December 3. We left Salty Sam's Marina about 9 and had a three hour trip
over to Legacy Harbour Marina in Ft. Meyers We've heard wonderful things about this marina and reality exceeded our
expectations. There are a number of
boats here we've crossed paths with at some point along our Loop. We have a reservation here for the month of
December and will leave Observer here when we make our trip home for the holidays. There are some beautiful boats (including a
couple American Tugs) here and one of the first things we did after securing our lines was to walk the docks and check them all
out.
As we get settled here in our slip right next to Golden, we once again reflect on how fortunate and blessed we are to be on this fabulous adventure. We will be posting periodically over the next month as noteworthy things happen, but will not be keeping a day to day blog. Happy holidays!
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| Christmas Tree made from little lights at the marina |
December (into a bit of January) Recap:
We spent a wonderful month and 2 days at Legacy Harbor
Marina in Fort Myers. We arrived on
December 3rd and settled into our slip on D dock right next to
Golden. We had a beautiful view of the
Caloosahatchee River from our stern. The
sunsets were magnificent!
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| Tim on the Caloosahatchee River. Photo taken off the stern of Observer |
On Monday 12/4, we welcomed Loopers Hour Plan - AC &
Jim to Legacy Harbour Marina where they completed their Loop. A very fun celebration ensued aboard Shelle
Belle. Congratulations AC and Jim! We kept the celebration going with a fabulous
meal at McGregor’s Café with the crew of Observer, Hour Plan, Golden, Shell
Belle and True North.
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| AC and Jim coming into port after crossing their wake |
Tuesday 12/05 - after 6 months of half trying, Tim
attended a local Rotary meeting of the Ft. Meyers club. Fellow Looper Jim of Shelle Belle joined
Tim. The Ft. Meyers club is very active
with piano and lots of singing. . .they were very welcoming.
Wednesday 12/06 We would not call downtown Ft. Meyers
very bike friendly - simply put, Tim has not found an easily accessible bike
trail or lane nearby. His first jaunt
out lead to riding out and back on the sidewalk of a major route. Skip from Easy Water (who we initially met in
Florence, Al) took him around through some of the neighborhoods of his favorite
bike routes. His time and company are
much appreciated. He would be hard pressed
to find own way on today's route.
Thursday 12/07 -Farmer's market in the morning very
nearby. There was Marina wide docktails
on A dock. We were dog sitting Callie so
we took her along. Then Mike and Becky
on True North grilled up some 'pork wings' (you really have to see them to
believe them) and a few of us brought sides and we had a little Looper pot luck
at the marina lounge.
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| Fort Myers Farmer's Market |
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| Mike grilling up pork wings. Yum! |
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| The guys gettin' their grill on. |
Friday 12/08 we made arrangements to get together with
Tom and Sue (formerly of m/v Marbles, now of RV Marbles). We met Tom at AGLCA rendezvous many years ago
and we've just stayed in touch. Tom and
Sue did their Loop over 10 years. They
now reside in Bonita Springs in the winter and RV around the country in the summer. It was great to meet Sue and share travel stories
with them over lunch. . and thank you for lunch!
Saturday 12/09 brought in some cooler weather, strong
winds and a bit of rain - at least we missed the first snow fall at home.
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| First snow fall in Danvers as seen from the living room |
Sunday 12/10 Observer hosted ' Champagne Sunday' - lots
of great food and stories.
Monday 12/11 we did the evening tour of the Edison / Ford
Estate Museum. We experienced a
combination of historic tour along with holiday lights and decorations; it
really gets you in the Christmas spirit.
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| Statue of Edison |
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| Edison's home |
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| The parlor with a glimps into the dining room |
Tuesday 11/12 saw a very beautiful Fleming 55 motor yacht
approach his slip in very windy conditions.
He pulled up stern to the entrance of the slip, got out of the pilot
house and walked to the stern of the boat and dock the boat using a hand held
device (about the size of a cell phone).
How cool is that. I did a little
due diligence and found out it is a 'yacht controller'. This is a game changer.
Wednesday 12/13 we attended meeting of the South Florida
Yacht Club - "the crusingest yacht club in the USA" as guests of Paige and Mike -
who were guests of Chris & Rich.
They hold their meetings at Pinchers @ The Marina at Edison Ford and
they do something like 30 cruises a year.
Great bunch of folks who seem to have a lot of fun. After dinner, we dropped Millie off at her
dog sitter in Cape Coral vis a vis the Mike / Paige taxi service and then bid
our goodbyes to Mike & Paige. They have sold Golden. It was pretty
sad. We've had the pleasure of cruising
/ hanging out with them since the Joe Wheeler rendezvous in October. They literally had to sell their boat to get
rid of us:). They will be heading to the
southwest to pick up their RV and full time on that rig for a while. We wish them the very best and look forward
to following their travels and crossing paths with them in the not too distant
future.
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| We are going to miss you! |
Thursday 12/14 flew home for a fun filled (& a little
work too) holiday visit complete with Tim getting the flu. It was great to experience a little more
elbow room and amenities our home offers while there. We visited with many but did not quite catch
up with everyone we had hoped to see - SORRY. Millie stayed with James who we
met through Rover.com and apparently had an awesome time in our absence.
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| Hamilton Hall Christmas Dance |
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| We weren't going to get a tree because of so little time, but the kids surprised us with one! |
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| The only ornament on the tree this year. It belonged to Alice's father when he was a child. |
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| Of course, we had to also put up the black lab angel on top! |
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| Christmas day brunch |
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| As is tradition, Christmas afternoon was spent at Mo and Franks. |
Thursday 12/28 we left Danvers @ 12 degrees and arrived to
70 ish in Ft. Myers. Jim & AC picked
us up at the airport and we caught up over dinner before heading back to the
boat.
Friday 12/29 we waited for a diver, Cory to arrive to
clean the bottom of OBSERVER. He checked
the zinc anodes and cleaned the water line - nice to have that out of the
way.
Saturday 12/30 attended a great Farmer's market in Cape Coral
with Jim and AC. Just before we left we
ran into Mike from Dashaway (aka Super Dash).
Mike hails from Vermont, Started the Loop from Michigan and has been
traveling solo much of the trip. He told
us he ended up hiring a captain to help him with his overnight Gulf
crossing. He seemed pretty pumped to be
in Florida.
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| Cape Coral farmer's market |
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| Our haul from the farmer's market |
Sunday12/31 Last night Alice reached out to some Looper
friends we had not seen in a while - Linda & Brian from Vahevala. Turns out they were across the river and
south about 8 miles in Cape Coral pulled up to a friend’s house. They invited us to join them for breakfast in
the morning. So an Uber ride later we
enjoyed a great breakfast with Brian & Linda at the home of their friends
Diane & Paul. It was a quick (short
but sweet) visit as Vahevala was heading south to Naples today.
To celebrate New Year’s Eve, at about 9:30 (way past
looper midnight) we headed downtown for the Ft. Meyers block party with AC and
Jim. Lots of people around, probably 5
live bands, very festive. Glad we
checked it out. . .didn't quite make it to midnight but a great way to cap off
2017.
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| One of five bands playing throughout downtown Fort Myers |
Blog 1/01/18 Monday We had originally planned on leaving
today, but we have a cold front coming in with heavy winds so we are hanging
for a few more days. Jim from Hour Plan
brought us over a batch of mimosas, which we enjoyed watching the Norte Dame
/LSU GAME - of IRISH.
Tuesday 1/02 we took a road trip over to Bonita Springs
to have lunch and do some grocery shopping at Deromos. It's a pretty active place, much like a
smaller version of Eatily.
Wednesday 1/03 dinner at MacGregors with AC and Jim. It
was wine Wednesday (a favorite of Alice's)
1/04 Thursday we were getting ready to cast off when we
received a call from the dockmaster at the Sanibel Marina. Theses heavy winds have driven the water out
of many areas including their Marina.
He's never seen the water so low in the 14 years he had been there. It
also happens to be quite cool here 39 this morning. Ironically at home in Danvers, the river rose
aside our home as high as it's ever been - dangerously close to entering the
basement. We got over to the farmers
market and got in a bike ride once things warmed up in the afternoon.
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