It was a busy five days in Ft Myers beach. We got there on Thursday and got a mooring ball in the municipal mooring field and got settled in. The last couple of days the battery charger / inverter was acting strange so we found a mechanic to come look at it on Friday. We're not sure if it was the original or not but it was overcharging the batteries and generating way more than 120 volts AC when inverting so a new one was ordered.
Friday afternoon Susan's College roommate Pam and her husband Mike picked us up at Bonita Bill's Waterfront Cafe. It sounds much nicer than it is. It's a bar that also serves food. It's a great place to have a beer and watch the boats go by but when I think "cafe" I think of something at bit more upscale. But we liked it and would definitely go back. Anyway, we left our dinghy at their dinghy dock for the weekend and went with Pam and Mike to their place in Naples. Saturday they were nice enough to loan us their car so Susan and I went shopping for everything we could think of that we might need on the boat, plus a bunch of food and drinks. A bunch of food and drinks.
Sunday morning Pam had to fly off to New Jersey so we all took her to the airport and then Mike took Susan and I back to our dinghy. And it was still there! It was a great weekend and so nice to be able to take real showers, but it also felt weird to be on land for so long.
Monday Susan and I loaded our new folding bicycles into the dinghy and took them over to Ft Myers Beach and rode around for a couple of hours, including a picnic lunch by the beach.
Tuesday was a very busy day. The mechanic came with the new charger / inverter and installed it. He got to the boat about 10:30 and I took him back to the dock at around 3:30, in the rain. As we were unloading his tools and the old inverter out of the dinghy the taxi with our friend Allen Williams pulled up. Allen flew in from Texas on Tuesday to cross the Gulf Stream with us. We had a nice steak dinner on the boat and spent the evening catching up with Allen.
Wednesday morning, after filling up with fuel and water we left Ft Myers Beach and headed to Naples. Our original plan was to get as far as Marco Island but the weather didn't cooperate. We had plenty of wind along with rain and pretty rough seas. Not to mention a good part of the way we were dodging crab pots, I felt like a downhill skier trying to zig zag through gates. With the rough seas they weren't easy to spot. We got to Naples around 3:00 and everyone was ready for the day to be over so we pulled into the first anchorage we came too. It is really nice here, we're in a small cove surrounded by very nice homes.
A picture of our moon rise. Moon to the left, lightning to the right.
That's all for now.
Brian
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