Fort Myers to Moore Haven, Florida

Today, we end our spring tour of southwest Florida the way we began our fall adventure....through a river, locks and bridges. We leave Legacy Harbour in Fort Myers around 9 am and arrive to River Forest Yachting Center around 3 pm.  It is roughly 45 miles up the Caloosahatchee River. Unlike the Ohio, or any of the other rivers we navigated in the fall, it is very scenic and has a pronounced smell of jasmine, orange blossoms and celery. This is a far cry from the paper mill "fragrance" we experienced on prior river travels! There are two locks, each rises us at the most 5 feet.  There are no floating bollards; we just hold on to the lines tied up to cleats on the lock. This is a piece of cake!

Everyone adds their boat sticker to the lock...darn, we don't have one!

We  travel through rural inland Florida. Take away the palm trees and the mangroves, and we are back on the Ohio, well maybe if you squint.

Cattle ranch

We arrive at River Forest Yachting Center where Crazy 8 will spend the summer.  It is a great facility, temperature and humidity controlled, and rated to withstand a category 4 hurricane.

Crazy 8's Summer Home - dry docked

We will be sad to end our adventure, but feel confident that Crazy 8 will be safe this summer from hurricanes and any other things mother nature may have in store for the south.  After all, doesn't she need to make things even after dealing the north such a  horrible winter?  God willing, we look forward to reuniting with Crazy 8 this fall. 

To end this segment of our travels, Tom and I decided to post our top ten, not necessarily in any order.

Top Ten things We Enjoyed While Touring Southwest Florida

10)  Manatees - They were most prevalent at South Seas Marina.  They move so slow and the "bubbles" they emit are quite stinky!

Manatee

9)  Dolphins of course!

Never tire of seeing them playing in the boat wake!

8)  Longboat Key - We loved this marina and really enjoyed seeing our family, neighbors from home, and especially our daughter Sam from Ann Arbor, who really needed a winter break.  We also were able to assist our sister/sister-in-law as she recovered from major surgery.

Family!

7) Sea Tow

The beginning of a cruise on Sarasota Bay

The return trip to the Longboat Key Moorings. Thanks Sea Tow!

6) Floating Docks and dock hands to catch the line!

Pink Shell Resort- Awesome docks and great  dock master, Craig!

5) Shelling at Captiva Island.  Shells galore after the storm blew through.

Shells and more shells!

4)  Free Laundry.  This is boring and no pictures are needed, but both Naples Boat Club and Pink Shell Marina had free laundry.  So nice not to hunt for quarters.  It is the little things in life!

3) Beautiful weather and no winter weather alerts.

Useppa Island

2) Sunsets

Stormy day ends with a spectacular sunset on Captiva Island

1)  People

It is the people we met along the way that really brought enjoyment to our trip. From our fellow boaters, dock masters, lock masters, cab drivers, fellow ferry passengers, waiters, etc, it has been a true pleasure to meet and hear every one's story. Of course, meeting up again with Dan and Nancy was the real bonus.  And, to all you who read our blog, from over 10 countries, we hope you have enjoyed our journey.  We would love to hear your stories too!

Until fall returns, Crazy 8 over and out. Time to head home.

Fort Myers Beach to Naples, Florida

We leave Fort Myers Beach on Monday morning.  The marine forecast for the end of this week does not look good so we plan a short two night stay in Naples.  Soon after we enter the Gulf, we hear something on the marine radio that we have never heard before....a mayday call.  It is very chilling.  The radio becomes eerily silent, business as usual stops after the call. The radio is silent with only the voice of the Coast Guard and those mariners who are able to help.   Looking out to our northwest, we see the reason.

Obviously a boat in distress

Approximately 3 miles off of Sanibel Island, a 68 foot pleasure craft motor yacht  is completely engulfed in flames. We are about 6 miles away;  too far to offer any immediate assistance. Fortunately for those on board, another boat in the area rescued the passengers from the water. We believe they only suffered smoke inhalation but their yacht is a total loss.  It  makes you realize how vulnerable you can be in a very unforgiving body of water.

It was an eventful morning on an otherwise absolutely beautiful Gulf trip to Naples.  According to the Florida Cruising Directory, "Naples is a beautiful city, long a winter retreat of the rich and one of the classier destinations."  As we leave the Gulf of Mexico and enter Gordon Pass, the description pretty much stays true.

nice

nicer

We arrive to Naples Boat Club where we will stay for two nights.  The marina is not too shabby either.

100 footers

This our slip??

Whoops, no, we are in slip 34.  Easy mistake!

Naples is great.  Naples Boat Club has the warmest pool of all and  free laundry. Life is good! We are able to walk to Fifth Avenue (of course they have one) and also 3rd Street.  Both areas have lots of shopping and many restaurants. We even ride the water taxi to Stoney's, known for their steaks.  It is Fat Tuesday after all!

Let's get some steaks!

The steaks were great but the town's advertised mardi gras celebration not so much.  We now set our bearings north, finding Crazy 8 a home for the summer and our own way back to Cincinnati.

Legacy Harbour, Fort Myers to Pink Shell Resort and Marina, Ft. Myers Beach Florida

After enjoying a nice weekend in Fort Myers, we leave on Monday (a week ago already), and head directly to the fuel dock.  We semi- fill up with approximately 280 gallons of diesel...ouch!  We have not filled our tanks since Carrabelle which was before our gulf crossing in the fall.

Thirsty tanks leave a wallet parched.

We say goodbye to Legacy Harbour and Fort Myers.

Legacy Harbour Marina

We head back down the Caloosahatchee River, into Pine Island Sound and head to the Gulf of Mexico. We pass through Mantanzas Pass into Fort Myers Beach area. It is crazy busy with boats.

Ft. Myers Beach

We arrive at Pink Shell Resort and Marina.  We stayed here last year at the resort with our son Jack, so we know what to expect.  We have high hopes that  this year we do not come down with flu and visit the ER. All goes well. No hospital visits this year. 

Long way from home!

We have fun exploring in our dinghy.

Shrimpers

Every harbor needs a....

Pirate Ship!

Nice hideaway for your smaller craft.

To avoid the traffic, which is actually horrible at this time of year, you can dock your dinghy and patronize the restaurants and stores at downtown Ft. Myers Beach

.

Dinghy Dock, parking tight here too.

We spend a couple days enjoying the beach and pools at the very nice Pink Shell Resort.  On Thursday, our friend Dan, the captain of Dulcinea, our boat buddy in the fall,  picks us up to spend a couple days with him at his home in Bonita Springs.  He takes us on a tour of Naples and host a dinner for us on Thursday night.

A warm welcome from Dad Dan.

We enjoy a couple days in Bonita Springs and celebrate Tom's birthday.

Enjoying a toast of Dom Perignon with some  great friends. Bonded forever with our river adventure.
  Happy Birthday Tom!

Dan takes us for a nice cruise on the Dulcinea.  We stop for lunch at Pinchers in Tarpon Springs.  It is nice to relax on someone else's boat!

What lines??? 

Captain Tom??

A huge thank you to both Dan and Nancy for their hospitality.  We could not have met a nicer couple on our river adventure. We thank God for putting you both in our lives.  We will see you again in October!

Tom and Dan

So we end our trip in Fort Myers and head south to Naples.  We heard there is ice and snow at home.  We look up and this is what we see......

Hmmmm....may need to reapply today, and I am not talking rock salt!

Stay safe and warm!

South Seas to Legacy Harbour, downtown Fort Myers, Florida

We leave South Seas on Friday and, on the advice of  Rick and Sarah of Private Affair II, we head to their home port, Legacy Harbour in downtown Fort Myers. We navigate into Pine Island Sound. It is very windy and the water has much more chop than the day we arrived.  We head north up the Caloosahatchee River to Ft. Myers.

The "miserable mile" of boats and more boats in a narrow channel.

The water is not as "blue" down here.  Nor as clear.

We arrive to Legacy Harbor and are thankfully greeted by Eric, the Harbourmaster, who handles the lines as we dock on this windy day.

Legacy Harbour

We spend a great weekend in Fort Myers and enjoy the car show on Saturday.

Nice!

Another beautiful and sunny day....

Great idea for the Banks in Cincinnati to host!

We also meet up with friends from our fall trip. Dan and Nancy from the Dulcinea journeyed via water from Sanibel Harbor and treated us to lunch at Joe's Crab Shack.  Thanks Dad Dan!  Hopefully we will see them again this week.

Reunion of Crazy 8 and Dulcinea, but where are the dogs??

It was a very nice weekend in Fort Myers.  A very special shout out to Sarah and Rick. We thank you both so much for the hospitality of showing us your favorite restaurants, your nighttime haunts, and a ride to the stores to stock up on supplies.  Without a car, securing basic necessities can be very challenging.  Thank you both so much. We will see you back at Pirates Cove for some Grouper Fingers!

Of course, another sunset to end the day!

Pelican Pass to South Seas Marina, Captiva Island

We left our anchorage at Pelican Pass yesterday, February 19th, and headed south through the ICW  to South Seas Plantation.  We thought it would be about 6 miles, but in reality it was more like 15 miles, taking almost two hours cruising at a speed of 10 miles an hour. We encountered more dolphins along  our way.

Dolphins play in our wake.

 We enter South Seas Resort and Marina.  It is beautiful. We head to dock L.

South Seas Marina

We get a few surprises as we arrive to our slip.

A strange photo shoot on the boat next to us. Tom is thrilled with our assigned slip.

We See Private Affair from Cincinnati - owner of Pirates Cove Restaurant, Four Seasons Marina.  What a small world!

Our boat is a small fish in a very big pond!

  We encounter a lot of sea and animal life.

Manatee in the harbor

Not sure what this is....

Seagulls....

More Seagulls

And  we find nice shells on the beach

Oh wow...what are these....Kids??? yikes.

South Seas Resort is quite awesome. The marina dock hands are quick to help and everyone is very friendly. It does comes with a price.  Transient price is $162 a night, for our boat.   It is February Break for the northern eastern states, so it is crowded with families.  The pools are amazing.  The restaurants are overwhelmed, but that is okay.  We use the grills at the marina and make dinner aboard the Crazy 8.

View from the one of the pools

$25.00, what a bargain!

One of many pools.

Another day done.  Tomorrow we head to Fort Myers.

View of Sunset over the Gulf from the bridge of Crazy 8.