Captiva to Fort Myers Beach, March 20 - 29

Note:I have been remiss in not posting more often and as a result, by time I get around to it, I have forgotten a lot of the fun stuff we've done, and I am so far behind, I don't include some detail and editorial comments that I would like to.  After three months, we are feeling the gravitational pull of home and children.

March 20, 2016

Dubhe had about one foot of water beneath her when we awakened, and Imajine was stuck in the mud a little, but the tide was beginning to rise.  The forecast is for another norther with NW, N winds to 25 kt tonight so we need to get to protected anchorage.  We brought the anchor aboard after much washing of chain about 9:15 and headed south.  We left before Imajine so we could do a little marine surveying on the way out.  No problem.  We reported that depths were fine.  Again, we changed our minds and rather than anchor just a few miles away, we decided to go on to Fort Myers Beach.  The weather was somewhat eerie as it was dead calm before frontal system to roll in tonight.  We arrived at Moss Marina in Fort Myers Beach about 1:00.  Nancy will be flying out of Fort Myers on March 30 for a business trip so we decided to come here for an extra week and have a “vacation”.  My new word to describe cruising is “inconvenient”.  Over the past few weeks or so, we have had a wonderful time, but being at anchor or mooring is Inconvenient.  You can’t just go for a walk, you have to take a dingy ride, you can’t use all the power stuff you have, you have to prioritize and conserve, you can’t just drive to the grocery store, etc.  This is not necessarily bad, just a different way of life that many enjoy about cruising.  So our “vacation” will be tied up at a marina with easy land access, laundry, unlimited power, and we even plan to rent a car for a week…very convenient.

Dubhe in Fort Myers Beach, "Serenity" to the left then "Dances With Wind"

Throughout history, humans have striven to make their lives more convenient and comfortable.  It sometimes seems that this is our primary goal in life….more convenience and comfort.  We control our environment and constantly invent devices to do stuff for us.  As a result, we become dependent on our convenience and comfort systems; we can’t do without them.  Cruising is a way of life that represents freedom and independence, as are other kinds of (particularly outdoor) adventures.  It’s freedom from these things that many times control us, eg. I can’t do that, It’s too hot outside…I can’t do that because I can’t take my electric can opener, etc.  I believe that many will say that the freedom is actually freedom from our conveniences and comforts.  Most cannot or will not cruise because of the inconvenience (having to learn navigation and rules of the road is also an inconvenience).   Of course, the larger the boat and the more conveniences on board, the less inconvenient it becomes.  With Dubhe we don’t have that problem; there are lots of inconveniences.  We love it.

March 21 - 29, Moss Marine, Fort Myers Beach

Our first night, the wind finally started to blow and we are open to the north so there was quite a lot of motion.  I had to get up a couple of times to check on things, especially since we are at a fixed dock and have to account for about 2½ feet of tide.  But! Marina life…convenience! Showers! Laundry!  Then a walk around the downtown beach area stopping for beers at an open bar at the beach.  Very Relaxing.  The wind blew hard most of the day but settled in the evening.

Tuesday, we caught the bus at about 11:00 for a relatively short ride to the Enterprise car rental office.  We rented a car for the week and had requested a small (Nissan Versa) one.  However, when we got there, they gave us a Chrysler 200 which is much larger than I wanted.  Of course most people would think that this is good, but I really prefer smaller cars.  This car also has push button starting (with the fob in your pocket) and a knob on the console which is turned to select P, R, N D.  It took me a while to figure it out.    Picked up car, Costco, Total Wine, Target, rode dingy to Doc Fords and Dixie Fish Company.

For the remainder of the week, we took it easy, trying to use the rental car, but the traffic onto the beach in the afternoon is so bad, we limited our driving.  Wednesday, drove up to Fort Myers for dinner with Michael and Suzie at 5:00 but had extra time before then so we made our trip to Walmart that I had been dreading.  The traffic everywhere here is awful.  In addition to Spring Break, our checkout person told us that it is the peak of spring practice for Major League Baseball and there are two teams here (Twins and Red Sox).  We made it downtown on time to meet Michael and Suzie at the City Marina and walked to First Street for Mexican (Los Cabos Cantina)
. 

iPhone screenshot.
Note 2.3 miles but 27 minutes.  It actually took longer

Thursday, We spent a couple of hours on the beach and pretty much had a laid back day.  It was Maundy Thursday so we went to the evening service at St. Peter Lutheran Church at Fort Myers Beach.  I enjoyed being in church and hearing the words which brought me a Peace I haven’t had in a while.  I miss my church family in Beaufort. 

Another beach selfie.  Fort Myers Beach.

Fort Myers Beach - more crowded than we like but fun.

Friday  (March 25, 2016) we intended to get an early start but did not get away until 10:00, picked up the fitting for Michael and met them at the City Marina downtown.  After chatting a while, we headed across the river to tour Pine Island via Cape Coral.  We actually got to see a lot of Cape Coral going and coming, but the more we saw, the less we were impressed.  Of course, houses on the water are expensive and well kept, but much of everywhere else looked like the crash of 2007 hit very hard, and they haven’t recovered.  Pine Island is my kind of place except that it is far away from everything else.  Most homes are modest, even the waterfront ones with docks.  We had a great lunch at Woodys, in Saint James City but ate way too much.  Our original intent was to make our way back late, after having supper somewhere, to avoid the traffic into Fort Myers Beach.  But, we had seen as much as we wanted by about 4:00 so we headed “home”.  The traffic was as expected…horrible; about 30 minutes to go a little over 2 miles! 

Woodys Restaurant, Saint James City

Saint Peter Lutheran Church - Easter 

We attended Easter service at Saint Peter Lutheran church and afterward drove down to Naples for lunch.  That evening we were invited to dine on board Serenity with Dave and Sue and Doug and Caylyn from another boat.  A good time was had by all.

Monday we returned the rental car.  We have been exploring bars and restaurants, particularly the Doc Ford’s bar but have settled on The Dixie Fish Company as our favorite.  We have been there several times, the clientele is about right, it is on the water, and they have hogfish, our favorite. 

Dixie Fish Company

When did you last see one of these? $8 per pack.

Tuesday (Mar 29) was a cloudy day, a good time for laundry.  We had planned to go to the beach but the weather prevented that. Our next door marina neighbor Dances With Wind is heading up the Okeechobee Waterway to LaBelle for dry storage for the summer.  Doug and Caylyn (sp) spend about 6 months of the year cruising Central America on her (Caylyn is form Guatemala) and the other six months (Summer) in Colorado.   Their problem is that there are two fixed bridges that are about 2 feet too low for their 56’ mast.  To pass the

Shortening Dances With Wind's mast

bridges, Doug is using barrels of water as weights to heel Dances With Wind.  He had never done this before so I helped by calculating the heel required to get the clearance (simple trigonometry).  It worked, as they have completed the trip.  About 3:30 to 4:00 a line of severe thunderstorms came through.  Normally, a thunderstorm is not a really big event, but this one was.  Winds quickly blew up to 40 kts, (45 mph), maybe higher for at least 20 minutes out of the north which is the direction we are most exposed.  Within minutes waves 3’+ were rolling into the marina on our stern.  Several waves actually splashed over Dubhe’s stern rail.  Everyone was scrambling to get more lines on their boats as were we.  The large fuel sign blew down onto a boat puncturing it above the water line.  Another cruiser lost their dingy when it was punctured and the new 25 hp Yamaha outboard was submerged.  We had no damage but increased our awareness that thunderstorms will be a way of life as we return in the month of April.

Tomorrow, Nancy leaves me with Dubhe while she goes to Dallas on business.