Goodland

There are lots of brightly renovated
old trailers in Goodland.
It's a colourful, funky place!

We have been hearing about Stan's in Goodland for years now.  Apparently it is a hoppin' place to be on a Sunday afternoon.  We even anchored here once several years ago on a Wednesday and all we saw was a quiet little funky trailer park surrounded by several quiet bars and restaurants.

Well, Sunday afternoon is certainly when it's happening in Goodland!  Following a very confusing and shallow, shoal-filled channel (a few markers were missing) we worked our way around the back of Marco Island and anchored in pretty much the exact same spot as last time.  We were the only boat but soon several others showed up and anchored close to us. A little too close for our comfort in fact, but what can you do other than watch and put on your best stink-eyed glare?  Once settled, we launched the dinghy and putt-putted in.

Every bar had live music, crowds
and folks up dancing.
What a lively place!

We couldn't even get close to Stan's

Wow, what a difference a Sunday makes!  We couldn't even get near Stan's, the original bar in the area. We walked around (well shuffled, as my knees are still acting up and Jeff has a sciatica issue) and settled in at one of the other bars for lunch and some entertainment.  What a hoppin' place!  Live music.  Waiting lists at every establishement.  Dancing, singing along, fantastic people watching...  Great vibe!

Oh!  The little mermaid!!

We headed back to the boat before dark to make sure all was secure.  There was an especially low tide coming that night because of the full moon and with the other boats anchored so closely we wanted to make sure there was no bumper boats happening in the anchorage.


Sure enough, one sailboat did drag (but at least he dragged away from us and not ON us!) and the other one ended up on the bottom by morning, leaning over to one side.  It's times like this we really appreciate our shallow draft boat.  We were able to slowly make our way out of the anchorage and begin our journey, albeit slowly and carefully, while the others had to wait for high tide.

As our destination was a full day's travel away so we didn't
take the time to get close enough to get good pics or
see any sharks.  This picture is borrowed from the net.
They are very eerie looking though, I think.

On the way out in the distance we spotted the old dome houses that have been long abandoned.  Just South of Marco Island FL are the remnants of a concrete dome houses built on a sandy barrier island in the early 1980s out of concrete for strength. After many storms the shells still stand but the land is washing away from under them. They are now entirely surrounded by water and are not expected to last much longer. We didn’t get close enough to get good pics so this one borrowed from the net. You can now drive a boat all the way around them and they’re known as a favourite shady spot for hammer head sharks to hang out, which I would love to see (from the safety of the boat). But, alas, we saw no hammerheads that day.