Feb 29 Leaving Ft. Myers and on to Labelle

Feb 29


On our last evening in Ft Myers we were granted a final farewell with yet another spectacular Gulf coast sunset.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time over the last two months here.  The folks at Ft. Myers Yacht Basin were super accommodating in finding us a slip at the last minute so we could stay here.  Being just a block off the river district with all it has going on with dining and entertainment provided us plenty to see and do. While our monthly slip rental has us paid through the middle of next week, the weather forecast looks better for crossing Lake Okeechobee if we start the journey today.    It’s a several days trek to get across Florida taking this route.  We’re in Labelle tonight. Then Clewiston Sunday, and crossing the lake on Mon.  Then slowly making our way to Ft Pierce for the weekend.

One final gulf coast sunset.  Onward to east coast sunrises. 

We finally got out of our slip at 9AM after a frustrating start to the morning when our secondary navigational program called Navionics kept crashing.  It’s an app we run on a tablet which had worked perfectly for 10 months up until this point.  Deleted the app and then reinstalled.  Then downloaded the charts for Florida which all took time.  Then it still crashed.  Decided to just use a different app called Aquamaps we had loaded on the tablet but realized I needed to install some additional map sections so spent more time doing that. I could have just used the main Garmin chartplotter but I’ve gotten used to having the redundancy of a second set of charts.  Anyway, we left the dock using the Garmin and Aquamaps app.  Weird thing was that after several hours I tried starting up the Navionics app and it decided to work just fine.   We’ll have to see what tomorrow brings!

Leaving Ft. Myers  and the Yacht Basin in our wake.

Today we headed east on the Caloosahatchee River.   At our planned 8AM departure time there was barely a wisp of wind.  By 9AM it was already blowing a steady 15-20.  For the first hour the river was fairly wide, so we were feeling those winds and choppy waters.  Then the river narrows and the chop went away and we only felt an occasional gust. It was mostly pleasant cruising passing everything from multi-million dollar waterfront homes, to cattle ranches, to orange groves, to undeveloped palm tree lined wooded areas.  Very light traffic with just an occasional passing boat.  It’s been awhile since we’ve encountered them but there are several locks we’ll need to transit.  We hit the first one today - the Franklin lock lifted us up all of 2 feet!  It was interesting.  Rather than water coming in through pipes and filling the chamber, they simply partially open the front gates and let the water flow in.   Only other thing of interest on the waterway was a swing bridge  at Fort Denaud we radioed for an opening.  Very accommodating bridgetender had it done in no time. 

Entering Franklin lock - pretty routine for us by now

Cattle chillin' by the water

Orange groves - these still had oranges waiting to be picked

Fort Denaub swing bridge opening for us

We got parked in Labelle by midafternoon not without some difficulty. Stern in, no finger piers, pilings only at mid ship, wind blowing on our side negating the efforts of our bow thruster.  At least there wasn’t any current to make it even tougher. Can't complain too much as the city does provide these docks, water and power all for free to transient boaters. After finally getting  settled in we took a  tour of the town.  Pretty small place.  It was an agricultural hub  built at the turn of the century to support the cattle ranching and orange farming. Only a few historic building on main street  and most are in need of some help.   We did find a good local family owned honey store.  Interesting selection of flavors depending on the time of year and where they set their hives. Orange blossom (always a favorite), palmetto (very mild), mangrove (a bit darker with a bite), wildflower (yeah – flowery) and a few others.  Picked up some of the first two.  We were checking our phones for a place to eat and  up pops  The Labelle Brewery.  Just opened last October.  So off we go.  Nice new building. A dozen local brews on tap and a Buckingham Farms Restaurant on site.  We split a flight, ordered food, and went back for a pint of their Saison to go with my grilled chicken, applewood bacon, gouda cheese and grilled onions sandwich.  

The Honey Store - since 1954.  Pretty cool mural.

Labelle is called the “City Under the Oaks”. The town seal is a silhouette of a giant live oak and the place is loaded with them. Reminded me of Johns Island by Charleston  with them all  draped in Spanish moss and bromeliads.  Our mile walk back to the boat gave us a chance to enjoy their beauty before settling in for the night.

Live Oaks lining a back road

Spanish moss hanging so thick it makes you dizzy looking up

Just an odd sign - is this a "time out" place for bad drivers?

Settled in for the night in Labelle. 

Journey for Feb 29

Feb 26 ROAD TRIP down to the keys

Feb 26


We continue to enjoy our winter vacation here in Ft. Myers but decided to take a road trip to shake things up and make the most of the time we’re spending in south Florida.   You may recall we decided to opt out of taking the boat down to the keys and around Florida and instead will be taking the cross Florida Lake Okeechobee route.   Most likely we will start that trip this weekend.    So, before we leave we decided we should at least make a trip to the keys.   Got a rental car for a few days.  Contacted our friends Jamie and Trish on “About Time” who are in Marathon and off we went.  We spent a day driving down to a hotel in Florida City which is the last stop before entering the keys.   We took the slow route using Hiway 41 and passing through the west coast side of Everglades National Park and then crossing through Big Cypress Nature Preserve.  This is a 2 lane road a bit further south of the old Tamiami Trail through Alligator Alley which has been widened and converted into Interstate 75.  Our route is much more old Florida.  Slow and lazy with varied vegetation ranging from the typical Everglades “river of grass” to much more wooded swamplands.    This is definitely gator country.   We stopped at a few visitor centers with boardwalks  set up by the parks system along the water and were impressed by the number and size of the alligators.  Even more surprised to see manatees swimming alongside them without a care in the world. Apparently, they’re just too big for the gators to bother messing with them. After checking into our hotel, we went to Havana Spice for dinner and some outstanding authentic Cuban food.

This big guy was easily over 10 feet long

Marinated spiced pork, black beans and rice and fried plantains -YUM!!

Next morning we got an early start for Marathon to pick up Jamie and Trish and then headed on to Key West for the day.   I think we wore Jamie and Trish out with our agenda but figured we’d make the most of the day playing tourists.   Toured the Hemmingway House and the collection of 59 protected 6 toed cats who roam the property, photo op at “Southernmost Point”, tour of Mel Fisher’s “ Atochia “ shipwreck museum, sunset watching at Mallory Square, and then cheeseburgers at Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville Restaurant.

On the veranda at the Hemmingway house - Key West lighthouse in the background

Hemmingway's writing  studio

With our friends Jamie and Trish

Did I mention we stopped at the Southernmost Brewery?

Street artist on Mallory Square

Key West sunset

  Drove back to Marathon and spent the night on “About Time”. They are staying at Marlin Bay Resort and Marina which is first class.  Next time around we’ll make a point of staying there.   Got to see a batch of  Iguana’s sunning themselves on one of the rock break walls. Reminded me of a recent cold snap we had in Ft. Myers where the news channel kept reminding people to watch out for “falling Iguana’s”. Apparently they can get too cold, go stiff and drop out of the trees.

Soaking up the sun and scenery

Pretty darn ugly looking critters

Marlin Bay Resort and Marina - sweet accommodations for a layover.

Back to Ft Myers the next day.  When looking at things around Florida City when we arrived I came across something called the Coral Castle.  On our way back through we stopped for a visit.  Very unusual.  Constructed over a period from 1923 to 1951 by a single person – Ed Leedskalin - using huge blocks of coral limestone.   If you dig 6” under the top soil there’s a solid coral limestone layer that runs all the way from there to Ft. Lauderdale.  Ed figured a way to cut huge blocks, remove them and position them to form his structure and gardens. All without the use of any power tools – just simple hand tools.  He said he learned the secrets of the pyramid building Egyptians. There’s all sorts of speculation about how he did it, but he never documented it and no one ever saw him actually doing the work.  Mysticism, levitation, magic, aliens all have their believers.  

Ed used to charge 10 cents to visit the park - a bit more now!!

We got back to Ft. Myers with another big festival happening at Centennial Park.  This one was to celebrate Fat Tuesday with bands and music.   We were too tired to check it out firsthand but listened to the music wafting our way on the evening breeze as we relaxed on the back deck.   Fun couple of days.

End of another day

Sunsets in Ft. Myers are still pretty awesome. 

Feb 20 On to Marco Island and then back to Ft Myers

Feb 21


We’re back in our slip at Ft Myers again after finishing our side trip south. We did a lot of walking in Naples checking out the “historic old Naples” 3^rd Street area, the upscale 5^th Ave. strip, the old “Tin City” waterfront area and back to our boat.   A big circle we did both days until our feet hurt. We were on the hunt for the Naples Heritage Museum.  After going to 2 different locations based on google, we finally learned it had closed down but a few of the items were on display at the visitor information center.  While the info center folks told us about the super high property values, low crime rates, outrageous median income level and a list of celebrity home owners they weren’t much help with the towns heritage other than pointing us to the small display.  We read through the handful of displays set up in a corner that were transferred from the museum and learned the area was once inhabited by a pre-Columbian group of Indians called the Calusa’s.   Very advanced and artistic civilization for their time.  They even created a small canoeable canal connecting the bay to the gulf.   Obviously, all dug by hand.  We left Naples mid-morning for the short cruise to Marco Island arriving a bit after noon.  

Short journey on Feb 18 Naples to Marco Island

 Another spectacular morning on the water.  The blue waters and white sand beaches are pretty mesmerizing.   We were greeted by multiple pods of dolphins as we exited Gordan Pass.   At one time we had 4-5 dolphin riding the bow wave on each side of the boat.  What a great way to start our day.  It’s always exciting to see them and even better when they stick around long enough for one of us to get to the bow and take some pictures

Leaving Naples and heading out Gordan Pass 

Greeted by our dolphin friends

.

We had reservations at the Esplanade Marina on Marco Island which is part of a condo, shops, marina complex.  It’s tucked well off the main channel in Smokehouse Bay. Due to a few shallow areas in the narrow entrance channel we needed to enter/exit on the upper half of the tide.   Luckily our arrival and departure times coordinated as we would have touched or at least stirred up some mud coming through on the low tide.  This is the southernmost location of our loop showing a latitude of N 25.57.208.  Did I mention we’ve now put over 5100 miles under the keel?

Channel lined with homes leading to Smokehouse Bay

Esplanade marina and condo's

All our stops along the loop - so far..

We didn’t have a lot of time to explore Marco Island as we were staying for just the one day. Fronting the marina complex was a busy commercial street – not even sure if they have a “downtown” area.  It didn’t give the impression of a walkaround town so we mostly stayed put.  One of the claims to fame here is a Winn-Dixie supermarket that backs up to the water and has a dingy dock for boaters.  Of course I had to check it out.  Back at the boat we talked with a local on the docks and got a recommendation for dinner at a smaller family owned seafood restaurant called Kretch’s that was within walking distance. Since we had skipped lunch, we figured we’ld get an early dinner and then head back to the marina for sunset drinks.   Restaurant website said it opens at 4 so we headed over.  Winds up the bar side opens at 4 – food service starts at 5.  So we sat at the bar, had a drink, and got the 3^rd degree from the locals who were intrigued by our journey.

Beer with the locals

  Food was pretty darn good.   We split a combo platter with   lobster, shrimp and grouper.   All nicely grilled with a bowl of drawn butter for dipping.  It felt healthier than a fried platter but not really sure after drenching each morsel in the butter.  Did I mention appetizer was lobster-cargot?  Chunks of lobster in drawn butter covered in gruyere cheese and broiled. Some buttery puff pastry on the side for sopping up the left over butter. It’s good to splurge once in a while.


While we were talking with that local on the dock - who used to be a competitive sailor - SHE gave Martha a hard time about doing more docking.   So on our trip back from Marco Island Martha took the helm for the first 2 hour stint which included leaving the dock and navigating out of that skinny shallow channel.  

Martha takes us out Smokehouse Bay

We were greeted again leaving this inlet by pods of dolphins.  Not as many and didn’t hang around as long but took a quick video of them playing. Click the video link below.
 Dolphins on the bow


 Martha also took the helm to dock the boat in our slip in Ft Myers as I manned the lines.  Got to admit – she did an awesome job.  I may be losing my title as Captain!!  Long full day of cruising to get back to Ft Myers but our weather window was continuing to hold with sunny and warm conditions.   A little more breeze picking up as the day wore on as we’ve got a cold front  approaching tonight. 

Perfect conditions out on the gulf

Journey for Feb 20  Long day from Naples to Ft. Myers

 

Feb 17 Ft. Myers to Naples

Feb 17


Sorry everyone for the long hiatus.   After that trip we took 2 weeks ago we got back to Ft. Myers and Martha immediately started feeling a bit off.  Scratchy throat, tight chest, dry cough and sinus issues.  We decided to stick around Ft. Myers until she got feeling better.  Unfortunately, she kept feeling worse and we finally got her to a doc in a box where it was diagnosed as an upper respiratory infection.   Some antibiotics and heavy duty cough meds for her.   About that time I started coming down with the same symptoms. So, between the both of us we’ve been out of commission for the better part of 2 weeks. Thankfully, this has been a pretty good place to be stuck for a few extra weeks in the winter. Sunsets are still glorious.
  

Even had an awesome full moonrise - that's As You Wish in the foreground

Unfortunately, our friends Jamie and Trish couldn’t wait for us and headed off to Key West. We’re now back to our plan of cutting across Lake Okeechobee but before doing that we wanted to explore a little further south on the gulf coast and so are taking a few days and going to Naples and then Marco Island. So today we left for Naples.  On the way Martha reminded me we just had our 10-month looperversary yesterday.

Celebrating Valentines Day on board with a chicken parm dinner by Chef John

While we’ve been “stuck” in Ft Myers a few more festivals have taken place.   There was an “ArtWalk” festival. One of the most unbelievable one’s I’ve ever seen.  Hundreds of vendors from all over the country with all sorts of exceptionally good artwork. Sculptures, pottery, woodwork, paintings, jewelry, etc.  It took us a full 4 hours to walk the event. Really good stuff.  Definitely not your local craft fair!  This past Saturday was the Edison Festival of Lights Parade.  Largest night parade in the southeast now in it’s 82^nd year celebrating Thomas Edison’s birthday.  Firetrucks, police motorcycles, marching bands, lighted floats and fireworks over the river as a grand finale.   Then another classic car show on Sunday covering several streets downtown.

                          Quick video below of a crazy wind sculptures for sale at the Artwalk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yS_wc63rxc&feature=youtu.be

One of the many lighted floats - this was a pirate ship

2019 Ford GT

How about this sweet old Studebaker

Back to today.  We topped off the fuel tanks with 178 gallons of diesel.   Not bad considering our last fill up was in Carrabelle before the gulf crossing.  Off the fuel dock at 8:45 and making our way down the Caloosahatchee River.  By 10:30 the boat traffic really started picking up on the river.  It’s been a bit breezy lately and forecast now calls for several days of light winds and very calm waters out on the gulf so everybody with a center console fishing boat seemed to be out and buzzing around us. The only time we got relief was going through the no wake manatee zones where we all lined up and passed slowly single file.

Interesting new 87' Horizon Yacht pulled into our marina for a few days

Boat parade going through the manatee zone

 Once out of the river and into the gulf things opened and we pretty much had those clear blue waters to ourselves. We were a bit disappointed in only spotting a few dolphins and none wanted to come over and ride our bow wave.  We did manage to spot a fair number of large sea turtles, but they come up, surface for air and then just leave a swirl as they swim back under.  About the time you grab a camera for a picture they’re gone. It was a nice straight shot to Gordan Pass and the winding entrance into Naples which took a couple hours.   With the gulf barely having a ripple I actually put out a line to try some fishing.   No bites but honestly we were trolling at a bit too high a speed. 

Conditions were too good to not at least try wetting a line.

Gordan Pass entrance to Naples - beautiful water colors

  Naples is very nice, but we can tell it’s just not our type of town. Simply a bit too much wealth on display.  It has the second highest proportion of millionaires per capita in the US.  The dockmaster told us “the thing to do on Sat. nights is walk down 5^th St and check out all the Ferrari’s that go by”.  As he’s telling us that there’s a constant stream of private jets taking off from the regional airport across the river “oh yeah, they’re all going back to work after the long Presidents Day  weekend  – normally they all come in Friday night and leave on Sunday”.   It also doesn’t help that we’re docked in the shadow of a 100+’ three level superyacht.  Damn 1 percenters!!

Just to give you a feel for the scale of this boat - that's a 50' Mikelson sportfish in front of it

Old Naples still exists but is disappearing quickly.  We found the Gondolier Inn feeling completely out of place nestled on a side street lined with multi-million dollar homes

One of the attractions  on the city docks is watching the charter fisherman tossing scraps to the pelicans  as they clean the days catch

They're pretty unintimidated by our presence

Journey for Feb 17