Day 112: Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Port to Port: Fort Myers, Florida
Underway: 0:00 am Motor Off: 00:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Marina
First Things First: Saw our first baby dolphin.
Mile to Mile: Although we try to do a little planning each day, you never know what the day will bring. Today dawned bright and sunny with a light northwesterly breeze – a perfect day to go sailing. The girls want to explore as many beaches as possible, go sailing at least once while they are here and see dolphins from the boat. Today is that day. We hope.
We got up – the girls slept a little better than last night – had breakfast, opened a few presents, wished family back home a Merry Christmas and cast off the lines for a nice cruise over to Sanibel Island. We’ve talked a lot about how cool it is to see dolphin everyday but you can’t guarantee they will show up. Well, lucky for us, several dolphin greeted us as we motored up the channel out into the Gulf of Mexico – how cool is that? Once out in the channel, we raised the sails and slowly cruised on a beam reach over to the Sanibel Lighthouse on the southern tip of Sanibel island. We anchored just north of the long fishing pier at the park and dinghied to the beach to explore and search for treasure. We didn’t find many “must have” shells but we had a blast beachcoming and checking out the park – another beach checked off the least, dozens more to go.
We raised anchor and sailed back towards Fort Myers Beach – again on a nice gentle beam reach. Within minutes of setting sail, we again saw some dolphin near the boat – this time a mother and her baby. What an amazing sight. We couldn’t have scripted this adventure any better. And the day isn’t over yet.
We motored up the channel, secured the boat in our slip and the girls went off exploring while we started prepping our Holiday Feast – chicken, shrimp, and steak kabobs on the grill, salad and rice – oh, and, of course, strawberry margaritas. What a feast. And to make it even more amazing, we enjoyed live music from Nervous Nellies all evening. What a great way to end another amazing day on the Loop.
