Thursday, February 17, 2011

It is good to be in Fort Myers.  Last night we had drinks and a wonderful dinner at Dave and Pat's condo along with some friends of theirs and ours from Red Wing, MN; Linnea and Jim of "Otherwise".  Dave and Pat are the previous owners of Kim Jo III and it was nice to see them again.  Good food and good company; what more could you ask for.

View from our maraina of the Hwy 41-Caloosahatchee
Bridge over the  Caloosahatchee River

Another beautiful sunset at Fort Myers
Yacht Basin taken on February 15, 2011

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sarasota Bay

Marina Jack's in Sarasota

After a peaceful night we got an early start this morning.  It was another beautiful sunny day about 78 degrees.  We went about 9 miles in Gasparilla Sound which had a mild chop but manageable.  It was nice to be out on the water and see all the dolphins follow the boat again.  We then went into Charlotte Harbor and had at least 6 foot seas at the port side for about 15 minutes but those15 minutes it felt like we were back on the gulf.  We were totally unprepared for the high seas and several things fell down.  Next time we will know to put things down when we are crossing large Sounds and Harbors.

We passed  Mile 0 GIWW at 12:15 and enter the Okeechobee Waterway starting Phase 9 of our journey.  It was very busy with boats all over the place and we reminded ourselves that we did not want to travel on hot, sunny weekends.  After another 14.5 miles we finally made it to Fort Myers Yacht Basin.




Our slip at Marina Jack's
How can you tell which Yacht is ours?

 CO's comments:  We were in Pine Island Sound in a narrow channel, when a large Yacht come at us full speed and did not slow down causing a very large wake.  I was cussing him for not slowing down when I saw it was a Sea Ray.  Now I know why some people don't like Sea Rays.   

N26 38.844
W81 52.180

Saturday, February 12, 2011

It was a warm, sunny, day and we went for a nice, brisk walk and studied the charts before leaving Marina Jack's.  We had 9 bridges today and 2 of them only had a 9' clearance.  We also had 5 miles of a narrow and very shallow canal with only 1 to 2 feet on either side of the canal.  All in all, the day went very good.  We anchored out in 7' of water at Mile Marker 36 GIWW near Cape Haze.  It was our first anchorage since Ingram Bayou at Mile 164 GIWW on November 17, 2010.



Cape Haze anchorage



Party Barge at Marina Jack's in Sarasota

Mile 36 Anchorage-beautiful sunset

N26 50.698
W82 17.201

CO's comments:  Bobbie really liked the party barge with the real trees on board