Friday December 27: Fort Myers Beach

We left the Seafood Shack bright and early after bidding farewell to Sandi and Eddie - the really nice couple docked across from us (she's the one who showed Steve how to fish from the dock).

Travel was nice enough - much of it through small waterways lined by mangroves. So much nicer than the waterways lined by mansions!

Steve even spotted some of the many, many white pelicans in the area actually out swimming instead of hanging out on a sand bar! Maybe finally we were seeing how they catch their food.

One of the really cool homes we saw was on the tip of a small point that stuck out into the waterway.

You could see right through the house! I looked for someone to walk down the staircase but alas there didn't seem to be anyone at home.


Overall a very nice day except for Charlotte Harbor. The wind was going against the incoming current - and of course we were broadside to the waves. A bit of zig-zagging was in order for a while. After that - smooth sailing all the way to our anchorage on Lemon Bay.

Thursday night turned out to be one of the best. Warm enough to sit on the flybridge with our Christmas lights and music. Best of all: no bugs :-)

We are so fortunate to be able to continue doing what we are.

Sunrise was early - even Steve missed the best of it! Regardless, we were off and headed another 45 miles south to Fort Myers Beach. Of course our new alternator decided to not alternate - or whatever it is it does ...... mmmm ... we can still travel so time to deal with that another day. Ironic though since the old one was working fine just thought it was time to have it checked out :-(

On the way to Ft. Myers Beach, we passed by Sanibel Island lighthouse and pier - along with a nice beach. The traffic on the water and on the bridge going to Sanibel was crazy. And I thought because it was Friday, the waterways would be empty. Wrong!!

But apparently the whole world is off this week and half of them came to southwestern Florida!


The beach at Ft. Myers Beach was packed - with lots of folks that will be hurting tonight! Too much sun and too little sun screen .... yikes!

There was a very nice poinsettia tree near the beach. Still doesn't look right in the sunshine and 80 degree temperatures though - but fun to see anyway.

The birds at the pier didn't seem to understand that the function of the wirey pokey things was to keep the birds from sitting on the lights and post tops. Guess it's pretty hard to fool THESE birds!















We finished our ride around the main drag (the traffic was so backed up it was no problem peddling around without being in danger) and stopped at the grocery store just in case we saw something we needed. It's been a few days after all since we were at a store!

Suddenly out of the mist appeared a giraffe! With Rebecca in Africa posting amazing pictures of the animals she has seen, we thought we just had to have a picture of our own! If you can look past all of the background stuff it's almost as though we were in Africa ourselves -- guess that's one more place we don't need to go :-)







Back to the marina to spend a short time chatting with "Q's End" - folks we met back in 2011 on the loop. They started from Windsor and traveled with some of the same boats we saw off and on throughout the trip south. Never actually met them until we both were in Georgia visiting a common friend. Fun to see them - again I'm reminded what a small world boaters float in!

Tomorrow: off to Marco Island. First time in a long time that we will be traveling in the Gulf. No channel markers - no magenta line suggesting your path - just a wide open, go where you want Gulf of Mexico!!

Think we'll stay within 3 miles of shore :-)