Wednesday April 28 - Pine Island, FL

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Ridge and Denise live at St James City on Pine Island which is in between Sanibel Island and Cape Coral on the main land. Way out there! 

There are some cool restaurants and they are not far from Matlacha Island which is "old Key West" style. Lots of restaurants and art galleries. Last weekend we went to Waterfront Restaurant on Pine Island as they have Gulf oysters on the half shell at $12.95 a dozen. And we went again on this Saturday! We go early and catch the corner waterfront table with a cool mural on the outside wall and a waterfront view. And great oysters!

As we noted last post, we are anchored in the channel behind Ridge and Denise, which we have renamed for our purposes "Kaiser Channel". We were not sure if we could get in but we did at high tide leaving us with a low point of 3' below the keel. Plenty of water!

Look at that ICW mustache! Needs a cleaning!

The view from their home towards us.

Photo credit: Ridge Kaiser

The view of their home, white roof in the middle.

The had an awesome kayak lift installed at their dock. They moved their kayaks over and tied them down so we could lower and raise the lift for our dinghy. Pretty cool. They also sometimes come by to visit or pick us up from their boat. 

Bruce and Ridge making a Summer Breeze run and Bella was not happy to be a dinghy crew member.

Another view of Summer Breeze sunset from their home.

Rosie's business office today as she has a call from fellow gallery artist. 

We visited Pine Island Museum. Bruce is standing behind a manatee skeleton. They are huge. We have seen several in the area as this is a favorite hangout for them.

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April 12 - 21, Ft Myers

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Sunsets at Ridge and Denise's home on Pine Island.

They have a beautiful home right on the water. Pine Island is behind Sanibel Island (kind of) and just north of the Caloosahatchie River. Absolutely beautiful location and home. 

We spent 3 days with them again and had fun fishing, kayaking and a lot of eating. Ridge is a fantastic cook. 

Fishing off of the ICW between Sanibel and the small outer islands. No fish today.

Otis and Bella really don't get along. Well, it is more like Bella won't play with him. He wants to play with her so very badly and he doesn't realize how strong and scary he is. She just growls at him. He keeps trying. And she has the nerve to steal his bones from him and growls when he looks at her! 

Here is the booboo that occurred when the Coast Guard "bumped" us. It has been filled in, sanded and is ready for priming and painting. 

Bella and Otis helping Bruce take the blue tape off the repair. 

Both dogs got a little grooming. Otis gets brushed quite frequently as he is a shedder. Bella needed a good old haircut! Don't let this sweet picture fool you. There was some growling going on!

We met up with Serendipity friends, Larry and Erin whom we met last year cruising down here and had a fun lunch at the Ford's Garage. 

It feels so great to meet up with our family and friends who have all been vaccinated and have taken precautions as we have. The waiters were all wearing masks. It is a strange feeling to go somewhere now and take it off. But feels good again! Normalcy!

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April 4 - 11, Fort Myers, It is not all about Otis, but mostly yes it is!

Otis and Mary at home on Sea Dweller. 

He is a BIG dog! He also goes by the name of No-Otis! 

As an 88 lb 11 month puppy, he hears Nooo-Otis a lot!

Otis helping Bruce fill water tanks. He loves water and especially from a hose and directly in his mouth!

Our friends from Serendipity, another DeFever 44 who are staying in Fort Myers introduced us to a great farmer's market at Lakes Park. Erin came to pick Rosie up for a girl veggie shopping trip which also resulted in fresh bread and stuffed flounder for dinner.

We were happy to see that everyone was wearing their mask.

Some great  pickings, fresh off the farms.

Otis is our door man these days. No one enters or exits without his approval.

The week has been consumed with boat maintenance and repairs on both boats. 

Bryan sitting on the port side engine trying to "fit" back there to work. 

Besides changing oil on fuel injector pumps, removing and cleaning out the Magnum Inverter to see if that is the issue with the over heating shut downs, replacing our horn that just stopped working and doing our regular maintenance to our teak we also are repairing a boo boo on the side of the toe rail by the swim platform. 

When we were boarded by the Coast Guard in Georgia, they “made contact” with our boat but it wasn’t until later that we realized where that fiberglass ding came from. It actually messed up the fiberglass and Bryan knows how to repair it. 

Rosie is the teak person. And yes, it was fun trying to keep both dogs off the teak especially the cap rail for the day. We had a great time spending the weekend over on Pine Island with our long time friends, Ridge and Denise fishing, kayaking and eating great food.  

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March 31-April 4, Crossing the state from Stuart to Fort Myers.

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Summer Breeze docked next to Sea Dweller in Fort Myers

Bryan and Mary live on Sea Dweller at their dock and land just off the Caloosahatchie River which is off the Okeechobee Lake. We arrived here on Thursday April 1, about an hour before the NE winds hit.

Easter Brunch on the river.

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Wednesday March 31

Leaving Stuart.

After a great visit with Becky and Charles in Stuart, we left at 6:10 AM at the break of dawn with the help of some moonlight.

St Lucie Lock with a rainbow.

We entered the St Lucie Canal towards the Okeechobee Lake reaching the St Lucie lock (lock #1 out of 5) at 8 AM. We just missed entering the lock by minutes so we waited hovering an hour to catch the next passage which took 30 minutes to do while raising 13’. There was quite a rush of water coming in! The lock master was a nice guy offering us tips. 

Here the boats exit the lock after we wait for an hour before entering 

We got to the 2nd lock which enters the lake, Port Mayaca Lock at 12:40 which is 30.5 miles from Becky and Charles home. The Lock Master opened up for us as we approached and we were able to go right through entering the lake. 

We had left Stuart a day earlier than planned because of the cold front approaching bringing fierce N-NE winds. We were hoping that it would not hit while we were traveling and hoping that we would have better timing with the other locks.

We had a nice crossing with a moderately calm lake getting to our anchorage in the lake at about 2 in the afternoon. There was no way to make the next lock which exits the lake in time. We do only travel at 7-8 mph.

The approaching storm was bringing rogue storms ahead of the front and they were already in the area. This one at 5:30 PM missed us.

Dinner on the lake was home made pizza! 

Sunset on the Okeechobee Lake

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Thursday April 1

We did have a rain shower during the night though not that we knew about until waking and having to mop up the water! We slept great out there!

The alarm was set for 5:30 AM but we awoke to a heavy overcast with no moon light to start travel early and then we had a light rain shower at 6:30. The rain was gone and sun was rising just before 7. So off we go with a delay! 

It was a beautiful calm morning after the little rain shower.

Exiting the lake and entering the rim canal on the west side. There is 2 1/2' more water in the lake than last April when we transited. We know there are rock ledges along the side of the channel there! Seen them!

We have 3 more locks to do today and about 70 miles to make it to Bryan and Mary's in Fort Myers but the real push is to make it through the last lock before 4:30, otherwise, we will have to find an anchorage along the river close by. The last lock is only about 4 miles from Bryan's. 

At Moore Haven lock (#3) exiting the lake rim canal to the Caloosahatchie River, we were also able to right through after him opening the gates for us. 

Ortona Lock (#4)

We had a full lock here with 3 of us waiting to enter and 2 more waiting on the other side for passage. Unfortunately for them, the lock closed down for maintenance after locking us through. 

Full lock. It took 45 minutes to lock through and had about a 3' drop.

We were so surprised that we made the last one, Franklin Lock before 4:30. We averaged 8 to 8 1/2 mph today which really helped to beat the clock. 

Meet Otis. 

He is 87 lbs and 11 months old, a Golden Lab. He is still trying to figure Bella out because she doesn't want to rumble around in the yard with him. 

We will stay here for a couple of weeks visiting with them and other friends in the area, then exploring some of the out islands along the west coast

Miles today: about 70 

It is about 600 waterway miles from our home in SC to Bryan's home in FL

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