Day 102: Saturday, December 15, 2012

Port to Port: Longboat Key

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 00      Stayed At: Dock

First Things First: First wild peacock; First time taking the trolley; First lighted boat parade.

Mile to Mile: We aren’t in any hurry to get to Fort Myers early so this seems like a good place for a down day. We have two missions today – take a trip down the Key to the new Publix grocery store (Grand Opening weekend) for a few essentials and enjoy the lighted boat parade tonight. What would normally be a 30 minute excursion (roundtrip) by car ends up being a 2.5 hour exercise in patience. The trolley only runs every hour so we don’t want to miss it. We need to walk about a mile to the trolley stop. Just getting the 6 miles to the store takes 1+ hours including walking, waiting and travel time. We need to do the same routine in reverse on the way back with 20 lbs of ice and several bags of groceries. It’s a beautiful day, we need the exercise and the road is lined with amazing waterfront homes nearly the whole way so we aren’t suffering but usually simple tasks do eat up a lot of our daylight hours. At least we got to see our first wild peacock crossing the street on the way to the bus – that’s not something you see everyday.

We processed the ice, stowed our groceries and relaxed while we waited for Santa Clause to come. We helped boats coming for the parade to dock which was a fun way to meet people. We met Keith and Chris on La Familia – a beautiful Grand Banks motor cruiser. They aren’t doing the Loop (yet) but are exploring big junks of the east and Gulf coast. Their homeport is Annapolis, Maryland. They had been anchored in the cove for a week relaxing and working and moved over to the dock to enjoy some stone crab for lunch. We met them after our excursion to the store and chatted about the Loop, boats, kids and our mutual adventures. We told them about the boat parade so they decided to hang out at the dock till evening.

At first it seemed like only a few boats would show up for the parade but at the last minute, just before dusk, a bunch of boats showed up from who knows where. As soon as it was dark the boats maneuvered into position and flipped on their lights and it was an amazing sight. (How they avoided hitting each other or the crab pots or the anchored boats or the sightseeing boats is beyond me). We watched with dozens of other people from the neighborhood and eating at the restaurant as the boats slowly snaked their way past the dock and down the channel. A powerboat at the dock with a souped up sound system played a nice mix of classic and modern Christmas music to make it extra special. It was worth the wait.

After the excitement was other, we decided to share a burger at the restaurant and ended up meeting Keith and Chris doing the same thing – except they were going for the stone crab again. And they had something to celebrate. They had commented earlier that Keith was going to be a Grandpa (again) anytime – in fact they were heading to Tampa to fly out west for the event in a few days. Well, the new arrival probably showed up about the time the lighted boats were getting ready for the parade. They treated us to a glass of champagne to celebrate and we enjoyed a nice dinner together. What a special way to end a fun day. You never know which direction your day is going to go – you just need to go with the flow and enjoy the ride.