The Tunnel of Love

Some of our friends did this when they were here a couple of weeks ago. Sounded like fun, since we don't dinghy much, so we thought we'd try it out.

Despite last night's frustration, Russ tried the dinghy this morning and it started just fine. Our poor dogs had to go through the night without a break, but they are amazing pups, and made it to the bank this morning without any problems. Such good girls!

The working dinghy made the plans for the Tunnel of Love a go. We headed south for a couple of miles, then turned up into a teeny, tiny, shallow spit of water nestled in the mangroves. The depth was so shallow that

A Blue Heron and inQuest in the distance at dawn

Russ had to tip the motor to keep the prop just barely in the water -- we're talking inches here. I sat on the bow and helped by pushing and pulling us along the way, all the while following a Navionics map. The trip was so shallow that Navionics refused to plot us a course, but we could use it like a GPS map. Which came in handy since there were several forks that aren't marked.

Das Boot

Once through all that you get to a little pond. On it's left back is a quick walk to a lone beach that stretches out along the gulf. The day was sunny, warm, and calm, making the whole adventure quite pleasant. Except for the spider webs I had to  swipe away as we motored.

We came back, took naps, made a big lunch of grilled vegan sausages sammiches with grilled onions and spicy brown mustard, yum!

Tomorrow we'll weigh anchor and head back to Fort Myers. Then we'll start slowly making our way across the state. 

Lizzie on the bow of the dingy

The private beach off the Tunnel of Love.
Not so much sandy as shelly.