On to Fort Meyers for Janis’s B-day!

We pushed off at 7.25 AM because we wanted to make sure we left at High tide so we had enough water. The locals had advised us to be careful when the tide was low.  There was a rowing team out and we waited for them to cross the marina channel. However, we felt we were still pumping mud. We waited to leave today due to the winds being too strong and the fact that we needed to cross Charlotte Harbor. We always try to choose days where the waters are smooth and not choppy for the big bay areas.  It was a nice sunny day. During the crossing we had a number of dolphins swim with us.  (See videos).

We arrived in the early afternoon at City of Fort Meyers Yacht Basin.  What a great looking town! The marina is a very nice place and we made several new friends at the dock.  We visited the town 2 years ago with Linnea and Mike and it was totally under reconstruction and a mess. Pleased to say, construction was completed and it looks beautiful.We were right downtown and it was a short walk to shops and restaurants.  We were limited on the number of nights we could stay because there was an art festival and they had reservations for 21 boats for the weekend.  We would have to leave on Tuesday.  We took a short walk and found a Craft Beer festival.  They had a number of Craft Beer vendors to sample and live music.

On Sunday Jan 31 we celebrated Janis’ birthday. We spent the day downtown bar hopping and ended up at the Sky Bar which is on top of The Firestone Restaurant.  We could see our boat from the bar!  We met a number of different people but can’t remember anyone’s name.  The atmosphere was very open and relaxed. People introduced themselves and struck up conversations at a drop of the hat.  It was a great time.

Monday was a day of chores – laundry, boat cleaning, preparing for the next day’s trip. From here it’s off to the river system again. We plan to cross Lake Okeechobee to Stuart.