Does
Spring Break Have an Age Limit: March 13 2016
Time
to move on from Marco Island since the winds have laid down and we have more to
see. The sun is rising a bit earlier
every day which allowed us to leave at first light with good tide height at
6.30am (2/29). We wanted to make sure light
and tide were aligned because the water can get pretty skinny in the canal exit
and we did not want to bump the bottom.
We took it slow and did not see less than 7 feet…phew. Next stop is the Matanzas Harbor Mooring Field
at Fort Myers Beach. The mooring field
has 70 moorings which should be plenty for everyone; however, the crazy weather
this year has people staying in one place longer than usual so we have our
fingers crossed for availability because reservations are not taken…it is
strictly first come, first served (http://www.fortmyersbeachfl.gov/index.aspx?NID=109).
All worked out and we were nicely tied
to mooring ball #53 at Noon.
And
guess who is on the water?! Friends from
our Cove Haven days of 2005…Sue and Steve.
This is a small world. They were
at nearby Doc Ford’s Rum Grill for lunch and with a bit of FaceBook exchange we
traded locations and voila – they came aboard.
It is always marvelous to catch up with cruising friends. Holy cow – has it actually been more than ten
years?! Could have fooled us - fantastic
to see you guys.
Cousin
Treva from Chicago is escaping the northern winter for a couple of weeks in
sunny, warm Naples. We spent a day together exploring
this new territory for both of us (3/1).
We explored Sanibel and Captiva and downtown Fort Myers checking out
watering holes, hamming it up and even visiting the Manatee Park. The Manatee Park was a bit of a bust because
the giant critters rarely pop more than a couple of nostrils above the water’s
surface. I guess I could have deduced
this earlier since all the photos I have ever seen, including the ones in the
gift shop, are taken under water. Duh! Oh well, it was fun and we did spot a couple
of the sluggy critters. Thanks for an introduction
to the area – Treva.
Sunrise
gives sunset a run for its money here at Fort Myers Beach – we are lucky. This seems to be a beautiful and
peaceful spot to spend some time…and it feels a bit more cruiser-y with a
dinghy dock for easy access into town, trash dumpster and laundry/shower
facilities. But enough playing around –
we need to familiarize ourselves with the immediate area before Boston friends Charlene
and Ashlyn arrive; provisioning – check, diesel – check, water – check.
The large Topps Supermarket is a short dinghy ride away complete with a dinghy dock. Our fridge and pantry are now full and recipes can turn into meals. Diesel…we do not actually need diesel but at a price of $1.79 per gallon we decided to fill up anyway (and took on just over 400 gallons). Ballard Oil is located beside the mooring field and Jim Ballard could not be nicer (239-463-7677). Jim services the dozens of shrimpers which keeps the fuel well turned over and clean…each shrimp boat takes on about 5,000 gallons at a time. It’s the largest fleet of shrimp boats on the Gulf Coast; in Fort Myers Beach December thru July and in Texas July thru December. Give Jim a call before you arrive to be sure that the shrimp boats are not filling up and already at the dock. Make no mistake - shrimp is serious business and there is even an annual Shrimp Festival - in its 58th year and run by the Lions Club (http://www.fortmyersbeachshrimpfestival.com/).
Jim also let us
fill our water tanks but, sadly, we misjudged the fill and still needed 20-30
gallons. Drat! The watermaker is working fine but the water
is not. Lake Okeechobee has been
releasing water in order to curb flooding due to unprecedented rains last
month…and it is full of silt and debris.
The water looks a bit like camp dish water after Burning Man…or a farmer’s
settling pond. Well, we used the
watermaker to top off the tanks and were able to run for about 1.5 hours before
the filters clogged and we had to call it a day. We will hope to ration well enough to last
through our visitor’s visit. Another water
strategy is to head out to clearer waters but that is not much of an option
under current conditions because the silty plume extends from Port Charlotte to
the north to Russell Pass to the south and about 12 miles offshore.
We
are going to Spring Break! Yes, we are
uggghhhm older than the typical “breaker” but we are hosting friend Charlene
and her college daughter Ashlyn…so we are calling it Spring Break on
Barefeet. The ladies arrived and
immediately got into the swing of things with dinghy transport, dinner on the
waterfront and a beach walk at sunset (3/4).
Times Square is the focal point of beach activity at sunset…complete
with street performers, ice cream cones, newly tanned bodies and droves of
people watching the great yellow ball slip into the sea. And the sand is super soft – more like baby
powder than crushed shells. Wow!
It
feels like we have rounded a corner with EVERY day in flip flops and shorts…and
the fleeces back into the cupboard. We still
have the baseball game rental car so we took a bit of a road trip back to
Everglades City (3/7). It was so much
fun with Rich and Jodi that we repeated the day with Charlene and Ashlyn. We hugged alligators, sped through mangrove
tunnels on air boats and even stopped to pay homage to the baked bean serving
spoon in the museum (snicker, snicker).
On the way back to Fort Myers Beach we spotted gators beside the road
and stopped for a walk along the beach in Naples. The
gator was nestled almost completely below the floating
greenery...ha...good thing the driver was not also the spotter.
Also along our route back north is the town of Naples. Naples gets rave and ritzy reviews. We certainly loved the abundance of trees;
however, the sand was not as soft as at Fort Myers Beach…just sayin’.
