Everglades City to Cudjoe Key via Russell Pass & Little Shark River

We our goodbye’s to everyone present at the NCOBS and left Everglades City about noon on Friday. It was rather sad to leave the place we had enjoyed so much but it was time we moved on. We met Blue Max in the Gulf outside Indian Key at the mouth of the channel into Everglades City and ran back into the channel to anchor in Russell Pass. It was a beautiful evening. Bill and Shelly and I took Blue Max’s dingy and explored the area a little. We got to watch a dolphin playing with a fish it had injured. It played with it like a cat playing with a mouse it had caught. The evening was beautiful with clear skies for the sunset and very light winds.
We had a beautiful night at anchor in Russell Pass and a leisurely start in the morning. Bill had several little items to tend to and we got under way about 9:00. The gulf was beautiful for the 37 mile run to the Little Shark River. This looks like a nice anchorage. There was one sailboat here when we entered and another trawler right behind us. We went in beyond the elbow just inside the river and dropped the hook in the channel in about 12 feet of water. The trawler has a sailboat following in to anchor with him in the elbow. We were all settled by 3:15 and Bill and Shelly are on in Bill’s dingy fishing. Muriel is reading on the foredeck and I do not know where Eileen is. Our intent is to cross Florida Bay to Cudjoe Key tomorrow and anchor there for one or two nights and play around before we venture on to Marathon.
While Bill and Shelly were fishing, no luck by the way, they went over to the other trawler and they are loopers so they invited them over to Blue Max for a visit at 5:00. We had met them at Joe Wheeler State Park but did not recognize them until we began to visit. They started the loop in the Tennessee River this fall. By evening there were at least a dozen boats in the Shark River. We were surprised this morning at the tide range here. The water is down five feet from when we entered the river at near high tide yesterday.
We left the Little Shark River at 9:00 am and made the 40 mile crossing to Cudjoe Key. We worked our way into the Cudjoe Channel and got anchored about 4:00. Bill and Shelly and I took Bill’s dingy over to the nearest key and roamed around the beach a little. The water is 63 degrees, a little cool for enjoyable swimming but not bad for walking. Back on the boats, we took showers on the swim platform and enjoyed the 5:00 hour. We plan to move on to Marathon tomorrow.