Moving on to Marco Island

Golf in South Seas Resort

1/21-1/24
     We enjoyed a few days of chilling out at South Seas before departing to Marco Island.  We ate lunch at the famous Doc Ford’s restaurant, made popular by the author Randy Wayne White.  He wrote a series of books (25 novels!) about this area, Captiva Island. The main character is named Doc Ford in the novels.  Karl read a few of them and liked them.  We got up several times at night to watch the beautiful lunar eclipse.  We played golf on the gorgeous Par 3 course on Monday.  We do not play golf often, I have only played a few times in my life.  I was pretty awful. But, it was a lovely crisp day, plenty of sunshine  and blue sky, with a beautiful view of the ocean. The winds were a little calmer, but the surf was still up.
    1/22  Tuesday.  We got diesel fuel for a good price at $2.67 per gallon and then departed for Marco Island.  The seas were 2-3 feet, a little choppy, winds 10-15 knots.  It was a nice trip of 46 miles to the entrance of Marco.  We have reservations at Esplanade Marina.  We are delighted with this marina!  It is lovely, clean and close to grocery, West Marine, hardware store, and shopping.  Joe, the dock master is very nice and helpful.  It is a private marina, but will take transients when a space is available and the owner of the slip agrees to rent it.
      Karl has studied the weather, using several different apps., including Buoyweather.com, windfinder pro,  and windy pro. Looks like we will be staying here for about one week!   It is a great place to be.