Day 127: Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

Mile to Mile: Cindy headed home to Minnesota for a couple of days to visit and then is going to Mesa Arizona with her Mom. She’s worried its going to be cold in Arizona. Kind of funny how your perspective changes – it’s been around 80˚ and humid here.

Instead of spending $60 or more on a taxi to get to the airport, she took the trolley and a bus for about $4 – the downside is that, in order to be sure she got to the airport in plenty of time, she had to leave about 5 hours before her flight. It wasn’t too bad, she said – she just walked around some and read more of her books on the Nook. Rough life.

So this means I’m alone here in Fort Myers Beach for a week and a half – what should I do with all my “free” time? Party? Drinking? Lounging on the beach? Of course not. Cindy happened to talk to one of the boaters in the anchorage this morning before she left and found out her and her three kids were going to volunteer at the library moving books from the temporary library to the brand new library. So, with nothing else exciting to do, I wandered down there to see if they needed help and spent the entire day moving books – on the hottest day of the winter so far. At least the new library was air conditioned and comfortable. I had a great day helping out, getting to know some fellow boaters – Jean, Ben, Stephen, and Julie (their dad Scott was back on the boat getting lots of projects done for their planned trip through the Panama Canal and on to the south seas) and got to meet a bunch of new people from the community. I can’t wait till the new library is open – its going to be amazing.

Even though I had a lot of exercise already, I still had to take a sunset walk on the beach. I’m like the girls – I don’t like to miss a sunset and today’s was extra special. It kept getting better and more amazing. And a couple of sailboats out watching the sunset from the Gulf made for some picture perfect sunset shots from the beach. I even was able to track down both sailboats and send them a few of the pics of their boats from shore – they were surprised and enjoyed seeing them. All in all, a good day at Fort Myers Beach.

Day 126: Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

Mile to Mile: We had special visitors from home today – our neighbor Cliff and his daughter Emily (and Fitz – Emily’s cute fuzzball of a dog) stopped by to visit on their way from Fort Lauderdale back to Tampa (and then back to Minnesota). We have been able to connect up several times on this trip and it is a special treat every time. We chatted for a while on the boat, went for a walk by the beach and then went to lunch at Nervous Nellies. A little hot in the mid-day sun sitting outside by the water but it just doesn’t seem right to sit inside on such a nice day. A short but wonderful visit. And, again, they hauled away more junk we decided we didn’t need – this time about 150 pounds worth – back to Minnesota. It’s amazing how much excess junk you can have even on a boat as small as ours. We can almost see our waterline now.

We finished the day with a leisurely walk along the beach – it’s the beginning of the busy season but the beach is surprisingly quiet during the week. Tomorrow Cindy leaves for “vacation” with a quick stop in Minnesota and a week plus lounging in Mesa, Arizona with her Mom. I’ll be here all alone – what will I do with all my free time?

Day 125: Monday, January 7, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

Mile to Mile: After a rainy night and morning, the clouds cleared set up another beautiful day at the beach. The rainy morning was perfect for working on the blog and doing laundry – its amazing how a small pile of dirty clothes can morph into two large loads within minutes. But it is really nice to have everything you own clean all at the same time – especially in the small space we currently call home.

You know you’ve been somewhere awhile when you get mail. My wifi booster arrived on Saturday but today I got three packages – my new sandals, a 16 gb SD card for the camera, and finally, our AGLCA (Great Loop Association) burgee (flag). Its almost like Christmas.

A long, scenic sunset walk along the beach and through Bowditch Point Park at the tip of the island closed out a productive and relaxing day on the Loop.

Day 124: Sunday, January 6 , 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

First Things First: First breakfast buffet of the trip (I think); First (official) nap in four months.

Mile to Mile: With nothing pressing on our schedule – no docktails, no visitors, no holiday celebrations and no car – we decided to walk to a restaurant on the other side of the bridge that supposedly has a good brunch buffet. I thought it was a lot closer – it turned out to be 3.5 miles away – one way. At least we got some exercise on the way to breakfast. Brunch was marginal – nothing to get excited about although, for $7 each, what can you expect. We of course ate too much and ended up walking home (in the hot sun) because the next trolley wasn’t supposed to arrive for almost an hour (one drove by in less than 20 minutes). We were exhausted and feeling pretty lethargic by the time we got back to Aurora – we only had enough energy to sprawl out and take a nap – our first of the trip. (I don’t know if that is sad or good). Kind of a waste of a beautiful day, though – first New Year’s resolution: avoid buffets whenever possible – it isn’t worth the residual cost no matter how cheap.

We slowly came back to life late in the afternoon and spent some time touring one of our neighbor boats – Boomerang – and chatting with Richard and Sally. It was really fun to share stories and adventures – they stripped and rebuilt Boomerang over a 6 year period and have been cruising for several years on her now. We’ve kind of missed this part of staying in a marina – this is a very small marina with longer-term residents rather than fellow Loopers traveling through. They offered us the use of their bicycles whenever we want too– I can’t wait to go exploring at 12 mph instead of 3 or 4 mph. They also borrowed us the DVD for Second Hand Lions which we watched before crashing after another hard day at the Beach.

Day 123: Saturday, January 5, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

First Things First: First time watching a pirate ship come in and dock.

Mile to Mile: I spent way too much time in the morning trying to get my new toy – the wifi booster – set up. I don’t do this enough to get good at it and the terminology and instructions are like reading Chinese. I was unsuccessful but probably learned a lot of stuff that I will promptly forget and need to relearn the next time I have to set up a new network.

In the afternoon, we took a long walk south along the beach and wandered around the island stopping for a while at the Mound House (we have a Mound house too – just in Mound not on a Mound) – it was closed but we checked out the grounds and riverfront and rested on the benches there. The Mound House is a house built on top of a huge mound of shells left over from when the Calusa Indians inhabited this area thousands of years ago – of course someone at some time decided to build a house on this archaeological site. At least it has been converted into a museum and educational center so something good has come of it instead of just someones’ home. We’ll have to come back sometime for a tour.

Day 122: Friday, January 4, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

Mile to Mile: You know you’ve been somewhere for a long time when you start getting mail. I ordered several things (wifi booster, Looper flag, SD card for camera and sandals) we’ve been wanting/needing for a while last week and they are already starting to arrive. One item we ordered was a wifi repeater – we hope to get it set up so we can easily mount it up on the mast to pick up the relatively weak wifi signals at marinas and boost them so we can get a strong signal on the computer, Ipad and phone. I was hopeful it would be an easy task but after four hours of frustration, I gave up for the day to try again another day. I’m sure I just have one setting or one number wrong somewhere. These are dumb devices – they can’t tell you why they aren’t working – they just don’t work – and there can be dozens of things wrong. I usually can figure it out but I don’t do it often enough to get really proficient. It’s really eating into our beachcombing time but I guess we all have to make sacrifices.

Cindy’s friend from work Trece and her family happen to be staying at a hotel down the island for vacation this week so they got together to do a little shopping and walking along the beach in the afternoon. It’s always amazing to cross paths with people we know either from home or from the Loop. It just shows how small the world really is.

We all went out to Nervous Nellies next door for dinner. The food is decent and the ambiance is perfect – we sat on the waterside deck with a view of the river and the 78’ Lynx Privateer docked on the end of the pier. They have these cool propane heater by every table that have a vertical glass tube running 4 feet up the middle to enclose a swirling orange flame dancing up the middle. I want one on my next boat. Thanks Joe, Trece and Lauren for visiting our end of the island and for the wonderful dinner. We enjoy these connections to home.

Day 121: Thursday, January 3, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

First Things First: First square rigger ship

Mile to Mile: Another day to catch up on blogging, reading and sightseeing. Not too exciting. We took a long walk down the beach on another sunny warm afternoon. The sights are interesting along the way – lots of bikini girls (and muscle guys) mixed in with other beach lovers of all shapes, sizes and ages who maybe shouldn’t be wearing so little clothing. It is a sight to behold though sometimes hard to forget. Watching the little kids playing on the beach is probably the most fun – it brings back a lot of memories for us about some of our trips to the beach a long, long time ago.

We ended up near the new library so we decided to wander by to check it out. Its Grand Opening is in less than two weeks so we will be able to see it all before we leave. What an amazing new building for such a small community. It’s a bright white three story building with multiple decks facing towards the beach. I’ve never seen so many large print books before – not surprising given the seasonal clientele here. They even painted seascape murals on the walls of the elevator column so when you ride up the glass walled elevator you pass by a forest of kelp, schools of fish, dolphin and shark. They will even have a large enclosed area to display examples of real sand sculptures. What a great community resource – I wish it was open right now.

There are some things you just can’t plan for on this trip. The Lynx Privateer is a perfect example of this. It docked on the end of the pier in front of Nervous Nellies only a stone’s through from the back of our boat. What a treat. The Lynx is a 78’ (122’ including its bowsprit and other extensions) square top-sail schooner built as a replica of a privateer from the War of 1812. It is made of wood and even has cannons and crew in period costumes to complete the period look. (Of course it also has a 200 hp caterpillar diesel hidden somewhere down below to help it along too). They are touring the country on an educational mission and give tours, host parties and weddings and take tourists on cruises to pay their expenses. Another interesting lifestyle for the people who crew her.

After another amazing waterside dinner of grilled pork steaks, fried red potatoes and salads, we relaxed and watched a movie on Netflix and crashed fairly early to rest for another exciting day at Fort Meyers Beach.

Day 120: Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

First Things First: First time using a marina hot tub.

Mile to Mile: After all the fun we’ve been having today was a “work” day. I spent all morning working on the blog – my goal is to post 2 or 3 days for every day so, I can catch up or at least not get any further behind. It takes a lot of discipline to sit in the laundry room/library for hours on a bright sunny day but we can’t wait for the cold cloudy days or nothing would ever get done. Cindy pulled out the cushions and put them outside to bake in the sun and kept reading her Nook books. She is definitely addicted now. She really likes a new author – Randy Wayne White – whose adventure stories are based in Florida right where we are located. She keeps seeing places and names that show up in her books. Thanks Caroline for the referral (I think).

Tom, our neighbor at the end of the dock, wandered by this morning and informed us docktails today would be on the roof at the Lani Kai Island Resort – a local hotel with an open air rooftop restaurant 6 stories up overlooking the beach and sunset. Sounds like a nice place to spend an evening. (We had just commented to each other on our morning walk that we needed to check this place out sometime soon so no time like the present right). I guess they have cheap chicken wing, oysters, shrimp and drinks for Happy Hour – sounds like a good reason to stop by. We were the first to arrive after we wandered down the beach for awhile but soon we had about a dozen fellow boaters/travelers stop by – we really enjoy these gatherings where we get to know our neighbors better and share stories and laughs. That is a huge advantage of staying somewhere for a longer time.

After a long, “busy” day, we decided to finally take advantage of the empty hot tub and pool. And it was definitely hot! Even the pool felt pretty good even though it isn’t heated. I can’t believe it took us so long to check this out. This may have to become a new daily ritual. We better be careful though – we may not want to leave anytime soon.

Day 119: Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

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

First Things First: First fireworks laying on the beach; First Chinese lanterns floating into the night sky.

Mile to Mile: Wow! What an amazing way to start the New Year. We (along with thousands of our closest friends) found a soft piece of sandy beach to lay out our towels and we watched the moon and stars as fireworks danced, boomed and whistled out over the waves. The soft glow of the Japanese latterns floating by on the breeze only added to the display of light. It was one of those nights we will remember forever. The only thing missing was the girls – we wish they could have stayed to share the experience with us. We miss them already.

The New Year dawned bright and sunny so we ate a light breakfast and walked the beach – our new daily ritual. This is the beginning of the busy winter season here but the beach was relatively quiet this morning after a very busy night last night. Even though there were thousands of people here yesterday, the beach was clean and ready for thousands more people today. Fort Myers Beach does an excellent job keeping the community clean and safe for all the visitors that vacation here – now if they only could spend a little money on sidewalks and bike paths, life would be perfect.

It was a lazy day. We did finally get around to making a batch of chili using ingredients we brought from home nearly 4 months ago. We have a little celebration every time we can get rid of 3 (heavy) cans of food we have been carrying for many, many miles. The chili was delicious too so that was an extra bonus. Plus we have leftovers for the next cool day. Life is tough out here but someone has to do it.