockmaster get us settled in. With that strong wind from the South it was difficult to back the boat into a slip, but Laura did a fine job.
We all met at the Dock restaurant for a nice dinner. We were all so happy that we made it this far. Because of the weather we changed our plans to stay in Naples until it improved; this change eliminated our trip to Marathon and instead we would go to KEY WEST.
Sunday, May 2nd:
Everyone had a good night's rest. Liberty and Hailey II crews met for breakfast at the Naples Yacht Club. We then headed out for a nice walk around Naples and to the City Pier. Along the way we met up with the Pharmasea crew. We walked along the Naples City Pier. It was fun, warm and windy. The water was very rough. After the long walk it was time to eat lunch and so we headed back to the NYC. After lunch it was time to rest and a cool dip in the swimming pool. Paul, college roommate, and Kathy came for a visit. After the dip we walked over to the restaurant where we met with the rest of the Grady group for drinks and then returned for dinner at the NYC.
Monday, May 3rd: Still here in Napes at the Naples Yacht Club and the others are at the City Dock. We decided to forego breakfast this morning because we over-ate yesterday. We enjoyed too much good food.
We had a small meeting at the Cove Inn and Laura made some calls to determine if everyone was still planning to go down to Marco Island. She discovered that NORTH & COMPANY had already left and were in the Gulf heading back home.
At 11:30 we all (16 of us) left on two boats and traveled the ICW to Marco Island. We had a very nice and smooth ride down to Marco Island and we only got lost one time on the way to the restaurant. We tied up at the SNOOK INN and had a wonderful lunch. On the way back to Naples we had to rescue an obease gentleman and his woman. They ran aground on a sandbar. Hailey II pulled them off after a lot of supervision from a dozen other captains. Lou's knot held tight and never came loose, not a bowline. We returned in time for dinner.
Tuesday, May 4th: We are still here in Napes and we plan to shove-off at 8:30 AM. and head for Key West. Hopefully the winds and waves will continue to die down. Well we did get a good start but boy was it rough. The seas were still 3-4 ft and very choppy. I flew off my feet on one big swell and landed on my back hitting it on the arm of the chair. Sixteen days after hurting it I'm still in pain! I must have cracked a rib in my back. Well as we got closer to KEY WEST the water calmed down. We arrived at the dock after a five hour ride. We tied up at the CONCH RESORT in Key West. Very nice, with a large pool, gas dock, hotel, and a nice bar, and a very good restaurant. The rough ride down was hard on Laura and the doctor sent a prescription to the CVS pharmacy for her stomach. We went to bed early. The others continued to party.
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