Gunkholing in the Everglades

[rfrance0718]

My buddy who is buying the Presto 30 is taking delivery on Mar. 7 at Pine Island Fl. So a plan has been developed to spend 10 days cruising before he drags it home. We have 2 other friends who will be down there for a regatta who will then join the cruise, and I've decided to tow my Oday down and make it a flotilla. I've never sailed any further South than Ft Myers, and there is interest in exploring the Everglades. Seems like some of you might have some experience. I'm thinking that our shallow draft boats will be a good thing. Any recommendations? Warnings? Good stories? We are just beginning to make a plan.

[Doug SC]

When I had my beekeeping business, I ran bees to pollinate several different crops on Pine Island. I have done a bit of canoe camping near Flamingo, but a sailboat couldn't go where I paddled and camped. There is a small boat sailing group called the "West Coast Trailer Sailor Squadron" you might want to contact them.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/wctss/?locale=it_IT

[Riley Smith]

Hmm... bigger boat. Not exactly what I'd choose but that is me. I sure ached for a boat when we stayed in Islamorada. Didn't have one and instead had two bathing beauties and my wife in tow. We managed to have a good time without a boat. Almost anywhere is beautiful and the waters so clear and blue it is magnificent. Bring a mask and fins.

[Norm L.]

I have never been in the water in the Keys (other than beach swimming) but have heard stories that come down to the water can have EXTREMELY varied depths which is why many boats have extremely shallow drafts or are airboats.
There has also been a lot of variation in the amount of water flowing into the Glades.
But it does seem reasonable if one stays on the south beach side and not too far into coves.
As I have heard in stories.

[Wolverine]

15 years ago I sailed the Keys in a Starwind 19, very much like a Precision 19. It drew 18" with the board up and 42" down if I recall. I wanted to see the everglades by boat so I headed north from Key Largo and dropped anchor in Trout Cove. That night was one of the worse attacks from mosquitoes I ever encountered, and this was in February.
The waters around the keys and the glades can be very skinny. Unless I needed to point better, I seldom lowered the centerboard, and 4 times I suddenly ran aground. One of those times I was videoing the depth meter showing 14', then the boat quickly came to a stop on a sand bar. Nice thing about a small boat, you pull/push it off a sandbar most times. I had purchased the most recent charts I could, and had the newest s/d cart in the plotter, but every storm shifts the sand bars and being a Lake Michigan sailor, I never had the need to know how to "read" the water for depth. I do now!
The channels are well marked on the bay side, so as long as you stick to them, you should be fine.

Just looked up the Presto 30 on SailboatData.com. Appears it has a lifting keel with a minimum draft of 1.12'. You should be fine anywhere you go!   

[Charles Brennan]

rfrance, It's kind of hard to make recommendations about "gunkholing in the Everglades" for two major reasons:
1) A lot of ramp and facilities recommendations may be obsolete, due to last Fall's hurricanes forcibly  rearranging the area.
2) There's a LOT    of different Everglades.

Technically speaking, you could go clear to Marathon, Fl, then sail due north for about two hours, heading to say, Sprigger Bank or Arsenicker Key and you'd be in Everglades National Park. Even though looking around, you'd feel much like a Flea on a Frying Pan, looking all around you and seeing nothing but water, almost to the horizon.

When I generally think of gunkholing in the Everglades, I'm thinking of putting the boat in at the ramp at Flamingo and sailing southwest to East Cape, west-northwest to Middle Cape and finally north, to Northwest Cape.  Sundown over there is amazing when all the birds roost in the mangroves.  They make the most god-awful racket, sounding like something out of Jurassic Park, then turning off like a light switch.
Which makes it easier to hear the massive hum of a billion mosquitos heading out from land, towards your boat. 
We keep bottles of bug spray for each member aboard, to prevent fistfights trying to get to the bottle first.   
If not deterred, or if sufficiently Brave, you can continue north to Ponce De Leon Bay, entrance to the 10,000 Islands.  What no guide book ever tells you,    is that all 10,000 islands look exactly alike.    Forget charts, the island you're looking at will rarely conform to the island you think you're looking at, on the chart.  Have yourself a good GPS and maybe also a backup.  When in doubt (in daylight, anyway) you can always get a rough positional reference, from looking up at the commercial air traffic landing and taking off from Naples International Airport.  Oyster bars can chew up gelcoat for the unwary, so going at the slowest speed manageable is always advised.
Cool place to sail in and out of, though.

OR, if that's a little too rustic, you could put in at Goodland, near Marco Island, head out through the cut and then south to explore all those islands.  You can get lost in there also, but you'll have to work at it, a little. 
Rub here is that the places that used to allow you to overnight your tow vehicle and trailer (Like the Everglades Rod & Gun Club)  may or may not be functional after all the hurricane damage.  Definitely call first.
Here's a link:
https://www.rodandguneverglades.com/copy-of-resort

If picking up the Presto at Pine Island, you could simply sail out Redfish Pass, just north of Captiva Island.  Whenever I'm there with my wife, we have to stop at the north end of Sanibel Island, because she loves to collect the seashells there.

Every year the WCTSS (West Coast Trailer Sailing Squadron) has an event they call the Everglades Lack Of Challenge, (ELOC) a sardonic nod to the Watertribe.com Everglades Challenge.
https://www.watertribe.com/Events/EvergladesChallenge/Default.aspx

Here's a link, to an ELOC video from one of the WCTSS members, taken last January.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS63Q5wrhEY
You might actually use their course and points and beachings, to help you plan your own trips.

Hope this helps,
Charles Brennan

[Doug SC]

As for mosquitoes they can be bad. Winter is the best time. I always have a very fine mesh head net with me. Now that I have a canvas tent for the Scamp and no-see-em mesh screen in the port holes I intend to spray this...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Sawyer-Permethrin-Premium-Clothing-Insect-Repellent-Pump-24-oz/21947774?athbdg=L1600&adsRedirect=true

On the tent inside and out and the screens. Any that land on it will die. The Marshes of SC can be brutal at times.

[Wolverine]

At last years FL120 I was eaten alive by no-see-ums the 1st night. I hung a fine mesh from the cabin top and draped it over my berth. Something you see over a bed in bug infested regions. It worked great at keeping the bugs off me, but cut down on the ventilation. Next time I'll try putting a fan inside the screening.

[Doug SC]

Rfrance, I found this video of the WCTSS group sailing the Thousand Islands. It was posted a month ago and should have recent information you might be looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS63Q5wrhEY

[Doug SC]

Oops! I see that CB has already posted that link to the video.      Two steps behind as usual.

[rfrance0718]

One thing of interest to me about that video is that one of the boats is a Thistle with a cabin added. Kind of similar to Robert Manry adding a cabin to his Olde Town Sloop, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinkerbelle) but with a Thistle. I'm tempted to call it sacrilege, but to each his own. The video does make me nervous about going in there with the Oday, and its wing keel. It is a very shallow wing, but none the less a difficult boat to get off of a bar.

[Wolverine]

We had quite the time getting this wing keeled Catalina back into deeper water.

You cannot view this attachment.