We're at Marco Island, FL, all tucked in at a private dock to leave Nonchalance here while we go home to Illinois for Christmas through New Year's and to see some snow.

The cruise through the gulf was in 1 ft. waves when we started from the anchorage, and only got better as the day progressed. It was warm enough after lunch to spend the afternoonon the flybridge. We saw lots of dolphins, schools of fish jumping, and a large sea turtle out in the gulf.



By the time we got close to Marco Island, the seas had turned to glassy calm. Really perfect cruising conditions.










The private dock is owned by a very nice couple from Chicago and it's a great dock to leave Nonchalance because somebody will be here all the time and the homeowner has owned and captained big yachts his whole life. There's power on the dock to run the battery charger, the inverter, refrigerator, one light in the salon and the bilge pumps just fine, and everything else will be shut off while we're gone. The homeowner will check to see that the light is always on, ensuring that there's power.

When we return, Marco Island is only 89NM from Marathon Key in the Florida Keys, which is our first stop in January.

Cruising Again! After a nice week at Marina Jack's in Sarasota, we cruised south today and are anchored out at Pelican Bay in Cayo Costa State Park.

We cruised out in the Gulf instead of the ICW because the waves were only about 1 ft. in the Gulf. It probably made the trip somewhat faster too, because there are no bridges and go-slow areas. We did take the ICW 15 miles to the Venice inlet and went out from there and back in at Boca Grande inlet. Both are very easy, well marked inlets.

After we dropped the hook, we dinghied into the beach at the park here. It's an inshore beach hwere few people go because the park has a walk-through to the big gulf beach on the other side of this island. It was nice, because we had it all to ourselves. Of course, Kathy brought back seashells for her candle glass on the aft deck.

This is a very nice anchorage where we have anchored before, but there's always something new. This evening on the way back from the park near sunset, the water had turned to glass and we're the only boat in this end of the large anchorage. We saw a pod of dolphins feeding and shut off the dinghy motor and just floated by while 4 or 5 dolphins swam and surfaced within about 20 or 30 ft. of us. You can hear their breath blow out and breathe in clearly and see how easily they surface, breathe and disappear. They had no interest in us, just concentrating on whatever thy were finding in 6 ft. of water in this little bay.

The sunset was pretty, but it was just the sun going down behind the mangroves of the barrier islands here. After sunset, the dolphins swam all around Nonchalance, usually about 50 yards away, continuing to feed. We felt like we were interlopers in their world somehow.



Tomorrow, we're going south to Marco Island where we'll leave the boat and drive home to see some snow and for Christmas through New Year's in Saint Charles, IL.