Now that we are docked for a month we spent time getting the salt off the boat and general cleaning. While we were cleaning Janis saw a huge shadow near the side of our boat and it turn out to be a manatee! We had not seen a mamouth body this close.

Later in the day we say this one trying to get a drink of fresh water under this leaking faucet.

We also got our boat decorated for Christmas.  Boner is ready and counting down the days.

The marina here is very nice. We are tucked into a corner slip.  We have our own light house on site.  There are two pools we can use, and a nice restaurant as well. When we sit on the bridge we have a front row view to Florida Bay. Boaters gather to view the sunset nearly every night, so we have been able to meet quite a few other couples that are staying here.

While in Ft Myers we saw several Tiki huts labeled as Chickee bar. Of course, we just thought this was a word play on a place where sun bathing beauties go to drinks. Ahhhh, but not so fast little drink of water.  Going to the brain, she says that, “Chickee” is the Seminole word for home or gathering place. Chickee houses are commonly referred to as the more familiar Polynesian term “Tiki Huts”. Hey, lots of bikinis under one roof by any other name is still prodigious. Arrrrr it means awesome! Matey.

We only spent one night at Marco Island.  We pushed off early as we have 80+ miles to go to our next stop.  It was a nice day but a bit windy.  We had 3-4-foot waves bouncing us around first thing.  So, we motored up to cut through the waves. Boner hated the start of the ride. He turned a few shades of green but eventually settled into a comfy position and did not move for 5 hours. After a few hours, the waves settled down to 1-2-foot waves.

There was no land in site for a few hours, but we still had to contend with crab traps.  Stone Crab and lobster season is in, so all the fishermen have their traps set.  When we reached Florida Bay we found crab traps everywhere and in no order.  There were groups of them that you could not go through, so we had to go around.  No auto pilot in this area of the water.  We later found these large groups were lost traps from Irma.

About 3 hours out at full cruising speed (2300 rpm), we lost power on our port side engine.  The hose to the turbo charger came loose (again).  The lower clamps gave way this time causing a small tear in the upper hose. The motors were too hot to fix at sea, so we had to travel at 10 mph favoring one motor for the balance of the trip. The good news was the Florida Bay really lays down as you make the turn to Marathon. Slow but flat seas.  It was windy when we arrived at the fuel docks. Guys were standing there with shirts a flapping in the breeze. Of course, we were placed in the furthest corner shoehorn slip.  Faro Blanco had great dock hands helping us dock.  The passage took 9 hours, but we did it! AS always after a big crossing….. Where’s the TIKI bar or is it CHICKEE bar.

meanwhile…..   Boner heads to the litter box, quick stop at the food bowl, and finally curls up over the engine room hatch where it stays toasty for hours. Boner says good night Irene.

Home for one month!

We were sorry to leave Fort Myers behind us.  Alot of people spend the whole winter at Legacy. We had hoped to meet up with our friends from California, but they are not able to make it to Florida until later.

A few dolphins decided to play with our wake as we headed out to the Gulf. We went out into the Gulf about 3  miles off the shoreline. It was a beautiful weather free day, just as Janis planned! Speaking of weather, we broke down and purchased the XM Mariner  weather/radio package for the Garmin. It gives us live weather radar, Fox news and Jimmy Buffet. You decide which is more important!

We were warned about crab traps and we did find quite a few but were able to manage around them well.  You can not let your guard down. Our favorite call out is “crab pot, crap pot, bird pot”. Yea, sometimes the birds can fool ya!

We were glad to be in the inlet in early afternoon.  There are buildings where you can see that windows are missing. One sea wall (supporting a condo) was completely destroyed: docks and all the concrete was in the water.  Our marina was on the other side of the island behind several condominiums, so it helped block the wind which made the T – head docking easy. The dock master gave us an additional 10% off for wearing a KY wildcat basketball T-shirt. He was from Lexington.

We were in walking distance to Snook Inn, a restaurant that we visited before when vacationing in the area with Linnea and Mike.  We were too early for happy hour (again), but we decided to begin early. The sunset, back at our dock was nice due to the dispersion of clouds.

For Daryl….. I did try to fish Marco from the back of the boat with a piece of thanksgiving ham. Caught a catfish with those poisonous spikes. And, he ate my hook. Yes, I only had one hook as usual.

The Legacy Harbour marina is near downtown Fort Myers.  We will be at this very nice facility for 10 days!

The marina had a dinner for Thanksgiving. Even thought it was a cloudy day everyone had a good time. Once everyone filled up on turkey they scattered back to their boats to sleep it off.

We are within walking distance to many restaurants and shops.  There are a number of things going on the next couple of weeks that we are here, so we took advantage of them.

Fort Myers Boat Show was nicely laid out.  They had more boats on trailers than in the water, but they had a nice mix. We met a guy from Michigan that had neat idea for covering pontoons.  It was a cover that attached out side of the pontoon frame and you can just pull it to cover and push it to uncover. The cover stays out of the way behind the back of the boat. Pretty cool.

They had an open air bizarre in downtown one weekend and another they had an antique car show. At the marina a few boats decorated for Christmas. We decided to wait until we got to Marathon.

We went to the Edison – Ford museum.  They had some early model T’s and examples of the phonographs and movie projectors.  We did not know that Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were friends. They had two estate homes beside each other in Fort Myers. They worked together with Harvey Firestone to come up with a domestic source of rubber other than rubber plants. They would go out on “camping” trips to gather different plants so that they could test them for possible rubber sources.  Glodenrod weed was one of the plant samples that they tested and found rubber latex. There are also a couple fields that were planted in 1927 that are still growing strong.

On Saturday we pushed off at 7:45AM heading to Fort Myers.  We had two locks to pass through today. At both locks required waiting for the locks to be filled.  There was a light wind, so it was not too hard to manage the boat while waiting.  We found a nice marina (Calusa Jack’s) for re-fueling about 15 miles East of Fort Myers.  With a sharp u-turn we kissed up to the dock just like captain Ron! We got our tanks full (174 gallons) and then headed down to Legacy Harbor Marina. As we came across from East to West we noticed more roof damage – lots of blue tarps than we did in Stuart. We understand that both sides of Florida saw at least a 3-foot storm surge.  By 2:15PM we were docked and had our first beer!  It was a nice two days getting use to the boat again!

Fort Myers

More blue tarps

Sunset from our bridge

After a leisurely trip from Big Bone, KY to Stuart, FL we are now on the water!

We stopped in Charleston, SC to visit the kids and grandchild.  We love this as a stopover. We are getting to know the area and we always find great places to eat!

We visited the county fair that was going on during the weekend.  It was not exactly like the 4-H / County fairs that we have in KY, but there was a petting zoo and you could take a camel ride!

We also stopped by our friend Tommy’s and spend a few days since our boat was delayed in getting into the water until Monday, November 13^th.  It is always a good time! Tommy showed us around the area.  We enjoyed a meal at the Legion and we took a trip to The Villages to see a band that is just starting up. The Andrew Morris Band.  They are out of Jupiter, Florida and play The Villages a few times a year. We met Andrew’s mother who is a friend of Lynn and Mike.  We will try to go see the band when we come back up through Jupiter in early March.

Our boat was dropped in the water on Monday November 13^th.  We spend a few days cleaning and getting our supplies stocked.  We rented a car for one day, so we could take our car to our friends from Pier 99, Dave and Barb’s, for storage until we get settled in south Florida, they will be down sometime after Thanksgiving. We will be back up to visit and retrieve our car at some point.

On Friday November 17^th we pushed off at 7:45AM from Riverforest Yacht Center and headed up the canal to Lake Okeechobee.  We entered our first lock at about 10:15 AM, then headed out across the lake for 29 miles. We made good time traveling at about 17mph. One more lock at Moore Haven and then we would dock at the city docks.  As we exited the lock we had to wait for a train.  The rail road bridge was closed.  We tied off in the lock arrival area and waited about 15 minutes.

More blue tarps

By 2:00PM we were docked with power at Moore Haven.   We had to have happy hour at Adam’s Angler Reef Lounge!  Heidi was not on duty, but Suzy was right on top of it.  We had a couple of hamburgers that were great! Afterward we when and got two burritos for take-out from Antojito’s.  We did not want to decide between the two restaurants, so we thought the burritos would be better for on the boat.  We will eat them on Saturday!

Well we are back up on our blog again.  Earlier this year Ransomware hit us! We were lucky to keep our photos, but all other documents were lost.  We did not post anything once we reached Hollywood.   Here is the Reader’s Digest version:

January 22, 2017

We really enjoy Hollywood, FL.  We have our car with us, so it was easy to get around.

Hollywood beach was beautiful. They have a nice board walk area with many great restaurants.

January 26, 2017

We attended the International Marina & Boatyard Conference in Fort Lauderdale.  Since we missed the campground convention we thought this would be a good change.  They had a field trip that we participated in that took us by water to several different marinas in the Fort Lauderdale area. We had a great time and got to meet several other marina managers.

January 27, 2017

Carol and Chuck made the trip from the Naples area to visit us! We took them to our favorite burger place, Le Tub.  While we were waiting we were entertained by an Iguana who wanted to eat the lettuce from your hamburger.

January 31, 2017

We spent the day on the water taxi that we boarded in Hollywood beach and then took to other stops around Fort Lauderdale. There are several restaurants and bars you can stop at then pick up the next taxi that comes by.  The taxi captains also provide information about the water ways and houses of the rich and famous. We ended up at a nice restaurant in downtown area for dinner.

February 3, 2017

Since we have our car we decided to make a trip to Lake Okeechobee to visit friends Dave and Barb.  They spend the winter in Florida and summers on their house boat at Pier 99.  Chris and Dave went out on a neighbor’s boat fishing for crappy.  It was Chris’ last day on his FL fresh water fishing license.  He caught 7 good size crappy.  We ended up spending the night and the next morning we fileted the fish and then said our goodbyes and headed back to Hollywood.

February 12, 2017

Friends, Linda and Vince came to visit us for a few days this past week.  We spent a day at Gulf Stream then a day at a few casinos. Of course, we had to get a burger at Le Tub!  We decided to also spend a day on the water taxi to show them around Fort Lauderdale.  You really see a different side of the city from the water and Chris does not need to have the worry about driving the boat!

On the day that Linda and Vince were leaving, Chris decided to try to fish off the docks and was having great luck! He was catching a fish called Jack fish – they remind you of a small tuna.   He had them fileted and then we fried them right up.  They were very delicious!

February 16, 2017

Glenn and Lisa were vacationing in Daytona Beach and drove down to spend a night with us!  We showed them around Hollywood Beach and had lunch at a restaurant on the ICW.  It was very windy that day so sitting outside was a bit of a challenge while we ate.

February 18, 2017

Miami Boat Show!!  We got VIP tickets which allowed us to board a yacht and have lunch and drinks as well as a more private restroom.  It was a great view from the top deck.  The boat show is very large and has many, many people in attendance.  They use water taxis to take people back and forth.  Last year it was difficult because you had to wait nearly 2 hours for a taxi.  This year they were better prepared and there were no delays. Saturday evening, we went to the Just Sail section of the show and watched the Eric Stone Band.  He has been playing this venue for more than 10 years.   We have seen him nearly every year!

February 25, 2017

We have really enjoyed our time in Hollywood.  We visited a few flea markets, a farmer’s market that was great and had all kinds of different vegetables, meat and fish.  They also had a car show in downtown Hollywood.  The whole area was closed to traffic and cars were lined up along the streets.

Of course, we visited Gulf Stream and the Dog Track at least once per week. At Gulf Stream, we saw a horse sale and could not believe how much a few of them when for! ($60,000 – $1,500,000.) We now must begin to think about getting the boat ready for summer storage.

March 20, 2017

Daryl and Cathy came down to visit and to help move the boat from Hollywood to Stuart FL.  While in Hollywood we had to take them to Le Tub, a nautical flee market and a day on the water taxi!

Chris and Daryl got some fishing in.  In Stuart, Chris caught a Snook, but it was not the correct size to keep.  He was excited about catching it though.

Our boat was pulled out of the water and will be stored on land during the summer.  We will be back in November to continue our travels.

The Loggerhead Marina is in a high end gated community. You can see the hotels on the beach from the driveway out to the “main” land.

We got settled in at the marina and needed to get our car which is parked in Daytona.  Janis got to have a pickup truck for a day!

We have grilled out and watched the other boaters deal with their issues.  One had to cut up his aged dingy with a sawall and the other one had to have his busted old sail boat towed out of the marina.  We have not seen him since.

Ooh yea, we barbecued ribs. yummy first meal in Hollywood! Tomorrow on the road for a quick 8 hour round trip to Daytona! Hope the car is still there!

We filled up with fuel and headed out today. Only a 20 mile cruise on the float plan. The first challenges we have are three 15ft bridges to time manage the passage.  That is, they are within one or two miles of each other and open only once or twice an hour.   Some of the bridges open on the hours and others on the quarter hour. We timed things perfectly, but a slower boat behind us missed one of the openings and had to wait an additional hour to get through. We will be in the marina sipping docktailes by the time they catch up to us. We reached Fort Lauderdale and the boats and houses were bigger and more beautiful than we have seen.

We dodged water taxis’ and other cruisers. Glad we are boating during the week as we can imagine what the weekends would be like.

We passed under Hollywood Blvd bridge and the Loggerhead Marina – Hollywood is the next right.  Here is where we will spend some time enjoying the weather and exploring the neighborhood. It was a great relief that this portion of the trip is in the logged books! After 22 marina trip it is comforting to create a home base marina for a couple of months.

Docking is always a mystery as with the previous 21 marinas. Weather, wind,  currents, or bad slip assignment can make the landing either “a show of pro” or “a one ring circus”.  Today was light winds, protective cove, no current, and a tight fairway. Today, we were the Pros. 16oz. MILLER TIME!