3 May - Air Boat Rides at Everglades City FL

 

This morning we drove east from Naples on Highway 41 and south a few miles to Everglades City and Captain Jack's Airboat Tours.  We purchased combo package tickets online that included both the mangroves and the grasslands.  The mangrove tour departed from Captain Jack's where we checked in and after that tour we would drive a few miles further east to Wooton's for the grassland tour.

Captain Jack's boats are equipped with two-way headsets so all the occupants can hear what the captain has to say and they can also hear each other, which can be good and bad...!

We arrived early as required and checked in quickly.  They have a nice covered waiting area with fans to keep the humid air at least moving.  With a little time before we departed we had the chance to look over the boats from a distance and watch others depart and arrive.

Soon our boat captain, Javier, called for us to board.  There were two rows of three on the boat.  Doreen and I were on the lower (front) seat which was nice for pictures.  We headed out slowly as the area around the dock is a no wake zone.  The boats are noisy but the headphones provide hearing protection as well as communications.  As we turned the first corner the captain pointed out the blue crab traps.  Apparently the season for them in this area just ended.

Here is a video of the start of our tour:

This tour was primarily mangrove area.  Mangroves are small trees or brush that grows in the brackish water in the Everglades.  It is estimated that Florida has over 469,000 acres of mangroves.  They thrive in this area since with water is a combination of salt water and fresh water.  Mangroves have long roots called "prop roots" that provide stabilization and allow them to grow in this condition.  Mangroves provide shelter for many animals, fish and crustaceans.  As they grow they create "tunnels" and our air boat can zip right through them and across the very shallow water.  Our captain said the water varies from a few inches and up.  

Our tour lasted for about 55 minutes and was very interesting.  The captain did three or four "360's" where he turns the boat sharply and the stern swings around abruptly!  You can do that with an airboat without capsizing it, thankfully!  On this tour we did not see any alligator and the captain said he was not surprised for this time of the year.  We did see an osprey and a blue heron.  

Here is a video that captures some of the mangrove tour and a 360 at the end!

We then drove up to Wootons for the grassland tour. 

The waiting area is situated right by a lagoon and we were treated with a gator right below us!!

The boats on this tour were larger, holding 12.  No two-way headsets on this ride but we did have hearing protection which Doreen and I supplemented with "foamies".

These boats are powered with a large block custom Chevrolet engine producing over 500 hp according to the captain.

Similar to the last tour, we launched slowly but this time our attention was quickly drawn to the port side where an eight foot long gator laid in the shade of the mangroves!

We then traveled through mangroves finishing up in the grasslands.  It is amazing how shallow this land is.  Most of the area was just a few inches deep, but these large flat bottom airboats skim right across there no problem.  

We will try another video here.  Hopefully these videos will load for you:

We really enjoyed the two boat tours and were really glad we got to see a couple alligators!.  According to the captain, someone hit a gator on Highway 41 last night in the dark as it crossed the road.  I guess it was not a pretty sight!  They are a really solid animal!

We got back to the campground, pretty hot and sweaty, so after cooling down a bit we tried the campground swimming pool and it was really refreshing.  That's it for today!