February 18, 2015  Day 89 South for Winter

Fort Myers Yacht Basin Marina
Fort Myers, FL

As planned, we left our anchorage at Cayo Costa and cruised to Ft. Myers on Monday. We had lots of boat traffic, perhaps because of Presidents’ Day.  We arrived at our slip early afternoon, glad to be here, knowing the weather conditions (mainly wind and waves) were going to deteriorate within the next few days. 

Joyce began the next day with a haircut. So nice to be back in Ft. Myers and return to the same salon! Our Looper friends Sarah and Brooks who have relocated to Cape Coral, came over by boat to join us for lunch. The original plan was to return to Cape Coral on their boat, but the wind was getting strong, so we just walked to a nearby restaurant. We had a fun time and while Bill and Brooks walked back to our boat, Sarah and Joyce ducked into a few shops.

On Wednesday, Joyce walked to the Post Office which is a pleasant half mile walk along the water.  Other activities included laundry, baking bread (Joyce), and doing a pump out (Bill). We continue to think through our itinerary and schedule for the coming days. We want to start heading south to the Keys, but need the Gulf to calm down since we won’t have the protection of the GIWW.  Given all that, we have decided to stay here until Saturday.  

February 15, 2015  Day 86 South for Winter

At anchor
Cayo Costa, Pelican Bay FL

We had another change of plans and stayed at Burnt Store Marina three nights. We got some cleaning done on the boat, took a walk around the surrounding neighborhood which is a gated community, and had a nice dinner at Cass Cay, the restaurant on site. Most of the vehicles in the parking are golf carts.  
 

We also had more repairs done on some of the canvas and those panels were delivered on Thursday morning.  We left later that morning and cruised a short twelve miles to Cayo Costa, one of our favorite anchorages.  

There are many boaters here!  Cayo Costa is on Pelican Bay and is a State Park that has camping facilities, nature trails, and quick access to the beach on the west side.  A simple $2.00 fee gains everyone access to this very pleasant site and includes shuttle service to the beach.

After Bill changed the engine oil this morning, we took the dinghy over and walked along the beach for an hour.  Bill took pictures of shorebirds, and Joyce collected shells.  It was warm (74 degrees) but breezy, but we are so happy to be this far south and feel badly for our friends and relatives who are cold up north.

Tomorrow we will return to Ft. Myers for a few days.  There is a weather front with high winds arriving mid-week and we want to be secure in a marina.

 

February 11, 2015  Day 82 South for Winter

Burnt Store Marina
Punta Gorda, FL

We are having way too much fun! We usually manage to update the blog on a more timely basis, but somehow it has eluded us. Here is a summary of our activities since January 27 when we last wrote.

We did leave Ft. Myers on Jan 28 and anchored out the next two nights, at Cape Haze and at Otter Key – both were lovely anchorages. We arrived in St. Petersburg on Jan. 30 and were greeted by Gay and Mike, Looper friends who are spending the winter in a condo in FL. They rode their bikes over to see us and we had a fun visit. On Saturday we walked to our favorite Farmers Market and came back with meat, vegetables and fruit. We had just returned when we heard from Brooks and Sarah who had driven up to St. Petersburg for the weekend, so they came over for a visit! We love these surprises!

Any bets on who gets the fish on the end of the line??

Joyce’s sister, Kathy and brother-in-law, Paul arrived on Sunday for a week long visit. It was such a joy to have them with us.  We had planned to depart on Monday but we stayed an extra day due to weather. We enjoyed going for walks, having the best gelato, and going to an outdoor art show.

We departed St. Petersburg Tuesday and cruised to The Moorings at Longboat Key for three days. This is in an upscale resort and we felt spoiled. The resort shuttle took us to the beach upon our arrival and we had a relaxing afternoon walking along the beach and then sitting pool side. We had dinner at Whiskey Tavern, one of the restaurants at the resort.  On Wednesday we took the shuttle to St. Armands Circle, an upscale shopping mecca. We browsed through many shops and had lunch at Columbia, a local favorite Cuban restaurant since the early 1900’s.  We had dinner on board that evening.  We went back to St. Armands Circle Thursday to meet Paul’s cousin, John and his wife Pam who drove up from Venice to join us for lunch at the Crab and Fin. 

Joyce and her sister, Kathy on the beach at
Longboat Key

Due to weather issues, we cancelled our plans to go to Clearwater Beach on Friday and returned to St. Petersburg a day early. We had a bumpy ride all the way with four foot waves, but since they were on the bow, it was not so bad.  We discovered more Loopers had arrived! Scott and KC on Jet Stream were there by boat and Freya and Don (Last Resort) were there by car. More great reunions!!

We walked back to the Farmers Market on Saturday morning with Kathy and Paul and came back with more goodies.  We grilled steaks that night and had a nice dinner on board.  Sunday arrived all too soon and Kathy and Paul had to return to Atlanta that afternoon.  Bill did manage to work in a dinghy ride for Paul and they toured the harbor at St. Petersburg. We had such a good time having them with us. We played a board game, “A Ticket To Ride” countless times during their stay and became quite competitive!

We departed St. Petersburg and cruised seven hours to Venice, five of which were in the rain.  We were glad to get docked at the Crow’s Nest just after the rain stopped!  We spent two nights there. Friends, Ron and Lisa with whom we did the Down East Loop, joined us for dinner at the Crow’s Nest and then came back to Carried Away for dessert (we bought a delicious Key Lime Pie at the restaurant). We spent the evening reminiscing about our wonderful journey together. Many thanks to Lisa for taking Joyce to a few stores that afternoon to do some necessary provisioning!

We are now at Burnt Store Marina (south of Punta Gorda) for two nights. We had such a good cruise today and were thrilled to have one dolphin in particular swim along side of us for several minutes. Tomorrow will be a maintenance day – oil change, laundry, cleaning, etc. 

January 27, 2015  Day 67 South for Winter

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

On Thursday, January 22 we spent a great evening on board Harmony and enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Janet and Bob. We topped off the evening by playing a fun board game, Ticket to Ride!  Bill’s brother, Bob, and Debbie picked us up Friday and took us to the RV show in North Fort Myers. We enjoyed looking at various types of RVs. We were surprised to bump into Looper friends, Deanna and Dick (Sareanna) whom we had not seen in over two years!  Then we saw Anita and Don, Looper friends on Limelight! 

On Saturday, we joined Skip and Barb for a lovely dinner at Cristof’s, followed by coffee back on our boat.   Monday, Jan 26 meant more food and more Looper friends!  Ross and Laura came here for dinner and also helped us look at some possible anchorages and marinas in the Keys.

Today, Tuesday, is our last day here at Legacy, and we ended it by attending a huge gathering (over 50 people) for a potluck under the Tiki Hut.  We were thrilled to reunite with friends, Bernie and Don that we had not seen since we were on the Loop in 2012.  Barb and Skip came back to the boat and joined us for coffee to end a perfect evening. 

The Looper community lost a mentor and friend today as Tom Conrad passed away. Our hearts and prayers are with Patsy. 

We will depart Ft. Myers in the morning and head to an anchorage north of Charlotte Harbor. It will be hard to say goodbye to friends here but we will see many of them again soon.

 

 

 

January 21, 2015  Day 61 South for Winter

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

It has been two and a half weeks since we have updated the blog! That’s what happens when we are around friends. We have been incredibly busy and are having the best of times! 

We crossed Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River in two days with Pazza Bella and Harmony, stopping overnight at Moore Haven. The days were long and we had to go through five locks, but we did fine. We arrived in Ft. Myers on Wednesday, January 7. We came for the Gold Looper Reunion and extended our stay here for three weeks.  We got settled in our slip on the B Dock and then walked to a seafood restaurant with ten other Loopers. 

Joyce walked to the Farmers Market the next morning and came back with good fruits and vegetables!  On Friday morning we joined several others for breakfast at First Watch, a restaurant open for just breakfast and lunch. Great choice!  We accepted Ross and Laura’s offer to use their car for a day, so Bill dropped Joyce off at a hair and nail appointment at a delightful salon on a houseboat at Ft. Myers Yacht basin! Bill ran errands to get things like engine oil and oil filters while Joyce was getting pampered.  Then we drove to Walmart after lunch to refill prescriptions. We spent a delightful evening at Ross and Laura’s lovely home and had a delicious Italian dinner that Ross expertly prepared.  Anita and Don, Loopers (Limelight) joined us also to complete the evening. Ross and Laura are one of many couples we know who have made Ft. Myers their home after completing the Loop.

On Saturday, Skip and Barb (Moor Stuff) came to visit and then took us back to their pretty condo on a golf course.  We had a great visit and a very nice dinner at their yacht club, complete with a perfect view.  They also just moved to Ft. Myers recently!  By now, Joyce started getting big ideas about where to relocate after we are finished boating in a couple of years.  The condo lifestyle in Ft. Myers seems like a perfect answer!

On Sunday, several of the ladies got together in the boaters lounge for an afternoon of a fun game of cards, Shanghai Rummy!  On Monday, Tom and Linda arrived on their boat, Raydiance. It was so good to see them again!  As soon as they got settled, they came with us to join several other Gold Loopers for a trolley ride downtown where we had lunch.  We all decided to walk back. Just as we left the restaurant we had a call from Shannon & Richard who had just arrived on Esmeralda. We did part of the Down East Loop with them. They were docked at a nearby marina and saw us on AIS! We walked over there for a nice visit!  We had Tom and Linda over for dinner that evening and then watched the BCS football game, delighted with the Buckeyes’ win!  The Gold Looper Reunion was a two day event on Jan. 14-15 with over 125 attending! Several of us gathered for the social hour before the dinner and it was so exciting to see people here that we had not seen in two years.  We did not even know some of them were coming. The next two days were non-stop talking! We enjoyed the catered dinners too!

On Friday, we walked back downtown to have lunch with 18 other Loopers at Ford’s Garage, a popular restaurant with huge burgers!  That evening we went to dinner at Cristof’s on McGregor with Tom and Linda, (Raydiance) and Eddy and Linda (Spiritus).  We never seemed to stop eating!!  Since Tom had a rental car, we all decided to make a stop at Publix after dinner.

We had to relocate to the A dock on Saturday morning since the slip owner was returning to the slip we were in initially. Several Loopers had to change dockage during their stay here. We were ok with that – it meant we could stay longer! We enjoyed dinner on board Raydiance that evening. The guys beat Linda and Joyce in a fun game of Mexican Dominoes!

On Sunday, Jan 18, Bill’s brother Bob and friend Debbie arrived for lunch on our boat. Then we took another nice walk with them along the waterfront and downtown.  We watched an unbelievable Packer game later that afternoon and then went back to Raydiance to watch Downton Abbey with them. 

We said goodbye to Tom and Linda Monday morning and helped with their lines as they departed.  Two hours later, Brooks and Sarah (Our Time) picked us up and drove us to their beautiful condo in Cape Coral. We had a very nice lunch in their home and then walked around the marina and the boutique shops that are part of their condo development. We topped that off with gelato for a perfect afternoon!  They are another Gold Looper couple who has relocated here! Yes, definitely a pattern….

Actually, we have not been partying the whole time! Bill installed a new VHS radio on the fly bridge to replace one that started working intermittently.  We also met with vendors on the boat to replace the carpet on the sundeck and flybridge (being delivered as I write!) It was good to get the old carpet up and thoroughly clean those floors!  We are also having some of the isinglass replaced on the bridge and look forward to having it delivered soon.  Joyce has been busy making bread in the new bread maker Bill gave her for Christmas. We are eating all too well. Two more Loopers are now buying bread makers! 

We will post more in a few days before we depart on January 28.

January 4, 2015  Day 44 South for Winter

Loggerhead Marina
Vero Beach, FL

We did a final provisioning on Saturday and thanks to Steve for taking us to Publix. Steve is a fellow Californian owner who keeps his boat at Cocoa.  We also did some cleaning – which included the air-conditioner filters!

We left at 0835 this morning after a fond farewell to Kelly, one of the staff at the marina.  We had a sunny sky, low 80’s and moderate winds at 10-20, which were not a problem.  For quite a while we thought we had the water mostly to ourselves; then all the small boaters came out of nowhere on this Sunday afternoon!  They seemed to be enjoying this warm day!

We arrived at Loggerhead Marina at 3:15. This marina is in a beautiful gated golf course resort community.  We are tucked between two lovely large boats – a Fleming and a Viking!  We would definitely return someday!

We have been in touch with other Loopers today as they also head toward Ft. Myers.  We have decided to meet Bob and Janet (Harmony) at an anchorage near Stuart tomorrow afternoon rather than go into a marina.

We will get fuel here first thing in the morning and then head south for our 51 mile cruise.

January 2, 2015  Day 42 South for Winter

Cocoa Village Marina
Cocoa, FL

We are nearing the end of our stay here at Cocoa Village. We did go to Thai Thai for dinner this week. It is a favorite restaurant of ours!  Loopers, Veronica and Mike (Pazza Bella) arrived Wednesday and we have enjoyed visiting with them.

We went to a marina potluck for lunch on New Year’s Day and had a very nice time.  Last night we watched the Sugar Bowl and cheered on the Buckeyes and were glad it worked! Great game!

This morning we went to breakfast with Mike and Veronica and then helped them cast off their lines as they prepared to leave. We will see them along with many other Loopers in Ft. Myers next week.  Another Looper on Wild Goose stopped by to visit this afternoon also. We are always happy to meet fellow boaters!

We put away all our Christmas decorations today and are getting things back to normal. Tomorrow we will do final provisioning and prepare to leave on Sunday.