A wilderness coast of hundreds of mangrove islands where the Everglades drains into the Gulf, with no development at all…A wilderness coast of hundreds of mangrove islands where the Everglades drains into the Gulf, with no development at all, roseate spoonbills, wood storks, manatees, tarpon and snook, dolphins hunting in the passes, and shell mounds built by the Calusa. The night sky here is the darkest in southern Florida. The Calusa dominated this coast for 1,500 years from shell-mound cities, building an empire on estuary fishing without ever farming. The islands later hid plume hunters, moonshiners and drug runners, Everglades City was the centre of a 1980s marijuana-smuggling trade that saw much of the town's male population indicted. Anchorage: A near-limitless maze of sheltered mangrove anchorages. Shoal-draught and local knowledge territory, go in good light, keep a bow watch and expect charts to be wrong. Hazards: Poorly charted, shoal, and the passes run hard. Mosquitoes and no-see-ums are genuinely punishing Apr-Nov. Crocodiles and alligators both occur here, the only place in the world where their ranges overlap. No services, no phone signal in much of it. Plus