Hello 2015!

After spending a wonderful holiday season with family and friends, we arrive back to Crazy 8 with Buster and Bailey in tow.  Legacy Marina is hosting the Great Loopers' Reunion so Crazy 8 needs to vacate the slip she called home for the last two months.  The weather is not the best, but we unload the car and get our supplies on board. After a long two days of travel and cleaning, we gear up and head to the City Tavern in Ft. Myers to cheer our Buckeyes onto VICTORY! Our son attends OSU. His freshman year, they were bowl ineligible, This, his senior year, they are in the national championship game! It was a great night for some duck hunting!

O-H

The following morning we head to Sanibel Island.  We need to pass through the miserable mile once again. At this point, we have navigated this stretch many times; it does not ever get any better.  It is still miserable.  We  pass under the bridge to Sanibel.  We are near!

Bridge to Sanibel.  $6 toll from Ft Myers.

Where is the grass?

Sanibel Harbor Marina

The weather at Sanibel is not the best.  It is cloudy, cool and rainy. Definitely not beach weather but it is perfect for bike riding.  As the marina is quite a distance from all stores, restaurants and beaches, we rent bikes to explore the island. There are over 22 miles of bike paths on the island and they actually are as busy as the roads.

Bike path

Sanibel is only 3 miles wide, at the widest point, and only 13 miles long. It is home to approximately 6500 residents, but at peak season, there are over 22,000.  I think we are nearing peak season. The roads and bike paths are quite congested! 

Sanibel is known for its land conservation; over half of the island is set aside to preserve the abundant and diverse wildlife population.  To keep with this theme, buildings along Sanibel's  coastline must be no taller than the tree line.

A popular historic icon is the Sanibel lighthouse. Sanibel Lighthouse is the first lighthouse on Florida's Gulf Coast, north of KeyWest.

Sanibel Lighthouse - 98 feet

Sanibel is also know for it's shelling.  Although the weather has not been the best for our own personal shelling, the shelling on Sanibel is ranked by USA Today as the 7th best of all of Florida's Attractions.  That is saying a lot!

We enjoyed our time at Sanibel Harbor.  Although the coconut palm trees at the marina were a little treacherous as one coconut fell and missed Tom by inches.

Tall trees with a  falling coconut could really hurt!  OUCH!

The marina is also home to one of the island's best restaurants...Gramma Dots. 

Yum...Gramma Dots.

Crazy 8 looks good docked too!

Crazy 8

Well, until our neighbors showed up!

CRAZY!

Tomorrow, seas look calm. We are heading south!

Goodbye Sunshine State

Today is our final  day aboard Crazy 8. We head home tomorrow for family events and the holidays. We have had a wonderful month exploring more areas of Florida and have met some wonderful people. Boaters are the friendliest people without a doubt!


Our Halloween weekend stay at Boca Grande Marina on Gasparella Island was very nice, despite the gale force winds and 15 foot seas that were not a very nice treat!

Crazy 8 at Boca Grande Marina

The wind and the waves kept us from venturing out on the water around the island, but we had fun exploring the land via our rental golf cart.

Pass on the dinghy ride today!

Bailey and Buster come with us too.

The locals have fun and stylish golf carts!

Gasparilla Island has 7 miles of beaches and is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, Charlotte Harbor, Little Gasoparilla Pass and Boca Grande Pass. Gasparilla Island, according to folklore, got its name from the legendary pirate, Captain Jose Gasparilla, who buried his fabulous treasure here which has yet to be found... so the story goes. Gasparilla Island boasts many pretty canal homes and Banyan Trees line the streets.  No wonder the Wall Street Journal named the island as one of the best places to own your second home!

Canal homes

Planted in 1914

Boca Grande is the village on the island and is home to the Gasparilla Inn and Club, one of the largest surviving resort hotels in Florida, opening over 100 years ago in 1913 attracting the wealthiest as a winter retreat. The Inn has been described as the preppiest place on Earth, and I would have to say that is not an exaggeration.  With its all white dress code for the 3 croquet lawns and the required slacks and jacket for dining, it definitely has the aura of old  money.  Being boaters, Tom has no jacket nor even  slacks on board, so we miss the opportunity to enjoy their cuisine.

Gasparella Inn and Club

Boca Grande has interesting boutiques, numerous locally owned restaurants and a small grocery store. There are no chain restaurants or stores, no hi rises and not even a  traffic light.

No Walmart in sight. Perfect!

They also do not have a gas station, so fill up before you venture over the bridge if arriving by car.  If desperate, the marina which owns the only pump on the island,  will fill a gas can with a gallon or two.

The lone gas pump

After spending the weekend at Boca Grande, we throw in the lines and head back to Captiva Island and South Seas Marina.

Need to follow markers carefully in and out of Boca Grande Marina. The water is very shallow in areas.

The trip to Captiva is always a fun trip as the dolphins are very active for some reason in this area of the Gulf. We never tire of seeing them play!

Dolphins playing in our wake.

We run into Kathy and Keith again from the boat Pandora. They are a fun couple and we are fortunate that both our stopovers at South Seas coincided. 

Pandora and Crazy 8 

We see another  Pandora.  This Pandora did not  fare too well in the rough seas of the last few days.

Washed ashore at Redfish Pass

South Seas Resort provides a shuttle service to take visitors to "downtown" Captiva.  There are several small shops, restaurants and bars.  We enjoy the steel drums and the beautiful beach location of the Mucky Duck,.

Mucky Duck

Mucky Duck workers hanging Christmas lights with the sound of steel drums in the background, Florida style.

Captiva Island also has some very remarkable homes.

Nice!

And of course there are always the manatees near the docks at South Seas Marina.

Manatee

During this stop,  we take our dinghy and cross Redfish Pass to North Captiva Island.  This island was damaged in August 2004 by Hurricane Charlie when the eye wall passed over.  It actually cut the island in two with the storm surge.  You can see the remnants of many stripped and dead trees that line the beaches.

North Captiva Island

The island is home to about 300 homes and still has about 300 lots yet to be developed.  There are no cars on the island; only electric golf carts.  To arrive to North Captiva, you need your own boat or board the public ferry from Pine Island.

We leave South Seas and return  to Legacy Marina in Fort Myers.  The boat will rest here for a few months until we can return this winter.

Legacy Marina

Legacy is a wonderful marina and we have met lots of very nice people here.  The negative perhaps is that we are now in slip D13, which is a mere .3 miles to the gate.  The dogs make that walk in record time each morning to find that little patch of grass! The positive for us is that we are working off the calories from some of our Florida dinners!

I suppose this lessens the annoyance of all those crab pots in the Gulf!

So today is busy,  We have lots to clean, organize and pack  in the car. Tomorrow we leave this paradise and head north. Hopefully not to snow!

Crazy 8 signing out.

Goodbye Sunshine State!

Goodbye Marco!

Our planned short stop at Marco Island and Esplanade Marina turned into a week long stay. We loved every bit of it! The marina's location was perfect; there were many shops, grocery stores, and restaurants all within walking distance.

Crazy 8 at Esplanade Marina

We ventured aboard our dinghy to numerous isolated beaches...

Marco Beaches

Dinghy Excursion!

Where this is the only inhabitant you encounter...

and ton of shells....

with clear water!

We had a great time in Marco.  We also visited with our buddy boater from Dulcinea, Nancy, who drove down from Naples.  She takes us to Stan's Idle Hour in Goodland. This definitely was a crazy place to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Us with Nancy at the Breast  Awareness Fundraiser at Stan's.

Tom with the infamous Miss Mary.

Tom came prepared with $1 bills!

We also thank Brent and Susan for showing us the island of Marco and their beautiful canal home. This place is truly a boater's paradise!

Lots of canals. Lots of boats.

For you,  NO!      Life is good.

Although we planned to make the 90 mile Gulf run to  Key West, after reviewing the weather forecast we revise our plan and head north.  The huge arctic cold  front will usher in 12 foot seas this weekend. When it will calm, is any one's guess.  While there are worse places to be stuck than Key West, we do need to get back to Cincinnati soon. So, we decide to head north on this very calm day before the storm,

Sunny skies and calm seas - awesome!!!

The water is very clear and we see sea turtles, dolphins, and lots of jellyfish.

A huge jellyfish

We leave around 10am and make the 60 mile trip to  Boca Grande Marina on Gasparilla Island.

Path of Crazy 8 on October 30th

Sunset on Gasparilla Island

Stay safe and warm everyone.   It appears Mother Nature may have her own tricks this Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Pink Shell Marina to Marco Island

Our one night stopover at Pink Shell Marina turned into two nights.  The weather was windy and cloudy, but we had little rain.  There was no sense heading south after checking the weather radar.

Looking a little wet in Marco.

We spend our day exploring the Fort Myers Beach area,  The marina has bikes available for rent, so we take two bikes and ride into "downtown" Fort Myers Beach.  There are many souvenir shops, some nicer boutiques and plenty of restaurants.. October is a wonderful time to visit Florida; it is not crowded  and the weather is good, except if your destination was Key West this week!

Downtown Fort Myers Beach

We also bike to the tip of Estero Island, Bowditch Point Park.  Here the waters from Estero Bay, the Caloosahatchee River and the Gulf of Mexico mix with the tidal changes.  This tidal mixture of fresh inland water and the salty water from  the Gulf of Mexico form a brackish mixture.  This delicate balance of fresh and salty water provides rich nutrients for a diverse group of animal life, especially to  fish and birds at low tide.

Path on Bowditch Point.  Looking at the Matanzas Pass.

Key West Express leaving Matanzas Pass heading  into the Gulf of Mexico. View from Bowditch Point.

The park is also home to the gopher tortoise.  The gopher tortoise is medium size and lives a long life of 40 to 60 years.  They are considered by the state of Florida to be a threatened species due mainly to their loss of  habitat from all the land development.  They are not water, but land dwellers and actually have a very unique and distinct trait of making large burrows. The burrows they create are shared by over 350 other species, including snakes, mice, rats, and owls.  For this reason, they are considered a keystone species, which means if their population declines so will those of the other species that rely on them for survival.

We saw this guy walking in the parking lot.

On Thursday, we decide we have had enough of Pink Shell Marina.  While the Gulf is not as smooth as we prefer,  Estero Bay was extremely rough, choppy and windy.  The overnight waves slapping the hull and rocking the boat, make us toss and turn getting little sleep.  So we throw in our lines and head to Marco. We had enough of this.

Strong winds and a  small craft advisory make our cruise a little choppy.

As we near Naples, we turn closer to shore and the waves lessen.  Salty dog Buster did not fare well, but with our slow down and a little medication,  he feels better.

Where's land??

The water is much nicer the farther south we head.  What a noticeable difference!

The waters of the Gulf near Naples, Florida.

We arrive to the Marco Island and leave the Gulf via the Big Marco Pass.

Big Marco Pass

Once off the Gulf, the inlets and canals of Marco Island are all idle zones. 

Beautiful homes line the waterways.

It takes roughly 15 minutes to idle to Esplanade Marina where we will stay for several days.

Esplanade Marina

The marina is very nice. It is part of a complex that includes residences, shops and restaurants.  There is also a Winn Dixie across the street that sports a dinghy dock. Perfect!  Oh yeah,  the sunset views are not bad either!

Sunset the night of the solar eclipse.