February 2, 2015  Day 72  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

This posting is mostly about food!  Another incredibly busy week has passed since we updated the blog, and we seemed to have eaten our way through it.

Last Wednesday, we drove (in the rain) to Marco Island to meet some friends who are currently on the Loop. Gail and Jeff are on YOLO, another Californian 45 and who are also from Virginia. We had a wonderful visit with them on their boat. Then we drove around the Island trying to find a restaurant. We either couldn’t find parking or couldn’t get in without a reservation. Then finally we found Verdi’s and got their last available table. The food was excellent and worth the wait.  We eventual drove Jeff and Gail back to YOLO and then headed back to Ft. Myers after a delightful visit!

On Saturday, Bob (Bill’s brother) and Debbie drove down for the day. We had lunch on the boat and then walked downtown to attend “Taps and Tunes”, a craft beer and music festival.  We tried a few varieties of beer and walked around for a while in Centennial Park. After returning to Carried Away to visit for a while, we decided to walk back downtown for an early dinner. We were able to get a table at Ford’s Garage, a very popular spot in Ft. Myers!  We are glad it is within walking distance because finding parking on a weekend is not to be had!

We met ten other Looper friends for breakfast on Sunday morning at Clancey’s. We never seem to run out of topics to discuss!  Then, later that afternoon we went to Barb and Skip’s lovely condo for dinner and a fun round of cards.   We had such a great time with them.

This evening we went out to dinner with Rick and Margi and had good barbecue at The Lodge, in downtown Ft. Myers.

We have also been working hard to complete projects on the boat. Our broker returned today and took a video of the boat as part of the marketing process. We will now be listed on Yacht World.

On a personal note, we are leaving on Friday (by car) to spend about three weeks in Virginia Beach. Our daughter and son-in-law are flying to China to bring back the baby boy they are adopting, and we will keep everything smooth at home by taking care of our four grandchildren for two weeks!  We are so excited for them to bring this child in to their lives and we are thrilled to have a new grandson! His name is Ryan and he is a year old and yes, adorable.

We will update the blog next week in Virginia.  (In the meantime we are meeting more friends for dinner tomorrow!)

January 25, 2015  Day 64  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

Somehow we are managing to keep a balance between getting the boat ready to sell and maintaining a social life!  We enjoyed both nights of the Gold Looper Reunion last week. It was wonderful to see so many friends.

Then last Wednesday, we joined five other couples for lunch and a unique card game on Debbie & Henry’s boat, Seventh Tenths. We had a great afternoon!  On Thursday, we met Looper friends, Don & Anita for breakfast and afterwards, went to another RV show, this one in Ft. Myers. 

We had more bad weather with high winds this weekend so we stayed busy on the boat both days. The Celtic Festival in Ft. Myers was also cancelled.

Carried Away is now officially for sale. We met with our broker last week and have signed the papers.  Wow!  When the “for sale” sign was placed on the boat, it suddenly became a reality.  We hope she will have new owners soon that will enjoy her as we have.

We have a busy week ahead visiting friends and still completing some projects. 

 

January 18, 2015  Day 57  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

Our weekly update has almost become two weeks.  The time goes by very quickly!  We have met several Looper friends over the past twelve days for meals and get togethers. Some are here on their boats and some have moved here after completing the Loop.  It is so good to spend time with them! 

We are still in the midst of repairs.  We had an unfortunate leak in the forward cabin, which was due to a broken pipe in the forward sink.  After that was repaired, we discovered the same carpet was wet again! This leak was much harder to find. After removing the flooring under the galley sink, Bill found a broken connection to a water line for an ice maker to the refrigerator. Our refrigerator does not have an ice maker, but the pressure had still built up enough to cause problems.  After fixing both of these problems, Bill has now installed shut off valves for all water pipes!  In the meantime we are trying to get things put away and cleaned so we can put the boat on the market.

We have also had some very bad weather over the past ten days with heavy rain and high winds on three occasions.  The 80 degree days we had in early January are now in the 60’s and 70’s.

We drove to Tampa last week to an RV show and enjoyed seeing various RVs and accessories.  We will go to another one next week here in Ft. Myers.  We are meeting more people who have made the transition from boating life to RV life!

 
We attended a Gold Looper Reunion tonight with over 120 Loopers!  It was wonderful to see so many friends.  The party continues again tomorrow night! 

We will meet with our broker this week to discuss the sale of our boat.  This is somehow becoming a reality.

We will try to post again next week!

 

January 6, 2015  Day 45  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

Another weekly update. We spent New Year’s Eve with Rick and Margi on their boat, enjoying food and games.  New Year’s Day was filled with college football and we were happy to see the Buckeyes win the Fiesta Bowl. 

We have continued our quest to work on boat projects, and Bill seems to inherit the difficult ones.  He was half submerged in a hatch in the forward cabin and managed to badly twist his neck.  After two days of using heat with no luck, we got him an appointment today with an orthopedic surgeon/specialist.  The diagnosis was a strain that will require 3-4 weeks to recover.  Hopefully the muscle relaxant meds will help!

Joyce joined a weekly Bible study this morning with other ladies at the marina. It is very good to be part of this group!

We will post again in another week! Thanks for checking on our boating life.

December 29, 2015  Day 37  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

We have been here for over a week now and have stayed very busy. 

We had two Looper couples over for Christmas Eve dinner to share our traditional lasagna meal.  On Christmas Day we joined several other boaters for a potluck dinner and ate way too much.  We enjoyed talking to our family throughout the day also!

On Saturday we went out to breakfast with Rick and Margi and Darrell and Lisa and then drove to Port Charlotte with Rick and Margi to see the property they were going to buy. It is a very nice lot on one of many canals in the area.  We like the floor plan they have chosen for their house.

We made a big purchase on Monday and for the first time in almost four years, we now own a car!  We chose a new Jeep Cherokee and are very happy with it. Bill has been studying manuals all day. We went out to dinner at Cristof's with Rick and Margi last night to celebrate their new property and our new car!

We moved our boat to another slip (same marina) this afternoon and will stay here for about two months. Everyone is very friendly and welcomed us to this dock!  When we turned on our Christmas tree nights this evening, our neighbors applauded! 

We are taking care of cleaning projects when we aren’t visiting with others!  We do plan to get the boat up for sale and need to de-clutter it first.  Lots to do!!

We will spend New Year’s Eve with Rick and Margi and will have a “game night” on their boat.  And yes, food!! Joyce and Margi enjoy planning meals together and will do the shopping tomorrow, after pedicures. First things first!

 
We have had very warm weather in the high 80’s since we arrived.  It has been amazing.

We will write the blog again in a few days.

 

We wish you all a very Happy and Healthy New Year!!

December 22, 2015  Day 30  South for the Winter 2015-16

Legacy Harbour Marina
Ft. Myers, FL

After four weeks travel, we arrived at Legacy Harbour Marina this afternoon and will be here for the winter.  We are happy to be here! Rick and Margi, Looper friends on Journey, were here to greet us.

We got checked in and used a dock cart to pick up all the packages we had waiting for us.

We went to dinner with Rick and Margi at the popular Capone’s restaurant downtown for some great pizza.  We stopped back at their boat to visit for a while. We are pretty tired from our day of cruising which included going through two more locks today. Tomorrow will be a busy day provisioning and cleaning the boat.

We will probably not write the blog every day but will update it as often as possible.

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

December 21, 2015  Day 29  South for the Winter 2015-16

City of Moore Haven Marina
Moore Haven, FL

After 8½ hours of travel, we are so happy to be docked in Moore Haven.  We left our anchorage in Stuart at 7:40 this morning and went down the St. Lucie River.  We reached the St. Lucie Lock an hour later and were the only boat in the lock.  Two and a half hours later we entered the Port Mayaca Lock with one other boat. Sometimes the water level is even at this lock and you can just drive through. Today we needed to be raised two inches so we had to go through the whole process of tying up in the lock.   

When we departed the Port Mayaca Lock, we entered Lake Okeechobee.  With the winds today the forecast for the lake was a moderate chop.  It was not too uncomfortable but we were glad to get off the choppy lake water 39 miles later!  The exit is at a town called Clewiston and we entered the river there which is more like a narrow canal.

Our final lock of the day was at Moore Haven and we locked down about seven feet.  Five minutes later we arrived at the City Marina in Moore Haven. We were greeted by very nice boaters who had arrived earlier in the day.  We soon learned they are Platinum Loopers (Loopers who have completed the Loop at least twice.)  When Joyce walked across the street to pay for the docking at City Hall, she noticed a large Nativity Scene on the lawn and was so impressed the city had the courage to display this!  Well done!!

We had a quick dinner tonight. We are exhausted after our long day. But the end is in sight as we will arrive in Ft. Myers tomorrow, our winter destination!