January 15th - A stressful trip to Naples

We had now officially ran out of ICW to follow and the ocean was pretty choppy 2-3 footers but nothing we couldnt handle. It was another beautiful day weather wise and we were excited about getting to Naples.  About an hour out Tom went below to take a shower.  Soon afterwards I hear sirans, yes sirans! I turned to find a sheriffs boat coming at us with lights and sirans going.  I put the boat in neutral and started yelling for Tom.  Of course he couldn't hear me from the shower, Ugh!  When the sheriffs boat pulled along side I politely greeted him and asked if there was a problem. His response was very official. You did not pay last nights mooring field fee of $13.00.  The city wants to prosecute!!!!!  Now I am really yelling for Tom, still no answer!  Of course with the 2-3 foot waves we are now sideways and rocking badly! You would have thought Tom would have come out to check on what the %#@&;* was going on!!  I apologized profusely and indicated that my husband was supposed to call in and have an extra night put on our credit card.  His response was, well he didn't. I asked if I could pay now. His answer, if you have cash.  I ran below still screaming at Tom. He yells a few not nice words and adds :What is going on?"  I yelled back that the sheriff is after us!  I with my $20.00 bill run back up with Tom behind rapped in a towel! Now Tom is going to get involved, giving me direction on how to get the money to the sheriff as both of our boats are rocking horribly! In an attempt to pull up beside us for the %&#@ $20.00 bill he hit our boat head on!  His response, I didn't mean to do that!  So he has his money but I am really unhappy, as I had asked Tom to call in and have them put another day on our credit card. Yes, they had our credit card information and choose not to just add another day.  Angrily I put the boat in gear to get out of the sideways waves and avoid to crab pots that were directly ahead of us. The problem? We were towing our dingy!  The waves had pushed the dingy up to the boat and the line underneath it. When I put it in gear the rutters cut the line and the dingy was no longer attached and the line it was tied to is under the boat. Soooo, Tom puts on a pair of jocky underwear, not sure why not a bathing suit, and a life jacket. He has a knife in his teeth and goes down to the swim platform. He is kneeling on the swim platform holding on to the boat with one hand and trying to cut the line from underneath the boat with the other as waves are crashing over him.  I really should have gotten a photo of that!  He then re-ties the dingy and I keep my fingers crossed that we can move forward!  All because of $13.00 dollars. We kept a close eye on our gages for quite a while but all seemed to be fine, thankfully.  I went back to driving and Tom went below to wash the soap off.

January 12-15 Fort Myers Beach, the good, the bad and the frustrating!

The ICW from Punta Gorda to Fort Myers Beach was narrow and slow but the scenary continues to fill the time well.  The ICW ends near Fort Myers so we were again using our charting skills along with the help of two friends who were riding with us for the day. One of them from Fort Myers.  As you approach Fort Myers the ICW connects with the Ockeechobee Waterway.  Certain that we were not going that way I put in waypoints to take us across a bay and into Matanzas Harbor to the mooring field.  The water was wonderful and the sun warm so our friends were sunning on the front deck.  All was going well until we realized there was a problem with our approach. The bridge ahead was fixed and to low and the water color was changing, not a good sign for depth.  Our friend from Fort Myers indicated we were going the wrong way to go under the bridge. A quick recheck of charts while in neutral indicated my flaw in planning.  We were supposed to follow the path toward lake Ockeechobee then turn off into a marked channel behind Estero Island.  Sooooo,  we turned around and and corrected the error. Even thought the charts showed enough water I was thankful we caught the error BEFORE we hit the shallows, and a little unhappy with myself for the misguided plotting.   We were excited about Fort Myers beach for two reasons, we had not been there before and we had a guide with a car!!
There were two sections to the mooring field and the first was filled because it was close to the dingy dock.  We ended up quite a ways from the dingy dock but away from the noisy bridge traffic.  Our first stop was Bonita Bills, recommended in Skipper Bobs book.  A couple was providing the music at the bar/restaurant and it was great.  It was definitely an over 60 crowd, filling the dance floor and overflowing to the area around their tables. We had a ball watching and dancing with people our age who were having so much fun. We were excited, a great start to our visit we thought!  We enjoyed our guided tour by car provided by our friend and I especially enjoyed the fine art fair that we attended but that's where the good ended.  The mooring field is run by Matanzas Inn and it it was definitely not a priority for them. Most of our questions, including those about the area could not be answered. Tom and I walked down to Fort Myers Beach, only four blocks away, then took a trolley down to the end of Estero Island and back. No one seemed to want to give out friendly information and the people on the city trolley were not very nice to each other. When we got to the end of the island the driver announced it was the end of the road. I smiled and explained that we were just riding round trip to see the island. He quickly retorted with a "well you gotta pay again", so I jumped up to put our fifty cents in again.  Our plan to move on to Naples was delayed by a day because one of our kayaks broke loose and floated away overnight.  We spent the next day hunting for it by dingy throughout the area but had no luck.  While making one last ditch effort to find it we ran out of gas in the dingy. Now we are trying to row against the current and a good wind to get back to the boat! Happy campers we were not! Another couple saw us struggling and towed us back to our boat.  Needless to say I was upset about the kayak loss. Alas all ended well as our good friend John surprised us with a new kayak he found on craigs list! 

                                      Passing Fort Myers beach on our way to the mooring field

                                                                           Fort Myers

Sunset from our mooring ball at Fort Myers