At 8:00 we said our goodbye's, untied the lines and started making our way back out to the Gulf. Coral Reefer and Sea Dog are headed to Naples while Windfall is going further to Fort Meyers today. It could not be a more perfect day for boating...sunny, winds are less than 10 knots, and the gulf is flat. The water temp is 76.6 degrees and the air temp is in the mid 70's. Mother Nature was certainly looking out for us the last few days.
Note: As we were cruising up the river to the Gulf a couple of center consoles zipped by us, the first one had Roland Martin in it. Roland has a tv fishing show on in some areas. The second boat had his camera crew in it. Just an FYI.... (woo hoo arent we thrilled!)
When we reached a depth of 20 feet (14 miles out) we made a slight turn to the right and put out a couple lines for trolling after seeing schools of large fish go by that we were sure were not porpoises. We saw a lot of Ballyhoo skip across the top of the water...obviously running from something and larger fish jump out of the water off in the distance, sometimes at least 5 feet in the air.
As we approached Naples, we all said our goodbyes once again. Jeri got on the radio and serenaded us with "Happy Trails" and "I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places" (she's too funny), and I'm sure all the other boaters on that channel enjoyed it as well! Naples has a beautiful coastline, it seem to go on for miles (three times the size of Va Beach). We pulled into the harbor at Fort Meyers at 2:30. We found Ballard Oil Company and pulled in for fuel....$1.89 a gal for diesel...thank you Terry for the tip! After fueling up we found a marina for the night. We docked at Salty Sam's Marina. , http://www.saltysamsmarina.com/ . Nice place, fairly new (3 years), clean, lively and has a great restaurant, Parrot Key Caribbean Grille. Note: I HIGHLY recommend trying one of their Key Lime Colada's! Its like a slice of key lime pie whipped in a blender of ice with a touch of coconut - YUMMO! The food was good too, though a bit pricey in my opinion.
While we were tying up the boat a pirate wandered by and said hello, so naturally I grabbed a camera. He was from the pirate ship docked just down from us. We both recognized the ship, it was built in Norfolk 3 or 4 years ago I think by Howdy Bailey. I remember when construction was taking place. Anyway, they tried to make a go of offering pirate tours in Va Beach, but were not very successful, so they moved the ship to Key West, then to Fort Meyers.
It's now Wednesday morning, and we have a diver under the boat cleaning the bottom (we lost a knot and a half due to the growth) and while we wait, Chip speared a couple Spade fish for our dinner this evening. The Spade fish are all over, not like at home where you have to travel out to the light tower to catch them. Once the diver is through we will head out to the Okeechobee Canal and make our way to Moore Haven for the night, then on to Stuart.
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