Palmetto to Fort Myers Beach

Around 11 a.m. Monday  we left our slip at Regatta Pointe Marina staying on the inner waters and followed makers to Longboat Key. The channel markers became a little confusing at one spot since there were two sets of makers. Yes, we found some skinny water and plowed through 4 and a half foot waters for a few minutes. Adriana1 proved herself again and we found our channel to the intercoastal waters and to the Longboat key  anchorage just as our coach, Carl, had suggested..We enjoyed the sunny weather and were glad our first day out was a short trip, about 3 hours..The next day we headed out to the ICW channel to the bridge that would let us out into the big waters. We had to call the bridge tender since this was a bascule[lift bridge].We were heading for the bridge when the bridge tender called us to turn to starboard to avoid another shallow area.
He received a big thank you from us when came through the bridge opening.One more time we managed to find skinny water just before we made it out into the bigger waters of the gulf. After that we enjoyed a nice sail to Venice.Besides learning about tides in our travels we also had to watch out for crab pods-lots of them-like a mine field in some areas. We don't think we would do any damage [we're pretty sure they are made of styrfoam] but since they ran in a row we could avoid them quite easily.I don't have a photo of them but plan to take some the next time we are out. The Crows Nest marina offered a nice place to stay. We stayed for 2 nights since the weather forecast was rain and maybe thunder storm.After sharing happy hour with our boat neighbours ,Carl and Gail we went out for a lovely dinner.Wed. turned out nice enough to go for a walk downtown Venice.A pretty town.We made it back just before the rain.
 Thursday was a perfect day for a big sail and we had  just the right winds to stay on the course we needed to get us to the bottom end of Sannibel Island and into the channel for Fort Myers beach and the Moss Marina [just before the bridge that take you to the Island[Estero] that has the beaches on it].We walked to the beach but since the weather was a little cool[about 66] we walked along the street .In the afternoon we dingyed to the mooring area the other side of the bridge and saw many-many boats on mooring balls.Now that the dingy is ready to go we will likely do some more exploring tomorrow.We plan to stay here until Mon. or Tues..greetings and adios