Monday April 16: Well, It was Worth a Try

So we came back from breakfast yesterday to find that one of our fenders had been squished flat from the pressure of holding the boat off of the dock. Which of course is the job of a fender but a flat one doesn't really do a very good job!

So Steve put the squashed fender into his backpack and headed off to West Marine. Taylor makes this fender and guarantees them to never fail - just return and get a replacement.

At least that's the way it works in Marathon and Key West! But apparently not here in Punta Gorda, sadly. Maybe it was because of Irma, not sure, but we knew 2 folks that were able to return and replace. Guess we'll try down there in the fall.

But it was a good try :-)



More birds hanging (literally!) around on the lines on the boat looking for a snack.

Top one is the green heron that hangs around and the snowy egret that also frequents the dock area here. Didn't see either one actually catch anything though.

Looking at them makes me think that knees that bend backwards might be a good thing!

This has been our dock for the past week - time to move on. Actually yesterday was when we planned on leaving but the weather dictated otherwise!

Storms and high winds were predicted to roll through late afternoon. And they did - pretty much right on time. Not a great evening but also enjoyable in a way.

The north winds have really cooled things down - high today of 73 instead of the high 80's. Ok by us.


We said our farewells to Randy and Cindy Thursday morning as they departed early to catch their flight to Toronto (they live near Orillia) where there is still much snow. Not sure how Gigit and Cricket are going to like that! We'll see them this summer somewhere on the Trent.

It's still quite windy (18 mph) from the north (so blowing from right to left looking at the boat) but we have an exit strategy. With a single engine and no bow thruster, we've found it always helps to have a plan! We're thinking to have the marina personnel keep the front of the boat close to the dock until I back out, let the wind blow the back around, toss the front line to Steve on the front and away we go :-)

Headed for an anchorage on Lemon Bay - winds are supposed to die down by late afternoon. Plan B is to just stay another day!