Day 169: Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach to Fort Myers
Underway: 10:00 am Motor Off: 2:30 pm Miles Traveled: 21 Stayed At: Marina
Mile to Mile: Believe it or not we left exactly on time on a beautiful, calm, sunny morning. We took showers, went to McDonalds for breakfast, said our goodbyes and shoved off at 10 am – right on schedule. Its hard saying goodbye but we hope someday to reconnect with the many people we have met here. John came by with a bottle of champagne for us to celebrate completing the loop with (we warned him though that this probably won’t make it that far since we have weight issues but we told him we would replace it when we complete our Loop). Richard and Sally also gave a going away bottle of wine made in Australia (which you can buy at the local grocery store) and tossed off our lines as we left. We already have plans to meet up after they get back home to South Caroline in early April – we can’t wait.
Our 4-hour cruise up river was uneventful – the water was smooth, the sun was bright and Boris purred along quietly all day. The only thing we had to get used to was the boat traffic. Everyone and their brother must have decided Wednesday morning was a good day to head for the Gulf and, as we travelled up river, we were met with a steady stream of large and small power boats all traveling fast heading right at us. Aurora takes the wakes really well but some people are clueless about common courtesy and the rules of the road so it is stressful to navigate all this traffic. Thankfully, after about two hours, the traffic thinned our and we had a quiet cruise the rest of the way into the Fort Myers Yacht Basin. We passed right by Legacy Marina where our friend Eddy and Linda have been for a few weeks – lots of big white boats packed side by side.
As we slowly motored in to our slip we were serenaded by a lone guy planning a saxaphone under the bridge next to the marina – a welcome gentle change from the music at FMB. He kept playing the rest of the afternoon. We are tucked into the corner of the marina right along the shore with a sitting area nearby and boats for the Florida Wildlife and Fish Service parked on either side of us. We feel very secure. One thing that is very different here is how quiet it is. We had gotten used to the constant live music at FMB but here there is just a little road noise but otherwise silence. And calm. The harbor is completed protected from wakes and waves by breakwaters so we should sleep very soundly tonight.
We found out that there was a Meet and Greet tonight so we scrambled to make a cheese and cracker plate and some Rice Krispie Bars to share. We met one of our neighbors several slips down – Pierre and Cristina on Cristina – and they generously shared their BBQ chicken with us and we had a nice time chatting. They trailered their McGreggor sailboat down from Quebec just ahead of the big storm that recently hit the east coast and just made it through before they started closing roads. They are staying here about a month before moving on. The turn-out for the Party was fairly light but we enjoyed their company and are excited to explore our new home for the next week or two.
