Banking and Beaches!

Gord says, a tip for setting off on this kind of adventure is to do a trial of run for a couple of weeks of any banking or special features you've set up for convenience across the border. Today we run into a few glitches. We are able to resolve them, but are required to head to a local bank branch. What does this mean for us? We don't have land transportation! It means we load into the dinghy, take a nice ride around part of Marco Island and do some errands. This is the first time we will leave the dogs on board alone.

Fun fact! Holy Cow has a crane! We carry our tender on the bow. It sits up there perfectly and when we want to go for a little tour, we lower it into water. Gord and Jaxon prepare the dinghy for launch while Brooklyn and I pack the supplies we need.

We pile into the dinghy and buzz around the island, our destination, the Esplanade. When we arrive, Gord heads to the bank, and the kids and I hang around a beautiful fountain in the center of the shopping complex. We make a stop at Cold Stone Creamery for some gourmet ice cream. Once our errands are done, including a stop to pick up some oil for the Windlass, we head back to the boat. The dogs are calm and seem to have settled into their new surroundings. We were told not a peep was made while we were gone.

We unload some items from the dinghy and Gord tends to the Windlass. We do a couple of trial runs in the canal with the anchor. It falls and lifts with far more ease than it had previously. We drop and lift the anchor four times and no fuse is blown. Looks like another essential item is back in working order!

Deck Cadet Brooklyn is in charge of hosing off the anchor from the salt water and mud it picked up in the canal during our test drops.

We have earned a trip to the beach! Since the dinghy is already in the water, it's an easy and quick exit. We head to Tigertail Beach. We have been told Sand Dollars wash up there so we are excited to try our luck. As we pull in, a dolphin site-seeing tour boat pulls in and Brooklyn and I feel a little disheartened seeing the amount of eager shell hunters stepping off the boat. We beach the dinghy and hop off. Gord and Jaxon set up the chairs and Brooklyn and I are off searching the shore to see what treasures have settled up on the sand.

There are many Osprey's in the air. We can hear their calls piercing the sky. One, fish in claw, lands on a beach sign and has an afternoon snack. The wire prongs on the sign, put there to deter pests from landing there, don't seem to bother her at all.

Brooklyn and I walk the shore for a long long time. We find all sorts of special shells. Some we keep, some we leave for other treasure hunters, some have creatures in them so we gently toss them back into the ocean. We are a long way from our dinghy, and we see the tourists loading up to leave. We are just about ready to turn back, and I say to Brooklyn, "let's just walk a little further, maybe people don't walk this far along the shore as often." A few steps later our patience was rewarded. We found seven beautiful sand dollars. We gathered up all of our treasures, and with smiles on our faces that Gord could see from a distance, we headed back to the dinghy. The kids and Gord had a quick swim together and then we made our way back to Holy Cow for the evening. Let's see what tomorrow brings...