Jan 31. We take a little cruise

Jan 31

End of the month update.  We just got back from a couple days of cruising with fellow loopers Jamie and Trish on “About Time”. They’re from St. Augustine and we originally met them way back at the spring rendezvous in Norfolk, VA when they were docked in the slip next to us.   Since then we’ve hopscotched back and forth with different itineraries but always seem to be within a relatively short distance of each other.  They arrived at Ft. Myers Yacht Basin and docked just a few slips away. Decided it would be fun to take a couple days and head back down to Cayo Costa to anchor out and then spend a night at Tween Waters Marina on Captiva Island.


Wed. 1/29 we fired up the boats and headed down the Caloosahatchee River at first light.  It’s a 40 mile run with several no wake zones and we wanted to get there early enough to get anchored and do some exploring with the dingy. 

Sunrise over the marina as we prep for departure

 When we stopped at Cayo Costa the last time we anchored for 4 days and never got off the boat due to the strong wind and wave action. So, we were anxious to finally go exploring.   Jamie has a 4-person hard bottom dingy with a 15HP Honda which will actually plane – much faster and more user friendly than my little dink with it’s 2.5hp motor.  We used it to find a hidden passage through the mangroves called the “Tunnel of Love”.

Pushing our way through the mangroves

 It eventually leads to a desolate beach on the gulf side of the island.  The trip through the ‘tunnel” was amazing as we pushed and motored our way down a shallow and narrow channel with mangrove branches encircling us and snook scurrying amongst the mangrove roots.  We finally came to an opening, located the small sandy clearing that leads to the beach, and landed the dingy.   Gorgeous white sandy beach loaded with tons of shells waiting to be scavenged.  Much bigger and better selection than we saw at Sanibel simply because these never get picked over.  The sun was out and gave the water that spectacular turquoise blue color reminiscent of the Bahamas.  

Deserted beach on south end of Cayo Costa

 We headed back to the boats to prep for a delicious steak dinner aboard “About Time”. Clouds had moved in and rain was forecast for overnight.  Our luck didn’t hold out and it started raining just as we dingyed over to them. Rain and lighting gave us a show as we ate and drank.

Jamie firing up the grill as the rain pours down

Once it eased up and after finishing a few bottles of wine we headed back to “As You Wish” with several inches of fresh rainwater sloshing around in our dingy.  We counted 22 boats in the anchorage and there was still plenty of room for many more. It really is a spectacular place.


Thurs 1/30 was our turn to host a meal with Jamie and Trish coming over for sausage, waffles and fresh strawberries. Yes, I know, we’re really roughing it with meals like these on our trip.  We started the day with an outing to the Cayo Costa State Park landing dock. The only way to visit this island park is by boat and there are smaller excursion boats bringing tourists for the day from Punta Gorda and Captiva Island. From the landing a “tram” (i.e. - pickup truck hooked to a couple of open trailers) takes you across the island to the beach side.  This is the north end of the island and after seeing our private beach at the south end we were a bit disappointed.  We walked back to the landing – working off those steaks and waffles.  From there we dingyed further south to a passage that leads to a lake  in the middle of the island.   Couple of fishing boats scouting the place out.  We spotted a 6’ alligator basking on a bank in the sun.  As we passed one of the fishing boats and mentioned the alligator – they said “no problem – you're  the smallest boat and closest to the water so would be the first to go”!!

GATOR!!  

 The next stop on our dingy ride was Cabbage Key for lunch.  The Cabbage Key Inn has been around since 1944.  The restaurant was built on the high ground on the island which turned out to be an ancient Indian shell mound.  The cheeseburgers here were supposedly the inspiration  for Jimmy Buffets classic song “Cheeseburger in Paradise”. Tourists have been taping dollar bills to the doors, walls,  and ceilings for years to the point that there are now several layers of dollar bills in places.  We added ours to the collection after enjoying – what else – a cheeseburger. 

Cabbage Key Inn

Cheeseburger in Paradise 

Dollars cover every available surface - sometimes 3 to 4 bills deep!

We leave our mark

 Then it was back to the boats as we still needed to cruise over to Tween Waters Marinas on Captiva Island.  A short 2 hour cruise but we needed to wait for the right tide time since our charts show only 4-5’ at low tide.   Tween Water is a resort dating back to the 30’s.  Historic cottages dating back to those days are named after some of the celebrities of the day who routinely visited such as Anne Morrow Lindbergh (wife of aviator Charles Lindbergh) and our naturalist buddy from Sanibel Island fame – “Ding” Darling.  The sunset over the gulf from the cottages are a glorious burst of colors.

Late day sunset pictures over the gulf coast at Captiva Island

  We met up with our looper buddy boaters Russ and Jax from “Cat and Dogs” who were on their first excursion with their new boat “InQuest”.  Seems like they have most of the upgrades completed they wanted done to the boat since we last saw them back at Longboat Key and are ready to get back cruising again.  One of the reasons for docking at Tween Waters Marina was to watch the Thursday night crab races they host at the Crows Nest Bar and Grill on site.  It was an absolute hoot!  Child friendly races at 6 and adult races at 9.   It’s a very participative event and somehow, I got nominated to be the keeper of the sound effects machine and also blow the conch shell to begin the activities.  

Trying my hand at blowing  the conch horn

Let the crab races begin!!

Apparently if you ever played a musical horn instrument you know how to properly pucker up and blow to sound a conch.  Having never done that my attempt was fodder for a good laugh.  Overall, a fun and entertaining evening.  


Jan 31.  Another early start as we had to catch the early outgoing tide.  Mixed results – we got out of the marina fine but the timing put us working against the tide for the trip back to Ft Myers.   Pretty uneventful except for a handful of really obnoxious boaters who simply have no comprehension or concern for the wake their big boats throw out.  Back in our slip by lunchtime.  Another big festival this weekend downtown. “Art Walk” already has the streets blocked off and vendors setting up.  We may sign up for a few more days here after our month is done to figure out where we’re going next. Thought we were committed to crossing the lake but new forces are at play working to persuade us that we should do the keys route.  Only time will tell – stay tuned.

Our 3 days of travel out and back

Ft. Myers Layover

Jan 22

Ft. Myers has been an interesting town. Having the boat docked right downtown at the Municipal Yacht Basin is providing a first hand chance to do lots of exploring.

"As You Wish" secure in her Ft. Myers slip for Jan.

Nicely restored downtown  main street (1st Street) is a collection of 2-3 story restored  buildings from the 20's-30's.   Downtown was forgotten for years and then finally rediscovered and  repurposed as the "Downtown River District"  with  shops and restaurants for all the seasonal visitors.   Unfortunately, most of the remaining historical properties are gone - abandoned, demolished, turned into condo properties.   At one time an entire line of majestic homes lined the riverfront on "Millionaires Row".   Now just The Burrough's house remains in that area as a museum showcasing  a bygone error.   I shouldn't say it's the only remaining house - on the other side of town, in what was considered the country back in the day,  are the Edison and Ford Winter estates.  Now also museums.

The Burrough's House

Art Deco Edison Theatre - repurposed as a lawyers office

Overall, lot's to do here for snowbirds like us.

Downtown streets are often closed off for locally sponsored festivities.  Since we've been here it's been blocked off for the following:
- New years eve ball drop and fireworks
- "Rise" Womens Conference block party and  DJ
- Ft Myers Seafood and Music Festival
- Music on Main 3rd Fri each month -  Jan .featured numerous Country/Western Bands
- Bacon Jam Festival
- Celtic Festival
- Classic Car Show (mostly muscle cars from the 60's and 70's)
- Art Walk

Uncommon Friends statue - Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harry Firestone

Downtown - nice venue for a car show

Only Porsche at the show, but a nice one - 356 Speedster

Culturally we've:
- Walked the Edison/Ford Estates for the  Christmas lights display
- Toured the historic Burrough's house
- Attended an Improv Show at the Fl. Laboratory Theatre
- Visited the Sanibel Island Lighthouse

Improv Show

Martha with Mina Edison in the gardens

The Sanibel Lighthouse - probably one of the least picturesque in America

The nature lovers in us:
- Visited The  Florida Native Butterfly Society Conservatory and watched a butterfly emerge from it's coccon and saw others released into the greenhouse for display.
- Toured  the Ding Darling Nature Refuge
- Watched Manatees swimming in the FPL spillway at Manatee Park
- Hiked the 6 Mile Cypress Slough
- Went shell hunting on the Sanibel Island Beach - heralded as the best shelling beach in America

Zebra Longwings - the Florida state butterfly

Cypress Trees in the slough

Manatees hunkering down in the warm water

Crocodile Dundy got nothing on me!

For fun we've also
- Visited several  local microbreweries - Millenium Brewery. Ft Myers Brewery  and Coastal Dayz
- Watched the sunset  from the rooftop bar at the Firestone Restaurant
- Dined at the marina's monthly  cookout with other boaters
- Eaten way too many donuts from Bennetts's bakery - including made to order beneigh's (only available Sat and Sun from 8-11 but oh so yummy)
- Found a pretty darn good NY style pizza place on a side street - even sells by the slice!!
- Attended numerous Looper docktail get togethers

Docktails!!

Sunset on the Firestone rooftop bar

Sunset

A different beautiful sunset every day!!

Jan 5 We move to the municipal marina

Jan 5

We apparently finally wore out our welcome at Legacy Harbor.  They simply had a full house and we had to leave on Sunday.   Luckily, Martha had been working  the folks at the Ft Myers Yacht Basin and they finally set us up with a slip for the month.  So, we've got a home port for the next month right here in downtown Ft, Myers. So far it seems OK.  Fixed docks rather than floating but  full length finger piers that are the perfect height for getting on and off without added steps.  Water depth seem OK so far - we at least are measuring water under the hull.  And we're on the eastern side of the marina which is a little further removed from the downtown "gawkers" walking by  the boats in the western basin.  Several looper boats here for the season as well as a number of liveaboards who keep an eye on things.  Overall, pretty satisfied with the arrangements considering our late decision to try and stay here for a month.

Snug in our slip at Ft Myers Yacht Basin

Our view across marina at bigger boats and palm trees

(Ft. Myers - known as the City of Palms for good reason)

  Another positive is we  still get a good sunset view as long as we walk to the end of the dock.

We're still hoping to get a little gunkholing in when the weather cooperates.  Sanibel, Captiva and Ft. Myers Beach are all just a 3 hour cruise away and even Naples can be reached in a long  cruising day.

Journey for Jan. 5 (all 1 miles of it!)

 

Jan 1 New Years in Ft. Myers

Jan 1


Happy New Years!!   Currently in a slip at Legacy Harbor Marina in Ft. Myers.  This area is a favorite winter staging area for loopers.   It’s recommended that if you want to stay here long term (1-2 or 3 months during the winter) you should make reservations up to a year in advance.   Since we never knew when we would get here of how long we might want to stay we don’t have a long-term slip.  Luckily, they’ve been able to accommodate us short-term so far but no guarantees on how much longer – still trying to work things out.   Ft. Myers has a nice downtown  main street  with period buildings and a very active arts and entertainment scene during the season. 

New Years Eve Fireworks Ft Myers

  Lots of snowbirds here already with more expected.    They have a “ball drop” downtown for new years with fireworks over the river.   The main street downtown is closed off and they set up stages for 4 bands and 2 DJ’s.     Brenda and Lee on Moonlighter (we spent a week with them at Fairhope, AL) had us over for New Year’s Eve dinner after docktails and an awesome sunset. It also gave Martha a chance to bond with their 2 cats.

  Then we headed for town.   Big crowd of people mostly much younger than us.  Loud music with songs we did not know.    Fireworks display was short lived – couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. We’re sounding more  and more like some old curmudgeons every day but at least we stayed up past midnight!!   Next up is the Seafood and Music festival downtown this Fri thru Sun.  

Meals onboard for a change  on New Years day.  It's surprising what we can cook up in our little galley when we put our mind to it.

Breakfast -  Mimosas, ham, homefries,  toast, and a spinach-tomato-cheese omelet.

Dinner - red wine, grilled pork tenderloin, greens, black eyed peas and rice.  All the things we need to bring us another year of luck.

We’re sort of at a crossroads.  Our original plan was to slowly work our way down to the keys and then slowly head up the east coast.  After taking a serious  look at the navigation charts and getting a better feel for the  weather systems  in the winter down here (wind blows about all the time and changes direction almost daily) we decided  to wait things out in this area and take the cross Florida Okeechobee Lake route in Feb.  With our draft we would have to take the Hawk Channel route around the keys which is the passage on the ocean side.   Limited protection from seas while underway and just a few inlets with deep water depths that would allow us to get to the protected anchorages or marinas.  The transit through the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area, while eye opening for the many mega yachts and multi-million dollar homes, is all slow going with lots of bridges and just didn’t seem like fun.  Plus very expensive marinas and limited anchorages.   The cross Florida route will drop us off north of all that in Stuart.   So right now the plan is to continue staying here if we can arrange a monthly rate or bounce around in this area for the next month.   There’s still several other towns we can visit and a few more anchorages to explore whenever  the weather cooperates.