Cruising the ICW

We spent a quiet week in Fort Myers.  The cold front that brought strong winds and cool temps, as forecast, developed and we were glad we holed up there for the week.  However, Fort Myers doesn't offer a lot to do or see.  There is the Edison Ford Estate, which is well worth seeing, but we had seen it two years ago.  We rode our bikes one day into a very nice residential area and around an historic church.  We used the pool as it warmed up later in the week, and we did almost daily trips to the close-by Publix grocery store, for something to do.  Greg couldn't even make much progress with any varnishing tasks as it was too windy.  But we managed to occupy the week, with great neighbors and got underway at the end of the week, in a bit of fog, which burned off early.   Our trip up Pine Island Sound was very nice and we anchored in the late afternoon in Pelican Bay at Cayo Costa state park.  Greg swam, as it was a good opportunity to surve...

We extended our stay in Key West for 3 days, due to wind of course.  The final 3 days were fun though.  We did have to move to a different dock location and it was nice to give us a slightly different perspective on the harbour.   I also got a chance to launch the dinghy to test the steering repair in the water. And we had manatees visit very close to the boat.  We departed Saturday, Feb 5th with a spectacular travel day to cross Florida Bay, which is really the south-east extension of the Gulf of Mexico.  The run to Marco Island is about 85 miles and a longer day than we like to put in, so we chose to anchor overnight in Little Shark River which is about half-way, but does add miles to the overall trip. We arrived late afternoon and were the 5th boat to anchor in the entrance but with lots of room.  What I didn't realize is that we were anchoring at pretty much low slack, but put out more than 100' of chain in 12' deep water.  After dark, once th...

Yeah, regular readers will know that we used that title before but it is so apropos given Jimmy Buffett's contribution to the music culture here, and spending another month here.  This time we did have a more low key visit given this is our third time here, and we have seen many of the sights.  Our month got off to a great start with VERY warm weather and Tristan with us for the first week.  Unfortunately the bank said he couldn't work from the US for an extended period and he amended his plans to head home at the end of the week. We did enjoy Happy Hour at a favourite outdoor waterfront place one day with him, and a great guitar player at a favourite outdoor bar, Hanks Hair of the Dog Saloon a couple of nights.  Tristan's girlfriend Dom arrived for the weekend and toured Key West to show her some of the sights as she had not been here before.  One of the highlights was visiting the Key West Butterfly museum.  It is a lush tropical environment with about 15...

We are in Key West, Capital of the Conch Republic, which was a tongue-in-cheek secession of the Keys declared in the 80's. We departed Vero Beach after the boat being there 2 weeks, with time either side of our family vacation in Punta Cana.  We only had 60 miles to go to get to the Palm Beach area, which would be our Xmas stop, so we could take our time.  First stop was the Pelican Yacht Club in Fort Pierce area, just an easy 2 hour run south. We arrived early afternoon and made full use of their unoccupied pool.  Next day we traveled about 30 miles to Hobe Sound, in the Jupiter area and anchored for the first time all trip.  We selected a very nice bay in a no-wake zone, with a nearby sandbar, and also got our first ocean swim in.  Very warm.  A woman from NY area noticed our Vancouver hailing port and came out on her paddle board to chat.   That left only a couple of hours run to get to North Palm Beach, which would be our home for the next 10 ...

What a great week!  This was our early Xmas get together with Sean & Laura and Tristan & Dom. We hadn’t spent much time with any of them  over the last 18 months so to have a whole week together was special.   Club Med has been a favourite of Judy and I since 2004, and the boys had been to a number of them, including Sean working on the beach as a sailing Instructor at Punta Cana 10 years ago. But neither Laura or Dom had been to one before and we were really hoping they would like it.  Those who have been to Club Med know that it is not your typical all-inclusive.  Much more active, social, and fun.  And a big, beautifully landscaped, low density property. Being a French resort company, good food is also very important.   Judy and I stayed in the adult only Zen Oasis area which provides a more quiet pool that we could all make use of in the late afternoon.   We did golf instruction in the morning, and sailed in the afternoon. Tr...