Pelican Bay, Cayo Costa  and Cabbage Key – Pay it Forward!

                                                                          

CAYO COSTA STATE PARK

                   We anchored for the night  in Pelican Bay overnight to give Anette and Bob  the “full “ boating experience. The bay was calm and the water warm, so we did some swimming (floating on boogie boards) around the boat.  The wind came up in the night and Bill was worried about the anchor pulling so he slept (not much) in the flying bridge.

                                                                     

                                               anchored in Pelican Bay        

                                           Bill and Bob at the helm

         Dolphins followed us for about 20 min. straight.  There were 5 of them at a time jumping the wake and doing tricks along side of the boat.

                                                                 

                                                                                                                                                                 

          Cabbage Key had a very well known restaurant  (Jimmy Buffet wrote the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise" about it)that we wanted to have lunch at.  We arrived from our 3 mile dingy ride on fumes, not having enough gas to get back.  Bill was expecting to buy gas there, and found out they didn’t sell it.  He asked every boater there to sell him a gallon of gas  and was turned down by all of them.  We were planning to row back when someone awesome helped him out with the gas.  Another boater offered to follow us back if we got stuck (we didn’t take him up on it).

           Now for the Pay It Forward!   That evening Bill noticed that on the boat anchored next to us there was a dog on deck going crazy, running in circles, obviously needing to go to the bathroom. The man was trying in vain to start his dingy engine over and over again.   The woman  was upset it wouldn’t start. Bill went over in his dinghy  and offered to take their dog to shore to go to the bathroom.  The dog literally jumped into the dingy with Bill.  They were very grateful and gave him a few  beers to thank him.

                                                                  

        We dingied over to Cayo Costa State Park.  It looked like another Gilligan’s Island with wild jungle terrain and a beautiful white sand beach.  We saw a lot of poisonous animals (centipedes, a snake, sea urchins and a sting ray).

                                                                  

CABBAGE KEY RESTAURANT - THE WALLS ARE COVERED WITH DOLLAR BILLS FROM CUSTOMERS