Update April 5, 2010 - Punta Gorda and Stuart

Well, I did it again. The months just seem to fly by! For someone not working at a job I seem to stay awful busy, and the time just flies! Therefore this update will cover 2 months of activity.

We left Ft Myers beach fairly early and had a good trip up to Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda. The trip up the Peace River was longer and took longer than I expected but was otherwise uneventful. The marina has a tradition of happy hour on the dock at 5 PM every evening and also has a nice pool. However it was so cold the happy hour only occurred twice and I only got into the pool 4 times. Way too much time was spent in long pants and jackets!

Highlights of our stay there included several dinners out with Ray and; Linda from Summertime and Jim and Trish from Great Expectations both fellow loopers. We also had a short visit from our neighbors, Rick, Pat and Dan but unfortunately it was too cold and windy to go out on the boat so we had to settle for lunch and a trip to Pine Island.

Larry and Cathy also visited us for several days and something similar happened. We had planned to take them out to Pelican Bay/Caya Costa State Park but once again it was much too windy. Therefore we had to settle fo a long bike ride, a trip to the Edson Ford estates and a Lee County park (to see the Manatees) in Ft Myers, and a trip to Boca Grande Island by car. We also had dinner out with one of Larry’s former business partners, Bruce & Doritt. The last day we finally got in a short boat ride down the bay and back. The picture to the right is Larry driving a power boat!

Larry at the controls

Other events included a trip to a jazz concert and rooftop bar with Jim & Trish, and a couple of pot luck dinners. These included a “B Dockers” party which was held away from the marina and included many people who had previously stayed at the marina and had now purchased houses in the area. We also played Mexican Train Dominoes with Ray and Linda several times, enjoyed the super bowl with Jim and Trish, took numerous bike rides and enjoyed the (free) entertainment at the Fishermen’s Village Shops. The month was over much too quickly.

Tim and Jan (from Lamb Chop) joined us our last day there for the trip back across the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart. The first leg was back to Ft Myers Beach where we picked up a mooring for the night. Ray and Linda came over for happy hour and we had an uneventful evening. After getting fuel the next morning, we headed upstream stopping again at the Franklin Lock. Jean and Jan learned to play hillbilly golf at the RV park there. The next day we traveled through more locks, stopping again at Moore Haven for the night. We were able to get in a nice walk around the town, which had little of interest but the exercise was good. The picture below is Tim getting a little help at the helm!

Tim at the controls

A short day -15 miles followed as the wind was too strong to try to cross Lake Okeechobee, so we stopped at Clewiston and got in another good walk. Tim cooked some awesome ribs that evening. The next morning we got up before dawn and left as soon as it was light to get across the lake before the wind came up. We failed somewhat on this and had a somewhat rough trip across the lake. It was a relief to get through the Port Mayaca lock on the far side and we had an uneventful trip the rest of the way into Stuart other than being held up by two railroad bridges. The four of us had a good dinner that night with Alan and Susan from Kaos, trying out the 23oz drafts from the Jensen Beach Ale House.

The following day (Friday)we took a rental car and drove back to Marathon with Tim and Jan. We had a short but good visit there, partying at Sparky’s with a number of our boating friends and staying overnight on Lamb Chop.

We drove back to Stuart on Saturday arriving just in time to pick up Alan and Susan’s car which we would have the use of for the next 3 weeks. Thank you Alan & Susan! Son Bill arrived that evening and we commenced to get the condo set up the next day. We purchased a bed and some appliances and did a few minor repairs on the items identified by the home inspector. Bill was able to stay there by the second night.

The rest of the month was a blur. Rick and Betsey were renting a place on Nettles Island for the month and we were able to get together with them several times. Eldon and Dianne flew in for a couple of days to join us and we were able to go to the maritime museum with them. Larry and Sue (from Sue Sea Q) visited for a week by land yacht and we had a number of afternoons and evenings with them as well. Alan and Susan returned and we had a couple of nice evenings with them. We also ran into Mike and Judy, friends from New Brunswick and spent went out with them a couple of times and of course we spent many days and evenings with son Bill who put on several dinners for ourselves and our friends. The picture above is the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and the picture to the right is Jean and Bill on our (unsuccessful) trip to see Manatees. This was as close as we got!

After looking at our plans for the summer,we decided to buy a car and I learned all about buying, insuring and registering a car in Florida. Every state is different and insuring anything in Florida seems to be an adventure! The condo insurance took forever and we got quotes that were several times the entire house in Maine. Fortunately we also got some more acceptable ones as well. On top of that, the company Sun Cat has been insured through is getting out of the marine business so I was working on that as well. Combine these with doing our income taxes and way too much time was being spent on the computer! Fortunately the weather has finally warmed up and we were able to swim a bit in the pools at both the marina and the condo.

We left Stuart on Easter Sunday (yesterday) and traveled to Vero Beach where we got in a nice walk in the sunshine. This morning, we got up early and saw the shuttle launch. It is an awesome sight even from 50 (or so) miles away! We will be here for a few days and then will head up toward Jacksonville.

That is a quick summary of two months activities! Still having a great time!


Steve and Jean