Harbor Islander: Labelle to Fort Myers

Monday, February 1, 2016.

Best weather so far on our cruise. High near 80 and sunny skies. Today was a planned stay day in Labelle. We had a leisurely start, then a long walk around town, lunch on board, nap, a couple of "fix it" projects, another walk (over the adjacent bridge), worked on blog, beers, visiting with our boat neighbors, out to dinner with our next door boat neighbors (Gary and Mickey on “Little Mick”), back to Dubhe, catch up on email, etc, read a little, then bed!!! A perfect cruising day. No miles, no anchors, no locks, no current….

Tuesday, February 2, 2016.

Fog. This morning I woke about 6:00 as usual, looked outside and just saw fog. Went back to bed and got up at 6:30. We are hoping to get to Fort Myers today, but we will not start out with visibility reduced as it is now. The fog lifted about 9:00 but before we could get away, a couple walked up to Dubhe at the dock and opened with the all too familiar line: “That’s a Willard.” It turns out that Richard and Kimiko saw us coming down the waterway yesterday and recognized Dubhe, so they came looking for us. They have a boat called a Fales 30 which was made from the same mold as the Willards. We talked boats and cruising for a while and later they returned and took us to dinner and the grocery store. The best part of cruising is meeting other people with like minds and especially those crazy ones who know Willards. We had not intended to stay here at Labelle for three days, and I was getting a little antsy, so I did some varnishing in the afternoon, which made me feel at least somewhat productive.

FOG! Good excuse to stay put.

Always varnishing to do.

Wednesday, February 3, 2016.

After three days in one place, we are ready to move! Left Labelle at 7:00 and had a nice trip down the waterway to Fort Myers. At the Franklin Lock, Dubhe was lowered to sea level and back into salt water. We took fuel and an overnight slip at the City of Fort Myers Yacht Basin. We like this marina and the location. First order of business was showers then laundry and by then it must be happy hour. Met more cruisers next to us from South Carolina (Little River). Another couple from Maine gave us some really good guidance on the Florida west coast we are beginning to explore. I have said it many times, but meeting new people are the best part of cruising. You meet great new people lust walking down the dock or sitting in the cockpit of your boat drinking a beer. After cocktail hour on the dock, Nancy and I walked over to the old downtown Fort Myers and had dinner at Ford’s Garage restaurant, on the street. We like this town!