Day 36

We spent the night at W.P. Franklin lock which has a great campground with eight boat slips.  We had a very peaceful and quiet night.  We woke to cooler temperatures, and an early morning with a fog hovering just above the water to about four feet above the water.  I was a peaceful and serene sight.

We got going about 8:00 or so and had to wait a little bit for the lock to be ready for us to transit.  The lock dropped us about three feet, not a whole lot, and we moved out of the lock and on our way.  We were in no hurry; I estimated the day’s journey to be about 30 miles.  We were on the Caloosahatchee River which takes you past Cape Coral, and Ft. Myers.  Some very nice places along the river.  It is a wide river for the most part, and we had some wind which created a little chop.  Nothing big, but some whitecaps in the river.  After a bit it calmed down and we went past Sanibel Island and out into the Gulf of Mexico for a short ride to the Matanzas Pass, and into Estero Bay behind Estero Island.  Estero Island is where Ft. Myers Beach is located.  There is a mooring field owned by the city of Ft. Myers Beach and run by the Matanzas Inn.  The mooring field is quite large, and stretches for over a mile.

 

This was our destination, Ft. Myers Beach and the mooring field.  I had called ahead to “reserve” a mooring, and was told no reservations, first come first serve.  When we arrived I called and requested an assignment.  The woman hemmed and hawed, and suggested #’s 52 or 55. Turns out there was already a boat on #52, we couldn’t seem to find #55, so we took #54 as it was empty.  By the way, there aren’t many open moorings here.  We got tied to the mooring, then got the dinghy down and motored into the office to pay.  When I told the woman we ended up on #54, she said that someone had paid for that and they must be out for the day.  So I asked about #52 again and also asked for a map to help us locate where the numbered mooring are.  She said #52 is no longer available as was #55.  People had tied up and came into pay before we got to the office.  She suggested #68 or #69, but didn’t really have a handle on which ones were taken or empty.  So we took the map, got back in the dinghy, and circled the mooring field with me calling her about empty moorings to see if they were taken.  Turns out we were back to #68 or #69, neither of which had a pendant on them, which is what you used to tie your boat to.  I called her back and said we would take #69, and don’t give it away since we had to go back to the boat, drop the other mooring and tie up to #69.  But even before that, we had to go back to the boat, grab some lines, and create our own pendant for #69.  We got the lines threaded through the eye of the mooring ball, and using a lifejacket as a float, created the pendant we could then attach to.  We went back to the boat, dropped the mooring #54, and motored back to #69.  Grabbing the lifejacket with the boat hook, we brought the lines on board and got Rogue tied to the mooring.  Now, we had to jump back into the dinghy and motor the mile plus back to the office to pay.  #69 is at the extreme far end of the mooring field.  There are only 70 moorings, so you get the picture.  Finally we got everything squared away, we paid up, got some necessary information and we now have our spot for the next 30 days.  Whew, what a cluster that was.

By this time it was after 4 p.m., we arrived at 1:30 p.m.  Since we were in town, we decided to stay and wait for my friends Craig and Ann to arrive.  They live here full time and were meeting us for dinner, so we went to the nearest tiki bar and had a few drinks while we waited.  We then had a nice dinner overlooking the beach and the sunset.  It was really nice to see Craig and Ann, it had been quite a while and I’m looking forward to hanging here for a while and spending time with them.

Wednesday morning Rousby, my crew, is leaving me so I will be on the boat by myself until my wife Janice flies in on February 13^th.  WooHoo, looking forward to some female companionship.

Today’s travel was 35.9 miles for a total of approximately 1384 miles.  Travel time was 4hrs 55mins.

Well boys and girls, Until next time….

P.S. Hi Tyler.

Sunrise and W.P. Franklin

Rogue in the mist.