Saturday and Sunday, February 19 and 20, 2011

Fort Myers was a very busy city this weekend.  They were celebrating the "Edison Festival of Light".  It was a beautiful weekend in the mid 80's.  They really celebrate big; a small parade last Sunday afternoon as starters and this weekend there was an Arts and Crafts show in Centennial Park, live band, lots of food vendors, a car show, a 3 mile race with over 1,000 runners, fireworks, and a 2 hour evening parade Saturday night.  The marina was full of boats for the festivities.  Some estimated up to 3 to 4 hundred thousand people were in town for the event.  Our friends that we met at Treasure Island, Bob and Barbara, drove down Saturday and we went to lunch.  We had a good visit and enjoyed seeing them.

CO's comments:  Boy did I have fun sitting on Bobbie's porch watching boats come in to refuel or dock for the weekend.  The fueling dock is 1/8 mile long on the river side with an inside area of 500 feet for smaller boats.  A big power cat came in, downwind, and tried to put his stern into the dock.  The dock master was throwing arms in the air, wailing on the radio, and finally got the guy to turn around into the wind and put his nose (bow) into the dock.  He couldn't even do that right.  He finally got a mid-ship line to the dock master and then they got him in.  Then there was another guy with an 18' outboard that came in, refueled, tipped his motor up out of the water, tied up and went to town for a while.  When they came back, he jumped in the boat and tried to start his motor.  It made a hell-of-a noise and it didn't start because he forgot to put the motor back in the water.  His women friend had to tell him to put the motor down.  There was another guy that came in on a 30' cruiser nose first; perfect.  The person on the bow tied up properly but the one on the stern grabbed the line tied to the dock and jumped off the boat holding the line and stood there watching the stern move away from the dock.  One more and I'll stop rambling.  In came a 40' express cruiser, docking again downwind and gusts over 20 mph blew the rear canvas up over his radar.  But I must say, the captain came by and was wearing a T-Shirt from West Point, he looked up and saw my USMC flag  and with common courtesy said Good Afternoon Sir.



A lots of crafts




Bob and Barbara

Our friends from Treasure Island



Arts and Crafts

Live band

Marching band at evening parade

American flag as you enter
City of Fort Myers Yacht Basin