Fort Myers *
We found ourselves in a rare oddity, Tornadoes in Southwest Florida! It was not going to be an easy Sunday morning. We knew winds were building on Saturday night, a low-pressure system bringing rain, and it might get a bit dicey in the marina on Sunday but did not think about tornadoes. We secured the boat before bed; David woke to high winds and the river crazy with waves. The small marina wall does a much better job protecting the basin than we anticipated. The marina flagpole can be seen from our aft cabin window and the flag was straight out flapping hard all night long. Tasha was watching the rain coming across the gulf and rose early enough to get Remy out before it got ugly.
About 9 am Sunday morning, our phone alarms sounded, tornado warning for the whole area, and we were watching all the alerts on the television around us. This was warning enough for Tasha, and she took Remy headed to the ship store and office. The captain stayed aboard to man the boat. Tasha and Remy joined two dozen other folks and a handful of pups who sought refuge in the concrete block building. However, we didn’t feel too threatened as we sat in front of the big windows and watched the weather come across the Caloosahatchee River. After the warnings subsided, the crew returned to Now or Never where the captain fortunately did not go down with the ship! There were six confirmed tornadoes in the area and one just a few miles south of us. Luckily no loss of life, though there were many homes destroyed and damaged.
We have continued with our steady pace of visitors, who knew so many visited Fort Myers in winter? We are enjoying our outings and visits with friends. Between covid, fully remodeling a house, downsizing, and preparing for our trip, we are on pace to see more of our friends in Fort Myers than we did the prior 1.5 years before we left!
We were able to meet up with fellow Buckeye loopers (David and Tasha were both born and spent early years in Ohio) for dinner. We first met Karen and Tony at the rendezvous and traveled the rivers with them for a couple of weeks. They stopped to go home, and we continued, and Fort Myers was our first port together since late October. It’s fun to hear of others’ experiences taking the same route but a completely different trip and view. They have since taken off for the Keys and we hope we will see them again down the road.
Buckeye Loopers Karen and Tony
Friends from our hometown of Columbus, Kris and Greg called, and were headed to the Keys. They took a right turn and ended up for lunch and an afternoon with us! We enjoyed the back deck and the warm Florida sunshine.
Dan and Mary from Franklin were visiting their friends, Marian and Ken in Bonita Springs and came to spend the day with us. We started with lunch, dropped the men off at a marine trading post, where David scored 2 batteries, ones he had been searching for months for. These are to replace our nearly 10-year-old batteries for our bow thruster. It was wonderful to not only find them but find them when we had wheels to bring two 69 lb. batteries back to the boat. The ladies went on a quick provisioning run while the guys loitered in the marine store. We returned to the yacht basin to spend the afternoon on our deck patio with a cold one enjoying the view and time with friends. We also celebrated national chocolate cake day! Marian and Ken may have come as friends of friends but left as our friends too!
We also caught up with Bob and Norma, formally dock mates of ours on the Ohio River but have since relocated to Fort Myers. They bought a boat in Fort Lauderdale a few years back and moved their boat back to Louisville. Now that we traversed the route in the opposite direction as them, we had a lot of interesting tale of our two voyages to share over dinner. Florida looks good on them!
Always warms our hearts to be with friends, new and old.
Fellow loopers, Sonya and Ron have been in the marina with us since we first arrived. We first met them at the rendezvous in October and have crossed paths several times since. They also have a dog, Bailey, and she and Remy hang together and hit the office staff up for treats regularly. They invited us to game night on their boat in their 360 view sky lounge. We were introduced to two new games to us – Poker Dice and the card game 99. The ladies took on the men in the poker dice and came out victorious! We were on our own in the card game 99 and Tasha who never plays card games was the victor. Time went by quickly, we had a wonderful evening and got back to the boat after 10! I know that’s not late, but that never happens, when the sun goes down, boaters hibernate and crash.
The marina was so quiet even with the addition of the two monster boats. Well maybe not monsters, but they both boast 3+ decks, 100+ feet, and crews of four and five!
The crews of Driller and To-Kalon were up at dawn swabbing the decks and wiping down from top to bottom, that’s a lot of real estate to keep clean from the salt air and dew. We were seeming a little inept not tending to our vessel as such. We watched deliveries for food, flowers, balloons, and guests. Photographers, wait staff, chefs, entertainers all arrived for a big charity event which the Now or Never crew had front row seats to a charity event which started with a social hour on one vessel and ending with dinner on the 2nd vessel. Only to be thwarted by rain which cut the entertainment portion of the evening short. And we were enjoying it so much.
They are beautiful vessels but really took the million-dollar view away from us, although it was replaced with a multi-million-dollar view! We did laugh though as they set up their prom style balloon photo opportunity right in line with the sanitation hose.
The crews did inspire our captain to work on the bow of the boat and get the slight mustache off. His waxing and buffing job at Guntersville paid off as there was very little there but enough for him to wrangle with the floats to clean it again.
Remy continues to meet new friends and barrage with yacht basin office staff every change she gets for treats (we’re working on getting her added as crew for an employee discount). She’s become a little headstrong about not boarding the boat after a walk until she gets to the office for a treat.
Our bikes continue to help us navigate places we would not be able to go without them, even if it includes Tasha leading us through the hood to get to the fish market. The police officer in David continued to grow leery as the serene downtown was replaced with high fences, barbed wire, bars on windows and doors, and graffiti. But by goodness, we got our fish and were fine.
The past week Fort Myers was host for the first ever AGLCA (America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association) winter Rendezvous. Our marina and Legacy marina just down the street hosted over 50 boats (similar numbers to our rendezvous in Rogersville, AL this fall) and the downtown hotel included another 350 guests or so. While we did not attend the formal part of the rendezvous (route briefings, lunches, and such) as it was the same itinerary as Rogersville, we did enjoy the looper camaraderie and hosted a looper crawl on our boat again. Over 40 planners toured our boat during the night we opened out boat. It is fun to meet those who are just learning of the loop and planning their great adventure.
We were also privy to a trumpet serenade each night by a fellow looper from the boat Calypso, typically signifying docktail time! It added a bit of whimsical fun to our evenings over the course of about a week.
We’ve been in Fort Myers about a month and very much enjoying it. We are beginning to plan our continued journey south and then north up the east coast. The first mate is beginning to struggle, again, with reservations to get us south to the Keys at the end of February and has no idea how we will handle our northernly trek up the east coast come April. We suspect that it may be quite difficult to secure slips as not only the loopers will be headed that way but they big influx of snowbird cruisers who return to the NE ports. Ugh! This is the big downside of this journey.
Until then, we’ll update you with our Fort Myers marina life that we have become quite comfortable and right at home with. It is easy like Sunday morning.
Cheers! D, T & R
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Love reading about your adventures.
Glad you are enjoying – we certainly are!