Off Duty: December 2015

Off Duty at Fish Tales Marina

At the end of this experience, we cruised 23 of the last 31 days approximately 8 hours per day at about 8 miles per hour and traveled over 1400 miles to achieve our goal. We were fortunate to share it with family and friends, meet some new friends and we look forward to a new phase in our lives. Mike will be enjoying more fishing and boating in southern Florida and Carol can enjoy the beautiful beach of Ft. Myers. Whenever you might be in the area of Ft. Myers Beach, please let us know and we hope you will consider staying on the Off Duty! All are welcome!

Mike Checking Out the Catch of the Day

Beautiful white sandy beaches

Birds of the Beach

Mike and Carol
December 1, 2015

Monday ..............the homestretch.......Moore Haven to Ft. Myers

We started at 6am today in hopes of getting within 10 miles of our final destination. We are now on the Okeechobee waterway which is a well protected canal type waterway. It turns out to be one of the most beautiful waterways we encountered on the trip. It was peaceful as we cruised along. There were very few boats along this portion of the trip as we passed trees covered with Spanish moss, interesting houseboats, beautiful houses and rolling green lawns that didn't even look like it could be real grass. No rocking and rolling just lots of beautiful scenery.

Another Sunrise

Trees covered in Spanish Moss

The cruise was so relaxing, we could take advantage of having breakfast on the aft deck!

Knowing that this would be our last full day of cruising it was a good time to reflect on the past month with all of the incredible sights and experiences as well as the trials and tribulations. Some of the events that created anxiety were laughable, especially now that we are getting so close. The most significant reflection was recognizing how fortunate we are that we could make this trip and hope that those who have followed us along the way enjoyed the journey and some of the beautiful scenes.

Even though we were enjoying the pleasant journey we knew that we still had to cruise at least 75 miles today and navigate 2 locks and 1 swing bridge that would need opening. The first lock lowered us 8 feet and we traveling through uneventful and without losing any time.

Then we arrived at the swing bridge and this was the first bridge that had a woman bridge tender, She was great and promptly opened so that we could travel through. If you look closely, you can see her in the box in the center of the picture below.

Moving right along, we got through the final lock. Were were in and out of the final lock in about 25 minutes, the fastest we have locked through so far and again another woman lock master. We commented and she said that she is one of a handful of women lock masters in the US.

Below, we encountered a floating house that was selling fishing bait only accessible by water. It made for an interesting business model.

Pushing to get as close as possible to Ft. Myers Beach, we knew that it would be close to dark if we made it today. Of additional concern was that our computer chip ended at near the inlet of the Gulf so our chart plotter would stop 4 miles short of the final destination. We made it this far and knew we could figure out a way to navigate the Gulf and then the shallow areas where Fish Tales Marina was located.

Finally, our charts ended and here we were cruising along the coast, with Sanibel Island on our right and then passing Cape Coral on our left. We could spot some familiar Ft. Myers Beach landmarks and knew we were going to make the destination today.