Traveling the Great Loop

January 24, 2024; Captiva Island to Pelican Bay; Today’s run: 14 miles/

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Due to high winds, we stayed  at Captiva Island 4 days.

Leaving Captive, we motored passed Useppa Island.* In 1960, Useppa served as a CIA training base for Cuban exiles in preparation for the Bay of Pigs Invasion, (1961).

*Today, Useppa Island is an exclusive, luxury resort, requiring membership. The application to become a resident of the island requests current employer, position held, annual income, college the applicant attended, if the spouse is employed – where ? and income; and what other clubs the applicant belongs to.

We dropped anchor in a large bay 20 miles north of Captiva Island. Eight other boats were there, all of them sailboats; more sailboats than we had seen since leaving Cincinnati. From Pelican Bay, sailboats have quick access to Pine Island Sound and to the wide-open waters of the Gulf where boaters can hoist their sails and fly with the wind like sailors like to do.

In the evening, a flock of anhingas riding the fast moving current between islands, resembled miniature synchronized swimmers with necks erect and beaks pointing forward; dolphins fishing near shore loped languidly during a feeding frenzy while pelicans propelling out of the sky landed clumsily on the water. After nightfall, masthead lights twinkled like a sky full of fireflies.

It was the first day, since leaving Cincinnati several months ago, warm enough to wear short sleeved T’s. We dinghied to Cabbage Key, a small resort island named after the island’s abundance of cabbage palms, (Florida’s state tree), to have lunch.

Greeting us, Ken Wells, one of two sons of the family-owned business, and overseer of the Cabbage Key Inn & Restaurant, pulled a set of stairs up to our dinghy to assist in disembarking with dry feet. Ken fell quickly into a short life history of how he had grown up on on the small island, and had gone to school on the mainland by Boston Whaler.

The appearance of the Inn has changed little since its build in 1936 when it was constructed as a home for the Rinehart family,* the second family to live on the island. The elevation of the building isn’t high but built on a Calusa Indian shell mound, it is situated on one of the highest points in all of Southwest Florida. Cabbage Key is listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historical Places.

*Allen Rinehart’s mother was Mary Roberts Rhinehart (1876-1958), “America’s bestselling mystery writer”. She often summered on the island of Useppa among Presidents and other successful businessmen. Allen, owner of Farr Publishing Company, and a producer at Paramount Pictures, hosted several celebrities including Kathrine Hepburn, his wife’s cousin. Although owners of the island changed, numerous well-known people of importance continued to visit: Ernest Hemmingway, Tony Bennet, John F. Kennedy, Julia Roberts and many others. Allen’s wife, Gratia Buell Houghton Rinehart, was heiress to the Corning Glass Works fortune.

Before I Go:

In early days, in an attempt to warn islanders of approaching hurricanes, a yellow painted, oblong block of wood with yellow streamer attached, was dropped by Coast Guard aircraft over locations thought to be in danger. The block contained a rolled up statement with a warning like this one that was found several months after a hurricane had hit the island : The hurricane is now moving slowly northward with center 150 miles south of Havana, Cuba. Last reports gave winds 50-55 mph and increasing. Barometer falling…..Advise you to seek shelter. (Courtesy of The History of Cabbage Key).