Marco Island Visit

 Wednesday we took a trip to Marco Island with the jet skis. We had planned on going to a Passport America park before taking the skis to Marco Island but after doing a Google Map Search I thought it would be quicker to get there from Midway Campground here in the Big Cypress Preserve.

 We put the skis in the water at Caxambas Boat Park, and started the short trip to the sandbar a few hundred yards off shore. I had took the carbs off the one ski and cleaned them again in hopes that would solve the problem of it not running right in the water, but that didn't help much, but it really didn't matter because 90% of our ride was in a no wake zone.

We had looked to see when low tide would be, that is when I found out there are two low tides, and the depths are not always the same. In fact the low tide at 3AM would be a lot lower than the low tide at 3PM, but the skis don't have lights, and I am not getting up that early to look for sea shells. Today was going to be the best low tide for the next several days in the afternoons as shown in the tide chart below.

 The Island Chuck and Terry took us to last year was almost under water because the tide wasn't very low, so we went to the south to another Island. This was the island they took Marcia to, and the island the Eagles nest is on. We did run the skis over a few really shallow places getting to the island, and if the tide would have been lower these places would have been ideal for shelling. In a couple of these places we had to stop the skis and get off and pull the skis.

 Being on the island while the water was so high had its advantages, we were the only ones there. So with the entire island to ourselves we were able to pick up all the shells we wanted or could find, the down side was most of the island was under water so finding the shells wasn't an easy task.

 We did find 14 sand dollars, and a bunch of other shells. Marcia has been around Chuck and Terry enough to know the names of most of the shells, and I even know a couple. Marcia found a HUGE whelk, probably the biggest I have ever seen, but it was still occupied so she had to leave it there.

 As we walked towards the south end of the island we were warned by an Eagle that was sitting in one of the trees. Marcia spotted two Eagles that day, and several ospreys. We gathered enough shells to make the trip a success, and seeing the Eagles just put the icing on the cake for the entire day.
We won't make another trip to Marco Island until the tide is at the lowest point somewhere between 10AM and 3 PM. And as the chart shows it will be the lowest tide.

 We will hang out here at Midway CG until Saturday when we plan on heading north. We want to stop by Chuck and Terry's for a visit, but since there are very few Campgrounds near their house we may just have to do a lunch somewhere and plan on a day trip from where ever we do park the rig. Tomorrow we are going to Shark Valley where we want to do the 15 mile tram ride, and see the true everglades from the Shark Tower..............so stay tuned................