For those of you who have been following our blog, you know that this sunrise picture means we were up early and underway. We had a fairly long day planned in order to traverse the 92.8 nautical miles (about 110 statute miles) to Marco Island. Luckily, we had the sun at our back for most of the day, as we dodged thousands of crab and lobster pots cruising north through Florida Bay.
Capri Pass on the north end of Marco Island was a welcome sight. We were back in familiar Florida waters and getting close to our final destination for this leg of our trip.
By 4:30 pm, Monarch's southerly fall migration was at an end. We were securely tied up to Carl & Nancy Meyer's dock. The boat will be remaining here for most of December as we travel back to Michigan for some meetings and the holidays.
What an experience.... we covered 2,515 nautical miles (that equals over 3,000 statute miles for you landlubbers!) in 70 days. We spent 32 nights at anchor, 27 nights tied up to public docks or in public marinas, 4 nights at friend's docks and 7 nights docked at yacht clubs.
The warmest temperature we had on the trip was 86 degrees in southern Florida and the coldest was 38 degrees in Thunderbolt, GA (there was frost on the dock that morning).
This trip has been everything we ever thought it would be and more. We are anxious to begin cruising southwest Florida and the Keys in January.
During our upcoming trip back to Michigan, we will not be updating the blog. We will resume blog updates when we start cruising again in January. So stay tuned! We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.
