Port of Call: Marco Island, Florida

The calendar says it's spring, but it sure feels like winter (frost warning last night and temperature was 37 degrees F this morning in Chattanooga). This winter has been the coldest and longest in our seven years here in Tennessee.

We're lucky to have family and friends living in Florida. Every winter, we dutifully make our pilgrimage south to visit with them (thanks for having us, folks!) We returned from such a trip about two weeks ago. While in Marco Island, our friends told us that their island was voted the number 1 Best island in the U.S. by TripAdvisor's 2014 Traveler's Choice. Like all lists, we don't know who these people are and how they go about rating and ranking them. Personally, we love Anna Maria Island, Nantucket and Hilton Head  number 3, 8 and 9 on the list, respectively. There were several Hawaiian islands; since I haven't been there, I can't say anything about them). Anyway, the accolade was bittersweet for our friends because they hate to see more traffic on their beloved island.

Beaches of Marco Island

While we're not in love with Marco Island, we do love the beauty and the abundance of nature and wildlife in the area. I'll never forget the times we cruised there and anchored at Factory Bay. Sailors beware! The entrance to Factory Bay is shallow in the middle. We had to pull a sailboat off the sandbar as we were coming to anchor here one February over ten years ago (I tell ya, time flies when you're having fun).

Looking at bridge to Marco Island from Factory Bay anchorage

Our friend's boat Island Time entering Factory Bay

Mai Thai anchored at Factory Bay

Captain took the dinghy over to meet our friends on Island Time.

On another cruise to Marco, we met up with our boater-turned-RV friend, who gave us a tour of Goodland  (also very shallow) in his center cockpit, followed by an awesome lunch at Old Marco Lodge (closed after Hurricane Irma made landfall in Sep 2017; it reopened in 2019 as Paradise Found Restaurant and Bar.) When we returned to our boat, we found it swarmed with gnats, tiny black bugs that didn't bite, but was still gross. We spent the entire evening trying to kill them.

Dolphin Sighting are common in the bay and around the canals

What's your favorite island in the US?
Updated: Jun 28. 2020

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