Day 111: Monday, December 24, 2012
Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida
Underway: 0:00 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: First time finding fossil sharks teeth; first docktails with the girls.
Mile to Mile: We took the scenic route back to the boat by way of Venice Beach. Jess and Sarah wanted to hit as many beaches as possible on their vacation and Venice Beach is a good place to start. Not only does it offer the standard sand, shells and surf but, as a bonus, you can find fossil sharks teeth here (Thank you Candice for heads-up). Even though we didn’t know what we were doing, all of us were able to find some sharks teeth – mostly small (about the size of a fingernail) but still really cool – these are millions of years old and for some reason they end up on this stretch of beach – a pretty unique way to spend a few hours on a sunny, warm day at the beach.
In case you visit someday, our most successful technique was the snatch and grab – wait for each wave to roll back out and look for small specks of black of the right shape and size and grab them before the next wave washed them away. It’s hard work (standing in the ocean on a warm sunny day) but in 3 hours we found more than a dozen sharks teeth between us. Better yet, bring a long handled screened scoop to reach out into deeper water and filter the sand away before searching. A definite highlight of our trip to Florida.
After several beach stops and sightseeing, we returned to the boat to figure out how to fit two more people and their luggage on a tiny little boat and celebrate Christmas Eve (time for presents). Sarah had brought a large load of treats from home including cookies, lefse and treats from Grandma G. The girls wandered off to explore while Cindy and I rearranged things to make everything fit. The girls are a little bit bigger than they were when we camped on the boat all summer in 2002 but we were able to squeeze everyone in without sinking the boat. It’s only for two nights since the girls have rented a house for several days later this week but its fun to be together “camping” for a little while to share as much time as possible together.
We were lucky too to get back early enough to take the girls to their first docktails. We wandered the 50’ down to the end of the dock to meet some of our neighbors. Everyone was very welcoming and somewhat amazed we were able to fit four adults on our little boat. After months of sharing our docktail stories, the girls finally have their own stories to tell.
