Deb took this picture from the bow of our boat...this is where the daily coctail party takes place. The boat you see "Tranquillity" is an 84 year old man who lives aboard 6 months a year...his wife stays at home in New Hampshire. The boat to the right of him came here on the Loop 3 years ago, and never left.
Lunch in downtown Fort Myers on Wednesday...about 5 blocks from the boat
Deb decided it was a good idea to dry our boat towels in the front state room
Deb has not been successful at putting lights on the outside of the boat "yet", but she has managed to remind me this is the Christmas season
Don't tell Deb...but she had done her usual great job of decorating
Log 80Day 205
Friday, December 12, 2008
5:40 AM EST
Location: Legacy Harbor, Fort Myers, FL.
Weather: 65* and partly cloudy...forecasted to be mostly sunny and 70
It really rained yesterday...we got almost 2 inches. It started about 9 am and finally quit about 2 pm. I know they talk about Florida drought...but Fort Myers has gotten about 60 inches of rain this year...about 6 inches more than normal. Overnight it cleared up, and there is a big full moon. It will be 80* by Monday.
And now, Deb’s 2 cents...
Hey Everybody!
We’ve been getting reports from family and friends that winter has descended upon the Midwest. We’ve seen pictures of the beautiful Michigan snow…and in Illinois, a pictures of our niece’s 2 yr old daughter making a snow angel and a video of their 4 yr old son on a snow board! Well, aside from a few cold days and a couple of rainy days (today being one of them) we’ve had beautiful weather, and it is weird how quickly we’ve forgotten about ice and snow and cold. I was talking to our daughter on the phone recently as she drove home from work and she said, “Rats! I’m stuck behind a snow plow.” It struck me funny because at the time I was sitting on the dock in the sunshine, sipping a Corona and reading a book. “Snow Plow?!” Oh yeah…I remember those.
We got here to Legacy Harbor Marina in Ft. Myers last Thursday and will be here at least through the 1st of Jan. It's a great marina, within walking distance to downtown Ft. Myers, 2 blocks to a Publix grocery store and lots of restaurants all over the place. There's a guy on dock who was also doing the Loop like we are. He stopped here for a few days and he liked it so much, he decided to stay. That was 3 years ago! Almost every night at 5 pm, boaters gather on the dock by the boat in front of us for cocktail hour. They always tell us to grab a drink and join them and finally last night we did. They are a bunch of fun people. One guy passed around hors d'oeuvres...a large container of cashews from Costco...our kind of people! They told us that every Thursday night there is a pot luck up at the tiki hut (which is inexplicably called the "Chickie Hut") and being Thursday, this is the night for it. Right now it's raining like the devil and so we’re not sure if it will still be held...we'll have to wait and see. We still have chicken noodle soup left for dinner if the pot luck falls through! Not sure what we'll bring if we go...potato chips and dip? :o)
It’s hard to get into the Christmas spirit when the weather is (usually) so nice and sunny and warm with palm trees forming a backdrop to our days. We will hear Christmas music on the radio and think, “Why are they playing Christmas music already?” We have put up a few Christmas decos on the boat (see pictures) but BK has blocked my every move to put them up on the outside of the boat. I was thinking we should string lights along the bow rail…maybe a lighted tree on the hard top strapped to the radar arch? Wouldn’t that be cool spinning around? (Is it just me?) Last night we shared a dinner with Mary & Andy and after an evening of laughs we left their boat at 8:45 pm (Mary has set a personal goal to keep Bob up till 9:00 pm…she’s getting closer!) So we went back to our boat and as BK was “locking up”, he spied Mary and Andy in the dark up on their fly bridge stringing lights! It was not a complicated event…they had one string…it was over in 2 ½ minutes. So now I’m lobbying for lights at the helm…not sure I’ll get the job done.
We'll leave the boat here on the 17th to fly back to Illinois for the last 2 weeks of December doing the Christmas celebration thing with all our family and friends. We will have our Christmas celebration with Bob’s family in Herscher, IL…one with my family in Ottawa, IL…and then another with our own little family…Jeff, Beccah and the grandkids, Zack & Sam in So. Elgin, IL …all about 60 miles apart. As usual, we'll be spending a lot of our Christmas holidays on the road. (Let’s hope the roads stay clear!) We have also made appointments for medical checkups, doctors, dentists, etc. It's a lot of stuff to pack into 13 days! It will be our usual whirlwind Christmas and I can't wait!!
We’ll be back to our boat in Ft. Myers on the 30th in time to celebrate New Year’s Eve (probably up at the Chickie Hut!) Then as weather permits, we will make our way down to the Keys where we have a reservation for one month in Key West! They say you can catch a bug while down here which causes a malady called "Key's Disease". The longer you're here, the less you think about anything except getting to the dock in time for the sunset celebration and where your next beer is coming from. I think we must have already been bitten because the symptoms have begun to show and I’m sure being in Key West for a month will only make matters worse! We’re looking forward to it!
Since it’s been raining all day, we’ve planned inside projects…back to mine…organizing and backing up our pictures onto CDs. (I have to become better friends with the ‘delete’ button!) I also want to clean out the fridge and maybe defrost the freezer…not sure it will get done…I might just go watch the sunset instead.
Hope you are all staying warm and getting into the Christmas spirit! Here’s to Holidays filled with fun, family & friends!
First Mate - Deb
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