And back to the Chesapeake.

It is March 1^st, and my month at Ft. Myers Beach is over, and time to be heading back north.  It will take me close to six weeks to get home, so it will be April by the time I get there.  The temps in Fla. Were in the 80’s most of the time, but I don’t expect that when I get home.  I’ll be happy with the 50’s.  My time at Ft. Myers Beach was quite enjoyable.  Jan got to come down for 8 days or so while there, and I have some very good friends that made my time even better.  I have to give a HUGE shout out to my good friends Craig and Ann.  It was so great to see them after so long now that they now live permanently in the Ft. Myers area.  We hung out for the month, they fed me several times with good home cooking, gave me a place to do laundry, and even gave me the use of one of their cars for the month. Truly good friends, it was so nice to be able to spend time with them, I can’t thank them enough.

Rick is back with me, at least until we get to Myrtle Beach.  We got the dinghy loaded last night and everything ready to go.  We were underway by 7:30 this morning and made our way up the Caloosahatchee River to LaBelle where we are presently.  We were able to score a slip at the town free dock.  It comes with electric, water, and wifi from the library across the street.  Did I mention it was free?  The slip is 15 ft. wide, and we just fit in.  It is tight, but we are in.  All the slips are full tonight, some people heading east like us, and some heading west.

Tomorrow we are off to cross the Okeechobee and heading for Indiantown marina.  The winds are expected to really start blowing Friday for several days, 35+ miles per hour gusts so I’m glad we can get across the Okeechobee before that happens, but we might be stuck in Indiantown for a couple days.  They are predicted to be east winds, and when we leave Indiantown we will be heading up the east coast, so no real protection.  We’ll have to take it one day at a time.

I will relate on amusing story that Jan didn’t think I would mention.  We were all set to go this morning, I turned the key to energize the start circuit and pushed the button.   Nothing.  I pushed again, nothing.  Are you kidding me?  Checked to make sure it was in neutral (yes Freddie I remembered the neutral safety switch), turned the key off and on, and tried again.  Nothing.  I stared at the control panel for a second and then realized I was pushing the stop button, not the start button. I pushed the start button and all was good.  After sitting for a month, the engines roared to life .  Boy, how soon we forget.

   

Today we traveled 53 miles over 7hrs. 40mins.  Tomorrow looks like it will be about a 70 mile day, probably close to 10 hours run time with two locks along the way.

 

Until tomorrow….

Not sure what this is.  It was in the Caloosahatchee River.  The "people" you see are actually mannequins dressed up.