Fort Myers - Longboat Key

Saturday, December 3

Take a Peek!

Saturday we spent in Fort Myers.  We walked the downtown area which while compact was very vibrant and certainly lots of restaurants.  There is a monumental exhibit consisting of 23 iron scultures by Edgardo Carmona that had previously been exhibited in Paris.

Statue in one of the squares

Interestlingly, many of the restaurants here are owned by one firm.  We decided to eat at Capones, a pizza restaurant that cooks in coal burning ovens and is decorated with Al Capone memorabilia, complete with a glassed over “secret room” in the floor.  The pizza was delicious!!  After dinner we wandered the town and into a square with live music by the 'Hip Nauticals'.  They have live music every Saturday night during the season.

Sunday, December 4

Lots of Traffic

Depature was leisurely the next day as we made our way north to anchor out for the first time this trip.  Our destination was Pelican Bay. 

We had been there before when we had the opportunity to do a cruise on Rusty and Jeannie’s Sea Ray.  As always, the cruising guide took many pages and much verbiage to say what it always does:  stay in the Channel!  Upon arrival I had the words of Rusty and Chuck in my mind as I navigated along a sand bar anxiously watching the depth sounder.

Entrance to Pelican Bay

At Anchor

We got in without touching but depths below the props were only 1 foot.  This is a large bay with a dock for access to a National Park.  Cruise boats bring visitors from the mainland.

We took a dinghy ride to a small bay that I knew would have Manatees which we could view. 

Small bay with Manatees

Not much to see other than a big blob in water that is not very clear. 

That is a Manatee

We added our own!

We elected to spend another night and dinghied to a local landmark, Cabbage Key which hosts a restaurant where the dining area is covered by dollar bills that people sign and tape up.  When the money falls down, it is donated to charity.

Lots of Dollar Bills

Cheese Burger in Paradise!

There is also a nature walk at Cabbage Key with lots of wildlife roaming the area.

Gopher Turtle

White Heron

Tuesday, December 6

We departed early, as we knew that there were going to be a lot of bridges on our route.  Fortunately, we were able to pass most of them without requiring opening due to our height.  Those that we did need to open all did so on demand.  

The highlights of this trip were many encounters with dolphins.  Many of them wanted to play, and one in particular enjoyed surfing our stern wave and flopping back into the water.

Everything went well until we got into Sarasota Bay.  All day the Coast Guard was broadcasting a weather warning about severe winds and warnings to small craft.  As we got within 3 miles of the Marina, the weather app showed a line squall passing through with a lot of yellow and red areas.  When it reached us, our visibility went down to about 200 ft.  We elected to anchor out from the Marina until it passed.  No way were we going to try and dock in those conditions!

We are now all set in our slip.  The marina has fixed docks and the fingers are only 20 ft. long with “Posts” on the outer end.  They are not that wide, probably about 18’.  Again, thank you for the Yacht Controller which makes backing into narrow slips much less stressful.  It does represent a challenge to organize a method to get on and off as the finger does not reach to the side boarding ladder.  We will probably be going to the local Home Depot to purchase another small ladder for boarding.

Our slip is close to the marina office, the onsite restaurant and a great swimming pool and spa/hot tub.  Think that we will be spending some time there when it warms up again!  Temperatures have fallen to highs of 21 today and cooler weather forecast for tomorrow.

Today, Sandy and Jennifer walked to the Publix which is only a 10 minute walk.  The resort provides a shuttle and you just call them to get picked up or to visit a shopping district a bit further away.

Crew was happy to finally get a good look at a visiting manatee in the adjacent slip.

Mother and baby

Stuart to Fort Myers

Thursday, December 1 & Friday, December 2 

After a month of rest, relaxation and some work, we left Sunset Bay to start our trek to our next longterm destination, Longboat Key in Sarasota.  The month of November went past very quickly and we will be sorry to leave Stuart behind.  In particular, we really enjoyed walking along the boardwalk that went from the marina into town.

Tunnel under train tracks on boardwalk - we weren't brave enough to walk through while a train was overhead

Train that goes through middle of Stuart and blows its whistle a lot

Bagged oyster shells

Participating local restaurants collect the shells which are then quarantined and, after the required isolation period, bagged and returned to the St. Lucie River Estuary to restore the important oyster habitat.  A single oyster can filter between 20 and 50 gallons of water per day!

Curly Tailed lizard

Look out for the Dockhands as they whiz past!

We also loved watching the curlytail lizards that were plentiful at the marina and the three wheel electric scooters that the dockhands used to move around.

Wouldn't you like to be doing his job, Carter?

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Boats decorated at night

Marina Office at night

The marina was very friendly and a lot of the boats were live-aboard.  For Thanksgiving, they hosted a dinner buffet and it was a huge spread.  Way too much food … but tasty!  They have now decorated for Christmas and I wonder if there will be another meal?

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We left early Thursday morning to cover the distance to our planned overnight stop without arriving too late in the day.  Much of the distance was traveled in canals making the navigation very easy.

Easy travelling with lots of depth

Depths were also better than what we had experienced on the last legs of our journey into Stuart.   We had to transit through locks to move up to Lake Okeechobee and were very lucky with our timing.  The first lock we came to was just about to close the doors as we arrived but waited for us so that we could pass through as well.  These locks are unique.  The doors are semi circular and the way they adjust the water level is by just opening the doors a foot and thus allowing the water to flow in or out as needed. 

Note water entering lock though door

There were two locks to go up before entering the Lake, which is the highest level. 

Wreck on Lake Okeechobee

Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake located entirely in the US and has been described as a large saucer of water.  Average depth is only 9 feet though it covers 730 square miles!  It is surrounded by a levee system, officialy know as the Hoover dike.  

Can you find the Admiral?

It was built after 2 disastorous hurricanes when the lake was literally  blown out of its banks.  After the lake we went through one more lock before spending the night at River Forest.  This facility specializes in storing boats during the summer in large buildings.

Cows getting a drink of water

Much of the canal is through farming country.  We did see citrus orchards and lots of livestock.

After two more Locks we arrived in Fort Myers.  We were lucky as they had been working on the locks last week and they are going to be working on them again next week too which would have considerably slowed our passage across. Lucky timing for our trip ... or good planning by the Captain?