Our last posting ended just before Mother’s Day in May when
we returned home to be with Nan Ellen’s mother. As I have written before, it
takes a couple of days to prepare for leaving the boat for an extended time. Obviously, we must remove everything from the
refrigerators, and it is a good time to check expiration dates on dried and
canned food items stored aboard. When we originally stocked the boat with dried
and packaged food last October, we seriously overestimated our needs. This was
a good time to take this excess food home, and it just about filled up the
trunk of the rental car when we returned home in May. We used most of it at
home, but ended up throwing away some of it because of expiration dates. We now
have better inventory control and are careful to rotate out our stocks. This
has freed up some additional space that was immediately taken up with other
things that were stored elsewhere. We learned the same lesson with clothes and
this time, we substantially reduced our wardrobe based on prior experience.
During the time the boat was sitting in Ft. Myers waiting on
us to return, we had the marina Harbour Master Eric arrange to remove the steps
going down into the cabin to have them welded and repainted. He also arranged
for an engine service company to change engine oil and filters as we had about
200 hours since our last service. The generator had less than 10 hours of time,
so we opted not to have it serviced. Eric also arranged to have a diver inspect
the bottom and check the zincs. The report from the diver was good – no issues with
the hull bottom and the zincs were still good. This had been a problem for us
previously when we left the boat in Orange Beach, AL as the diver had to
replace the zincs – they were completely gone!
Another item of maintenance during this pause in the trip was our cabin dining table. I accidently spilled super glue on it while doing a repair, and wanted to refinish the table to make it look better. Our good friend Larry Cook is a master woodworker among his many talents and we brought the table home for him to work his magic. And magic it was - he was able to restore the finish better than new without completely stripping it down and trying to match the stain. I don't know how he did it, but it looks much better than it did new, and has a better protective coating on it that is impervious to liquids, unlike the original. Thanks Larry!!!
We drove from home in Atlanta to Miami at the end of June
for Admiral Baumgartner’s Change of Command and Retirement Ceremony, and an
EXCOM meeting (Coast Guard Auxiliary Executive Committee). While we were in
south Florida, we decided to spend a couple of days on the boat to become tourists
again.
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| Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Papp at Admiral Baumgartner's Change of Command Ceremony |
On the way from Miami to Ft Myers, we stopped in Everglades
City to check out the historic Rod and Gun Club. It is located on the Barron
River approximately 42 miles from Capri Pass on Marco Island. It is a very
rustic hotel, restaurant, and marina.
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| View from the Dock of the Rod and Gun Club in Everglades City |
I think the place still looks like it did
in the 1920s. They have no computers and no internet. All purchases have to be
by check or cash. This stop is an option
if we run into some bad weather and need to duck in for some shelter. I am glad we got to visit it by car.
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| View of the restaurant at the Rod and Gun Club |
When we
have the opportunity, we try to check out the waterways ahead of us and visit
marinas we might consider as potential stops. This has proven to be a valuable
strategy as it has caused us to change our stops more than once.
I mentioned earlier that Eric had removed the stairs to be
welded and repainted. Unfortunately, this was precisely the time we wanted to
stay on the boat at the end of June, so Eric loaned us a stepladder to use
while we were on the boat.
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| Not pretty, but functional |
The report on the engines showed that the starboard engine
had an oil leak at the remote oil filter and bracket. This caused a small
amount of oil to leak into the bilge that needed to be cleaned up and I had to
do most of the work with the oil absorbent pads. The pads do a wonderful job of
absorbing oil while leaving the water in the bilge. This was not as big a job
as I envisioned as the pads do all the work. You just put them in the bilge,
use a boat hook to move them around, and they magically absorb the oil, leaving
clean water. There are just a few traces of oil left under the engines, and I
cleaned it up as best I could with a degreaser and some pads. Next time the
boat is hauled out, I will have the bilge completely pressure washed to remove
all traces of oil that remain. You want to be certain that you don’t accidently
(or on purpose) pump any oil overboard as it is both illegal and very costly in
fines if you are caught. Interestingly, a boat docked across from us developed
a leak in their diesel fuel tank and the bilge pump was pumping diesel fuel
into the harbor. The fuel on top of the water smelled terrible throughout the
marina, but was worse near our boat.
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| Coast Guard Pollution Response Specialist |
A pollution response specialist from the
Coast Guard came to investigate and we spoke briefly with him. We identified
ourselves as Auxiliarists and found out it was his last day in Florida. He was
moving to Seattle to perform a similar job there. We told him we were glad our
boat used gas and not diesel, so we knew we were not the source of the spill.
While on the June trip, we also visited some downtown
restaurants. There was one very good one, Firestone’s, with a terrific rooftop
bar view of the river, and great food. We will definitely return to this one.
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| View of the Caloosahatchee River and Ft. Myers Yacht Basin from the rooftop bar at Firestone's |
They have two corporate cousin restaurants downtown within a couple of blocks
and we only had time to try one of them – a Mexican restaurant. This was not a
good experience as the food was mediocre at best. We will not return to this
one. The other one, Ford’s Garage, will have to wait for our return in August.
We went back to First Watch, a breakfast spot within walking distance and next
to Publix. They have great food and specials every day – a favorite breakfast
spot!
We picked up a one way rental car on August 1 and left home
early on Friday, August 2. It is about an 11 hour drive including stops for gas
and meals. We arrived at the boat and immediately unloaded the car and reloaded
everything on to the boat. It took two trips with two dock carts to get
everything on board. We were able to stow most everything before setting out
for dinner at Ford’s Garage.
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| View of Fords Garage from the street |
It just happened to be first Friday and downtown
was packed with people for the downtown festivities and art fair. The wait at
the restaurant was 1 ½ hours, but we were fortunate to find a couple who had
set down just for drinks and they gave us their table, so our wait was much
less. Ford’s Garage specializes in burgers, and their mac and cheese is
absolutely worth every single calorie!
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| Best Mac and Cheese EVER! Burgers are pretty good too |
The mac and cheese has a creamy homemade
cheese sauce that could not possibly come from a can. We both had burgers and I
had a side order of mac and cheese. We brought half my burger and half of the
mac and cheese home to the boat as leftovers.
Saturday, August 3 brought a full day of cleaning up the
boat. When we finished up, we decided to take a dip in the pool and ran into
Tommy, a groom to be. They had reserved the entire hotel (at the marina) for
their wedding and he invited us to come to the wedding.
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| Tommy and his bride with his mother |
They had arranged for 4
pontoon boats to take the wedding party and guests out on the river for the
ceremony. We arrived just as they were leaving for the ceremony.
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| The wedding party departs the marina for the ceremony |
We stopped
back later after returning from dinner and the party was still going. We wished
the bride and groom well and said goodnight as we were exhausted from the all-day
job of cleaning up the boat.
Sunday, August 4 was a shopping day. We went to the new West
Marine store (one of their flagship type stores) and picked up some supplies
including oil absorbent pads, rust stain remover, boat soap, a couple of
brushes, sponges, and a replacement lamb’s wool pad to clean our clear windows.
I needed new water shoes, and picked up a pair of Teva sandals. They are
extremely comfortable and feel almost as good as my shoes with orthotics
inserted. When we returned to the boat, we called fellow Auxiliarists Terry and
Ed Sweeney to see if we could visit with them. We went to their home in the
afternoon and spent a couple of hours chatting and catching up on Auxiliary
business. They are responsible for much of the office and data work that keeps
our District running efficiently. They do far more than I realized, and Ed is a
master at writing new programs that help generate reports to efficiently run
much of our administrative workload. I always knew they did a great deal of
work, but did not fully understand the depth of their work, their dedication,
and the countless number of hours they put in to carry out the administrative
tasks that keep our District running. We are indeed fortunate to have Ed and
Terry in our organization, and we would be much less of an organization without
them. After the visit, we went to a downtown Pizza place, and had a classic New
York style pizza. It was one of the best we have had and we brought about half
of it home as leftovers. We came back to the boat and watched a little TV
before going to bed early.
On Monday, August 5, I installed my new LED navlights on the
bow as well as re-caulked the skylights.
Hopefully, this will eliminate the water leaks into the cabin once and
for all.
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| Soldering electrical connections for the new Navlights |
I wanted to get on this job at first light as it gets very hot very
early here at this time of year. We finished the job and cleaned up just in
time as we had one of those downpour rain showers within a minute of finishing.
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| Caulking the skylights |
The difference today was that the rain lasted for a couple of hours before it
let up. Why this was significant is that we were still trying to dry out the compartments
on deck, the carpet, and all the things stored in the compartments on deck. You
must dry things out as thoroughly as possible before storing them as they will
mold if you don’t. When it rains every couple of hours, it is a race to get
everything back inside before it gets wet again. We finally got everything dry
and stowed away. We had the rest of the burger, mac and cheese, and half of the
leftover pizza for lunch today. We still have a couple of slices of pizza left.
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| This place was good enough for multiple visits |
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| Gas Pump Door Handles |
We went back to Ford’s Garage for dinner, and I had the Lobster Mac and Cheese,
and Nan Ellen had another burger. The Lobster Mac and Cheese was the same as
before, but with the addition of ½ pound of lobster. It had both tail and claw
meat and was definitely a major hit. This is the very best Mac and Cheese I
have ever had anywhere at any time. If you come to Ft. Myers, you MUST go to
Ford’s Garage and order it! We brought back about half of the Lobster Mac and
Cheese and will eat it for lunch along with the remainder of the pizza later.
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| Model T on the lift rack in the center of the bar |
Then it was back to the boat to watch “The Bachelorette” final episode. Nan
Ellen was addicted to this show and it looked like they were setting up a train
wreck for the final episode. She eventually got her man and the universe did
not go out of tilt as some had expected.
Wednesday, August 7 was busy day of preparations to resume
the Loop. We did laundry, and cleaned up the cabin area a bit before heading
out to Captiva Island and the Mucky Duck restaurant for lunch. I somehow
deleted all the photos from our earlier trip here in June, so we had to go back
to re-create those photos.
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| View from our "window seat" |
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| The Captiva Island version of the Ice Cream Man |
One more trip to Publix for our perishable
provisions, and then we returned the rental car. The internet access at the
marina is a bit slow and we needed to update our charts along with uploading
this blog, so we went to Starbucks for their internet service. Unfortunately,
their internet service was slower and after 2 ½ hours, we had only downloaded
30 % of the chart updates. We gave up on this project and walked to Firestone’s
restaurant for dinner.
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| View from the Loft of Firestone's |
We will need to find another way to download the charts
as we cannot leave without them. Our plan is to see if the marina has a higher
speed option for internet service we could use to download the charts. One more
unexpected day in Ft. Myers, but that is part of being flexible.
Thursday, August 8 started out with a quest for quicker
internet service. As it turns out, the motel owned by the marina has Comcast
internet service (same as we do at home) and though it requires being plugged
in by a cable, it was MUCH faster. The entire US charts downloaded while we
took showers at the marina. Wow- what a difference in speed! It was like comparing a race between a snail
and an Indy 500 car. After showers, we visited the Farmers Market under the
Highway 41 Bridge, just two blocks away. We bought some South Carolina peaches
and some baked goods. We then came back to the Boaters Lounge and worked on e-mails.
For lunch, we went back to the Farmers Market and had some chopped pork BBQ –
really good stuff. We sat in the park next to the market on some park benches
in the shade and ate our BBQ. Quite a pleasant experience, as long as you are
in the shade. It is unbearably hot in direct sunlight. After lunch, we took the
boat to the Ft. Myers Yacht Basin on the other side of the bridge for fuel and
a pump out of the holding tank. This completes our preparation for leaving the
first thing on Friday morning. After posting this to the blog, our plan is to
return to Firestone’s for prime rib tonight. It is only a 5 block walk from the
boat and helps a bit with the calorie overload that is inevitable.
We expect to actually cast off our dock lines on Friday,
August 9. Our plan is to stop at Marco Island for one night, then proceed to an
anchorage in the Little Shark River in the Everglades on Saturday, and arrive
in Islamorada in the Keys on Sunday. Our next posting will detail the
resumption of the Loop.
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| Sunset at Legacy Harbor Marina in Ft. Myers FL |
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