DUNEDIN, TARPON SPRINGS & CLEARWATER BEACH

He Said:  Hello from sunny again Florida.  At the end of our last blog I think the weather was windy and rainy in St. Pete.  Pat’s girlfriend Karen, from Chicago, had just arrived and thank heaven the weather took a great turn for the better.  Her last few days were perfect; the girls had a chance to do some girlie stuff and catch up on old times.  Karen departed on Monday the 5^th of May,  We think that she was our final company, maybe back to normal?? It has been really fun having all of the company we have had since arriving in Florida about a half a year ago, seems crazy.

We are only about a week away from our 1 year anniversary of boat life.  At times it seems like picking up the boat in CT and heading to Boston was years ago; other times it feels like just yesterday.  Time certainly can be a little strange, don’t you think?

We spent the following week doing our normal stuff - lots of boating stuff, laundry, eating in, and just being as normal as you can when living this life style.  On Wednesday the 7^th we met with our boat neighbors John and Roberta. They came over for Happy Hour and gave us some great info on the Bahamas (they have traveled there a bunch).  Following happy hour we headed into town to grab a burger at one of our favorite little pubs in downtown St. Pete.

On Friday the Camps (an ex-work buddy) picked us up for an evening on the beach, including a fun couple of beach bars, pizza to take to the beach, a pretty sunset, and then off to there home in Treasure Island for a finale.  They ran us back to the marina at midnite or so.  It was a terrific evening.

Jack, Mark and Janet having pizza on St Pete Beach

Sunset on St. Pete Beach

We met up with our boating friends Mike and Lori for a few cold ones on Sunday nite.  They are heading back to IL for the summer months - it was kind of a goodbye-for-now cocktail hour.  I forgot to mention we met up with Mike and Lori on Sat. the 10^th for a downtown concert.  The park was next to the water and a lot of boat people just anchored out, took a dip, and tuned into the concert at 0$$.  For us to move the boat and return in the dark it’s not really worth the $50.00 savings for the concert.  Oh yea, now for the entertainment.  None other than 63 year old, “That’s The Way I Like It,” KC (native Florida boy) and the Sunshine Band.  He put on a great show - more big hits than you probably remember.  Now for the real deal - the one and only Blues Brothers.  Both Jim Belushi and Akroyd rocked.  They appeared to have a blast doing their thing, inviting ladies onto the stage and dancing their old asses off.  What a blast!  Following the tunes they had a very impressive fireworks show.  It also rocked – what a fun, fun nite.

KC in the red shirt on stage at Taste of Pinellas

Jim Belushi and Dan Ackroyd playing the harmonica

The firework display was spectacular.  Bigger than most 4th of July celebrations

On Monday May 12^th we departed St. Pete.  We were there for a month and it is one of the nicest cities we have been to.  We will probably work our way back to St. Pete on our 2^nd visit.  We traveled about 4 hours or so to Dunedin.  We spent 2 nites there and really enjoyed it. It’s a nice little peaceful and friendly city with a small town flavor.

We took the dingy to happy hour at Capt'n Jack's in Dunedin

Dunedin sunset rom MTB

 

On Wed. the 14^th we left the marina and headed to Tarpon Springs.  Our plan was to spend a couple nites here, but we had big winds on Friday so we took a 3^rd day at Tarpon Springs. The location of our marina could not have been any better. Tarpon Springs is also a quaint little town full of sponges and Greek food.  On the main drag it was about 90% Greek restaurants, bakeries, and large boats bringing in every style and size of sponges from the bottom of the gulf that you could imagine.  Every little store in town sells sponges.  My preference was the Greek desserts, they rocked.  We did find time to go to Rusty Bellies for live music one nite and their great shrimp another nite.  On Friday we of course went to one of the local Greek diners, it was terrific.  We really enjoyed Tarpon Springs, but it is time for us to head back south.

Unloading sponges in Tarpon Springs

We left on Sat. the 17^th and headed down to Clearwater Beach.  Our trip was about 3 hours and we arrived early on Sat. afternoon.  We had to go stern first into our tight slip in about a 12 MPH wind.  It was not so much fun, but we got in ok - thank god for the dock dudes, they are a big help especially when conditions are a little challenging.  We walked over to the beach when we got in to get a feel for the city.  The beach is about as beautiful as I have ever seen - wide, pretty white sand, and beautiful water.  Guess where we watched the sun set that nite?  Pier 60 is a party at sunset time - lots and lots of bodies, people still swimming at 8:00 in the evening.  It was simply a lot of action.  We have done the Naples Pier, Mallory Square in Key West, and Pier 60 here in Clearwater and from a happening stand point I believe this one wins.

Sunset from Pier 60 in Clearwater Beach

That is about it for now.  Our plans have not changed since our last blog.  If you live in Columbus or Phoenix we are looking forward to seeing you folks in the next few months.  Take Care.  I hope all is well in your lives, Jack

 

She Said:  I have absolutely loved St. Pete.  The only bad things were the “love bugs” (more about them later) and the weather when we’ve had guests.  The day Karen arrived it was cold and rainy with flooding all over the area.  The big “First Friday” event – a street festival held the first Friday of every month – was cancelled because of the lousy weather.  The upside to the rainy weather is that we didn’t feel bad spending several hours inside at the Dali Museum.  The museum was phenomenal – I’d highly recommend it.  I can’t say that I’m a Dali fan, but I am intrigued and fascinated by his work.  I’m so glad we took a docent led tour; she pointed out so many things that we never would have seen on our own.

 

The weather did clear up for Karen’s last two days in town.  We made it to the beach one day (including a few beach bars) and took the dinghy to lunch the other day.  And of course, we tried out several new restaurants while Karen was in town.  In spite of the weather, we had a great visit – just wish it would have lasted longer.

 

I'm so bad at taking pictures, I finally remembered to take a photo as Karen was leaving

As our departure date drew closer, we decided to stay an extra couple days in St. Pete.  There’s so much going on we hated to leave.  As usual, our last week in town was busy.  There were so many places yet to see, places to re-visit and so many people to see one last time.  We won’t miss the ‘love bugs.”  These bugs were genetically engineered at the University of South Florida.  The intent was to create a bug that would eat mosquitoes.  Unfortunately, the project failed – they don’t eat mosquitoes!  All they do is mate, reproduce (500 eggs per female) then die.  The bugs are good size, slow and everywhere- both dead and alive.  They are annoying, but not nearly as bad as the no-see-ums. 

We got together with our Phoenix friends, Mark & Janet, again.  Mark met us at the beach one day and chauffeured us around to his favorite beach bars (Jack was in heaven).  On one of our last nights in town, Mark and Janet picked us up and took us to a couple new beach bars (you can see why Mark & Jack are friends).  Then we picked up pizzas and took them to the beach where we ate while watching the sunset.  The seagulls were so aggressive they almost stole Jack’s pizza out of his hands.  We eventually ended up at Mark & Janet’s for dessert.  What an absolutely great day!  

 

Janet, Mark, Jack & Pat enjoying the sunset on St. Pete Beach

The birds stealing Jack's pizza on St. Pete Beach

Our plans for next year include a trip to the Bahamas.  So one night we got together on MTB for cocktails with boat neighbors, John & Roberta, who have made the Bahamas trip several times.  They were a wealth of information!  We ended the evening at The Avenue for burgers.  It was a really fun evening with fun people.  We hope to run into them again next year.

We got together several times with our Marathon boat neighbors, Mike & Lori, from Bloomington, IL  They are such nice people and we spent many fun hours talking, laughing and partying with them.  They had us over for dinner on Cinco de Mayo which was really enjoyable - I think we were there until 1:00am.  On a hot Saturday night we went to the Taste of Pinellas with them to see KC & the Sunshine Band and the Blues Brothers.  The Blues Brothers act was really good.  We really enjoyed their company and I know we will see them next winter.

 

A hot day and fun night at the Taste of Pinellas - one of many festivals while we were in St Pete

Our last night in St Pete with Lori and Mike

We finally said good-bye to St. Pete.  It was a 35mile trip (about 5 hours dock-to-dock) to Dunedin.  We planned to spend one night in Dunedin, but it was so cute we stayed two nights.  The town was settled by Scots and their sister town is in Scotland.  There weren't, however, any Scottish restaurants, so we had a fantastic Mexican meal at Tina's. There are no chain stores or restaurants in town.  Everything is small and privately owned.  We really enjoyed our time in Dunedin even though we had torrential rains.






 

One of the many islands we passed on the IntraCoastal - great places to drop the anchor for the day or overnight
 

 

Then it was another 20 miles north to the Greek town of Tarpon Springs – also known as the Sponge Capital of the U.S.  Again, no chains only privately owned businesses.  You hear Greek accents all over the place and a large percentage of the stores and restaurants are owned by Greeks.  In addition to the sponge boats, there are lots of fishing and shrimp boats.  We had great fresh seafood at Rusty Bellies – they have their own fishing and shrimp boats.  (Of course, se stocked up on fresh shrimp!)  The Greek food was absolutely fabulous!  I thought I didn’t like Baklava – I was wrong, it was sooo good.  One night we attended the ribbon cutting ceremony for a new nightclub – it was quite an affair.  How about that for something different?  When you leave the sponge docks, the little town is quaint with lots of parks.  We planned on staying two nights, but a cold front came through bringing high winds so we stayed a third night.  It worked out great because there were too many restaurants to try out in two nights. 

Tarpon Springs flooding during an exceptionally high tide. 

 

The weather improved some, and we were able to leave Tarpon Springs.  We headed south to Clearwater Beach.  The winds were still brisk, but the temperature was great and the humidity even better.  We pulled into the marina in Clearwater Beach around lunchtime and it was bustling – there were people, cars and boats everywhere.  The beach here is something else – big, beautiful sand and packed.  There’s a sunset celebration on the beach at Pier 60 – it’s similar to the one in Key West with street acts, vendors and general craziness.  They even had a big movie screen set up.  We ended up at Cooley’s, a restaurant celebrating their 21^st Anniversary and Frenchies.  It’s supposed to be nice tomorrow so hopefully we get to spend some time on the beach.    

Clearwater Beach - a huge beach.  The sand was fine and white. 

Our one year is quickly coming to an end.  It’s hard to believe.  We’ve seen and done so much it’s amazing.  We’ve been very fortunate to have had this incredible experience.

 

ST. PETERSBURG

He Said:  Hello again from Florida.  Hope all is going well in your world.

Since our last blog we have been lucky enough to have more company.  Mark and Kathy from Cave Creek arrived in Sarasota to stay on the boat for a couple of days then we headed off to St. Pete.  All went very well, but the weatherman could have been a little nicer - more wind than anything, but not a big deal.



Mark & Kathy - notice the jackets?  It was chilly while in Sarasota

While Mark and Kathy were here we had a fun chance to also visit with Mark Camp and his wife, Janet.  They joined us at the boat on Thursday the 10^th for happy hour then off to the fish joint for a bite.  It was a fun evening.  Mark C, Mark M and I all worked for xpedx and we enjoyed catching up on what is happening back in AZ in the print world.  Mark C is from Michigan and when he retired they decided to come live near the water.  They chose Treasure Island which is in the St. Pete area - great beaches and a great area to live with water everywhere. On Friday the 14^th Mark and Kathy headed back to Cave Creek.  We had a blast, and they had a chance to see 2 very cool cities and travel with us on the boat as we traveled to St. Pete.



Janet & Mark Camp enjoying Happy Hour with Jack on MTB

We will spend a month in St. Pete and have been looking forward to it.  We normally get to a place for a month and our lives become sorta normal.  We had a few days of piece and quiet then Hailey, the Vegas niece, and her nice little girlfriend showed up on the 14^th of April.  The bad news was the shit assed weather - the 6 days they were here I believe it rained all but one.  We still found time to take the girls to the beach, the mall, into the city, and some fun other stuff.  We spent a little time here at the pool in the marina, but like I said the weather wasn’t exactly “lay out” weather.  The girls are both 15 and I think they had fun.  But 3 women and me on the boat, do I have to say anymore than that!  The girls headed back to Vegas on Saturday the 19^th.

Jack forgot what it was like to be a teenager.  Up all night and then sleep in until lunch!

The following day was Easter Sunday.  We did what most people do on Easter - we walked to the baseball stadium and found a deal on a couple of tickets.  Nearly ½ price to see the Tampa Bay Rays vs. some team from NY - I think they call themselves The Yankees. What a fun day for us, Jeter on Easter.  Tuff to beat, and it was really cool since it is his last year in baseball - what a great dude. We headed back to the boat for our ham and sweet potato dinner.  It was very good, and we just hung out the rest of the evening.



Derek Jeter up to bat on Easter Sunday.  Rays lost.

We have found a cool little bar about 10 minutes from the boat called The Avenue. It is owned by Steve who is the nephew of our good buddy Dave Fishman back in Phoenix.  At the bar we met Dave’s sister and brother-in-law who live in Tampa Bay.  Their son Steve is the owner.  They have live music 3 nites a week and great burgers for 5 smacks every Wednesday.

Dave's sister-Diane, nephew-Steve, and brother in law-Ron with us at The Avenue

We had a blues concert here in downtown St. Pete a few weeks back.  On Friday was Buddy Guy and Saturday nite was Michael McDonald, the ex-Doobie Brother.  We caught some of the music - the setting in downtown at the marinas is beautiful.  We are about a 15 minute walk from it.

On Monday the 28^th Mark Camp came and snagged us at the marina.  We all spent the day together hanging out like a bum.  Mark has some really cool bars that sit on the water that he hangs at.  Of course we hit them and had a blast.

Enjoying a great day on the beach with Mark

Our friends from The Keys showed up here on Wed. the 30^th.  Mike, Lori, Pat and I have been hitting the Happy Hour Scene in St. Pete.  It has been fun catching up with them.  They also have a Carver very similar to ours, but a little bigger.  They live down here in Florida part of the year and back in Illinois the remainder of the year.

Pat’s very good friend, Karen, is coming in from Chicago.  She will stay here on the boat with us for 4 days before heading back to the Windy City.

Pat and I are still having a blast in the world of boating.  We have decided to pull the boat out of the water in about 4 weeks. I will not bore you with all the details, but we will be in Columbus in July and Phoenix in August. We’re looking forward to that.  We will return to Florida November’ish.  We will be in Florida for 3 or 4 months then off to the Bahamas for our Grand Finale.  By the end of that trip we will have been living on the boat for 2 years.  We will make our final decision on what to do then!!

You are now up to date with our lives.  Take care, and I hope all is well in your life.

L8R, Jack

She Said:  WOW – we are having so much fun.  It’s been non-stop since Marathon.

Marina Jack is right in the heart of downtown Sarasota.  There are lots of restaurant, bars and shops within an easy walk.  Jack and I found a Whole Foods and Sur La Table right downtown (yes, I did have to check out the latest kitchen gadgets).  The Marina had a courtesy shuttle to the local Publix Supermarket.  This is really a great location.

Our friends Mark and Kathy (from Cave Creek) arrived on our 2^nd full day in Sarasota.  We took a short dinghy ride to the local tiki bar for happy hour.  We made it back to MTB before the rain storm hit.  We decided to order pizza and stay onboard that night.  The weather was really windy while Mark and Kathy were in town, and we had to stay in Sarasota an additional day.  We walked around town one day and took the bus to Siesta Key the other day.  One of the things that I like to do is sample local donuts.  We found a mini-donut stand in Siesta Key and they were great. 

 

Knee-high Pat at the HUGE Statue at our marina.  From the famous picture taken in NYC at the end of WWII

The weather finally broke and we made the trip to St. Petersburg.  We traveled the ICW about ½ of the trip and then we were in the Tampa Bay for the balance of the trip.  The ICW is typically calmer water and there’s usually more to see along the water way.  We had a really nice day on the water – it was worth waiting out the weather the extra day. 

 

Tampa Bay's Sunshine Skyway Bridge - 15 miles long, 425 ft high, 175 ft clearance.  The original bridge was damaged in 1980.  The smaller columns were added to protect against future damage.
 

 

We arrived in St. Pete mid-day.  A former co-worker of Jack and Mark’s, Mark Camp and his wife Janet, met us on MTB for happy hour.  Later that night we walked to FishTales for dinner.  It was a fun night – especially for the former Xpedx-ers.  We had a few hours the next day to take in the city sights with Mark and Kathy before their flight back to Phoenix.  We hopped the local trolley for a short sightseeing/orientation.  What a great little city.  Lots of fun restaurant, bars, parks, shops and festivals! 

That night Jack and I headed back into town to check out the Blues Fest.  Jack likes that type of music; me, not so much.  We texted our friend Dave back in Phoenix (he loves the Blues) about the Blues Fest.  He told us to instead check out a little bar called The Avenue – he said he knew the owner.  So we checked out The Avenue.  Ends up that the owner is Dave’s nephew.  Not only did we meet Dave’s nephew, we also met Dave’s sister and brother-in-law.  It was a really fun night, and The Avenue is great neighborhood bar.  (If you haven’t tried a Rumchada/Fireball shot you need to!) 

 Since we didn’t make it to the Blues Festival Friday night, Jack decided to try again Saturday night.  Instead, he ended up listening to the concert from MTB.  The cheers from opening night of the professional soccer team, The Rowdies, interrupted the music from time to time.  But overall it was a nice night.

The Harborage, our home for the month, is a bit farther from town than we hoped for.  It’s about 0.5 miles to the local Publix and about 0.8 miles to the edge of the downtown area.  We debated moving to a marina closer to town, but decided that the swimming pool, floating docks, and big breakwater outweighed the distance to downtown. 

Out for a dinghy ride

Our next visitors were my 15 year old niece, Hailey, and her girlfriend, Alexa, from Las Vegas.  For those of us not used to teenagers, it was an interesting, fun week.  The weather was hot and humid the day the girls arrived, but it didn’t last.  The girls wanted to spend their entire vacation on the beach getting sun – but the weather didn’t cooperate.  While they were here we went to the mall, the beach, the pool, and the movies.  One night the girls tried raw oysters with Jack – they were a hit!  We took the girls in the dinghy looking for dolphins and to happy hour for virgin pina coladas.  One night we went to a production of The Wiz that was held in the park.  We had a picnic lunch before the show and it would have been a great evening IF the winds weren’t blowing at 25+ MPH.  And talk about winds – we had a tornado warning issued while the girls were here.  There was a waterspout (a tornado on the water) spotted just off the shore of downtown St. Pete. We got text alerts telling us to take cover and the sirens were sounding.  Jack and I evacuated the boat.  The girls were on the trolley going to the movies – and “almost died” according to Hailey.  All quite exciting.  I really enjoyed our time with the girls – I hope they enjoyed it half as much as I did.



Alexa & Hailey trying their first oysters.  Not sure . . .

but they liked them.  A LOT!

The stage for The Wiz was covered in burlap while we had our picnic dinner.

We had almost two weeks of down time until our next visitors.  We went to the Saturday Farmers’ Market a couple of time – great food, produce, flowers and entertainment.  There are lots of fun restaurants in town and we tried a lot of them.  We even made it to a Tampa Bay Rays v. NY Yankees game.  The ballpark is within walking distance of the marina.  We used the down time to do boat projects.  We had a repair guy out several times to work on the burners of our cooktop (which just quit working one day) and our windlass.  I worked on recaulking the boat, and Jack worked on buffing the boat.  It’s been keeping both of us busy.  None of the projects are done, but they’re all looking really good.  

One of our visitors making himself at home on our dinghy

 
One of our dock neighbors invited us out on his sailboat for the day.  I really love being on a sailboat.  I don’t want to live or travel on one because it’s just too small and way too much work.  But it’s so great to be out on the water under sail and just cruising the bay.  The weather was mild with very little wind so Jack decided to take a swim off the back of the sailboat.  It was so funny watching him try to swim back to the boat.  We were putting along at about 1 knot per hour and he could barely catch the boat.  We all had a good laugh.  Our afternoon sail turned into happy hour by dinghy at FishTales and then dinner with guests on MTB.  We had a really fun day.

 

Another really fun day was when our friend Mark Camp picked us up in the morning and took us to his favorite beach and beach bars.  We spent the whole day at the beach just relaxing and enjoying the near perfect weather.  Before we knew it, it was 5:00pm – the entire day just flew by.

Sunset on St Petersburg Beach

Just the other day we got a text from our Marathon boat neighbors. Lori & Mike, saying they were heading our way and wondered if we were going to be around.  We’ve gotten together with them a few times – what a great time catching up with them.  We hope to see more of them on our final week here.

 

We’re looking forward to the arrival of my long time friend from Chicago, Karen.  I know we’re going to have a great time!

FT MYERS BEACH, SANIBEL, CABBAGE, PUNTA GORDA, VENICE

He Said:  Howdy.  It has been a while, but wow does time fly when you are having fun.  First of all I want to thank all of our friends and family who went the extra mile to come visit us.  It is a little tricky to leave the boat and visit you guys, so thanks again.

We departed Naples on Saturday, March 22 and headed to Ft. Myers Beach.  Due to the location of the waterway we decided on FMB instead of Ft. Myers.  We spent the following 5 days there and enjoyed it very much.  At times, this is long enough when you are our age and about 80% of the people are there on spring break.  What a big ass party in the beachy areas - it was like Ft. Lauderdale and other areas that us older folks visited for spring break, lots happening!  

Sunset  on busy Ft. Myers Beach

While we were in FMB we timed it so we could spend time with my nephew Todd Belt and his wife Katie.  They have 2 children and rented a cottage in Sanibel for a week during the kids’ spring break.  From the cottage to the boat was no great distance, but lots of spring break traffic heading for the beaches.  After our stay at FMB we moved the boat to Sanibel.  This is a very cool little laid back town. The cottage was about a 5 minute walk to the beach - very cool. We had a blast hanging with them; it was Todd’s third trip visiting us, Katie’s second, and the kids’ first.  On Friday we kept my great niece Anna (9) and my great nephew Jake (13).  They both stayed on the boat with us and we all had a wonderful time. We had a great time.

Jack bringing Todd, Katie, Jake and Anna out to MTB on the mooring ball

On Tuesday April Fools Days we left the area and headed to Cabbage Key.  We anchored out and headed into the little peaceful marina that evening for dinner.  Rumor has it that Mr. Buffett wrote “Cheeseburger in Paradise” while visiting here.  It was very cool and very laid back.  You could only get here by boat which made it even cooler.

Sunset set on Cabbage Key

The following morning we pulled the anchor and headed to Punta Gorda. We enjoyed this area very much and spent 2 nites here.  The marina had bike rentals for free.  We like jumping on 2 wheels and visiting the town.  It was a very cool area.  We found a great Mexican joint and some fun happy hours - what a surprise.

Partying at the Tiki Bar in Punta Gorda as the sun sets

On Friday the 4^th we left and headed to Cape Haze.  The following day we headed to Venice.  This is a place that our good friend Tim Wild told us not to miss - he was right. We biked into town.  That evening one of us had to get to the local bar for the Final 4.  I am so happy that I do not bet on college hoop or I would be flat broke.  What a surprise evening that was.

We took the dinghy to this little island in Venice.  Close enough to swim there, but it's illegal to swim across the GIWW

Checking out the sunset before dinner and the NCAA basketball games

On Sunday the 6^th we departed for Sarasota where we spent our first nite on a mooring ball.  It was a very windy and bumpy nite.  The Florida weather has spoiled us but our nite on the ball was a reminder of the older days of getting tossed around a little.  The following day we moved into Marina Jacks - how cool is that name??  Our good friends from the Cave Creek area are going to visit us here in Sarasota.  Mark and Kathy will meet us here and spend about 3 days here with us - this will be determined by the weather man.  Then the 4 of us will travel about 4 hours to St. Pete where they will stay with us for a couple of days before heading back to Arizona.  This will give them a chance to see 2 different cities and also see what it is like to travel with us.  We are very much looking forward to their stay with us.  They get the whole boat world; Kathy has spent her whole life around boats and together they have owned a 24 ft. boat and have traveled to lots of the waters in the SW part of the country.

Sarasota sunset

I think this is about a 3 week wrap up of our world according to Jack.  We are still having a blast after about 10 ½ months - still floating, still speaking, still alive.  How’s that!! 

Take Care, Sorta Captain Jack

 

She Said:  I thought things were going to quiet down when we left Naples, boy was I wrong!

 There’s no inside/ICW route from Naples to Ft Myers Beach, so we hopped out into the ocean for the 35 mile trip.  We’ve been in the ocean since leaving Marathon.  The ocean/gulf is typically rougher water than the ICW and we’ve been fortunate to have good water conditions while at sea.  We arrived early afternoon, grabbed our mooring ball, and headed into town to explore.

 Ft Myers Beach (FMB) is very different than Naples.  The average age is much younger and everything is much more casual and more “touristy.”  People walk up and down the streets in nothing but their bathing suits.  Most of the shops are the T-shirt and beach variety.  Naples may have a bit highbrow for my liking, but FMB was too laidback for me.  We did find a fun dive bar, Bonita Bill’s, filled with old people (even older than us) having a great time.  The place was packed and everyone was dancing.  As we were boarding the dinghy to return to MTB, a homeless-looking man with a hospital bracelet and a sling asked if we could take him to his boat in the mooring field – we obliged.  He was directing us to his boat and directed us right into a shoal and the dinghy hit bottom – hard.  I had to get out of the dingy and pull her off the shoal – we were back underway. 

 

Ft Myers Beach sunset from the mooring field in FMB

 Jack's nephew, Todd, and his family were spending spring break in a cottage on Sanibel Island, about 5 miles from FMB by boat.  This was Todd’s 3^rd trip to MTB and Katie’s 2^nd.  It was the first time for their kids, Jake-13 and Anna-9.  We caught up with them our second day in town.  They shuttled back and forth between Sanibel and FMB; we eventually moved to a marina on Sanibel and that made things so much more convenient.  Together we went to the beach, looked for seashells, went shopping, had our nails done, cooked in, took a boat ride, ate out, took the kids dinghy driving, and watched college basketball – to name a few of our activities.  We especially enjoyed the night we “babysat” Jake and Anna overnight on MTB.  We made burgers on board and then went out for ice cream.  In the morning – after the marina delivered the newspaper and blueberry muffins (the marina’s tradition) – we saw 3 manatees and several dolphins.  We hopped in the dinghy and went cruising with the dolphins.  It was a fun week – a nice combination of activities and kicking back. We always have fun with Todd and family. 

 

Three manatees swimming off the stern of MTB

Sanibel is a cute town - a nice mix of both Naples and FMB.  Sanibel’s population is typically 5,000, but while we were there the population jumped to approximately 50,000.  It was crazy busy – especially since there’s one main street that transits the 7 mile island.  It’s a fun place with lots of sea shells, beaches and bike trails. 

The Sanibel lighthouse

When the gang left, we headed back to FMB and a mooring ball for a couple nights.  We needed to get provisions and Jack wanted to find a sports bar to watch more basketball.  It also gave me time to plan our upcoming week.  We were meeting friends in Sarasota – 77 miles away – and we had 7 days to make the trip.  The Gulf IntraCoastal Water Way (GIWW) starts just outside FMB so we’ll be back in protected waters.

 Our first stop was Cabbage Key – a small island only accessible by boat.  We dropped our anchor and spent a very pleasant afternoon hanging out on MTB.  The weather was great and the water absolutely beautiful.  It was an ideal day living on the water.  Later in the day we took the dinghy to the Old House Restaurant on Cabbage Key.  The walls of the restaurant are lined with dollar bills – approximately $70,000.  Visiting tarpon fishermen are said to have posted signed dollar bills on the walls to ensure a cold beer upon their return.  Dollar bills that fall off the wall are donated to local charities.  Some people believe that the burger served here was the inspiration for Jimmy Buffet’s song “Cheeseburger in Paradise.”  I’m not sure I believe it, but they do have Jimmy’s signed dollar bill framed. 

 

The entrance to Cabbage Key

 


I've never seen so many dollar bills in one place
 

Jimmy Buffett's signed $$$ bill

 

 

Pulling up the anchor the next morning was a real challenge.  The motor just didn’t have any power, so we ended up pulling up the anchor manually.  What a pain in the neck!  After about 15 minutes we were underway.  Our next destination was Punta Gorda – a 20+ mile detour off the GIWW.  Punta Gorda has a 40+ ball mooring field, and we were the only boat there.  These balls are rarely used and that made hooking up to them very challenging because the lines are overgrown with algae and barnacles.  The lines were so heavy I had a hard time lifting the line.  I eventually got in the dinghy, rowed to a ball, and lifted the line into the dinghy (I could finally lift the line of the 5^th ball).  Jack drove MTB to the dinghy and dropped a line to me.  I then threaded the line onto the mooring ball.  What a challenge!  But it was well worth it, because Punta Gorda is a great destination.

Check out the growth on this mooring line. 

 We found a couple of cute Tiki Bars on the water with great happy hours.  These places were hopping with live music and people dancing.  Everyone was very friendly and having fun.  We found a great Mexican restaurant, Dean’s, which had live music.  We ate there our first night in town and went back the next night to listen to the music.  On our final night we had an excellent stuffer grouper dinner at The Riverfront Grill.  We met a couple at the bar and had a “small world” experience:  She and I worked in the travel field in Chicago and knew a lot of the same people; he taught high school in Columbus and knew a lot of the same people as Jack.  We really enjoyed Punta Gorda, and would strongly recommend the detour.

 


The Tiki Bar on the Peace River, Punta Gorda

 



Punta Gorda sunset from MTB

Our next stop was Cape Haze – this was more of a convenience stop than a destination stop.  We’d been anchored/on the ball for the better part of two weeks and I needed a marina.   Here we had cheap dockage, cheap fuel, a laundry, and a pool – it was a very nice marina.  We got caught up on everything and I would stay here again.

Jack cleaning algae off MTB

 We continued northward the next day to Venice.  What a great setting.  The marina was right at the junction of the GIWW and an inlet.  The water was really pretty and there were lots of boating activities.  The town was about a mile away, but the marina had bicycles and it was an easy ride.  The town was very cute and there were lots of restaurants and shops.  This is definitely a place to spend a week. 

This is the inlet from the Gulf to the GIWW as seen from MTB

 

 I have really enjoyed the west coast of Florida.  The water is pretty and the towns are cute and fun.  There are also a lot of areas where it’s nice to drop an anchor and just hang out.  I am looking forward to spending more time in this area.

 It was a short trip the next day to Sarasota.  It was pretty windy and we had a reservation on a mooring ball.  It wasn’t my best effort tying up to the ball – it took me 3 tries to get on.  But I think I learned something, so better luck next time.  We were right in the heart of Sarasota.  Our friends from Phoenix, Mark and Kathy, will be joining us here for 5 days.  We’re really looking forward to their visit.