Day 133: Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First time taking advantage of Taco Tuesday at Yo-Taco (I know, our “firsts” are getting a little desperate); First time biking on the beach.

Mile to Mile: I decided to start the day with a sunrise breakfast 6 stories up at the Lani Kai overlooking the beach on a beautiful sunny day. I wish Cindy could have enjoyed this too – its been cold in Arizona. I am always looking for a good breakfast deal – I have been spoiled by the amazing breakfasts at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown by the University of Minnesota where I have been going for more than 35 years (yikes!). Well, this wasn’t as good as that, but the view was hard to beat and the food – 2 eggs, American fries and toast (all for a wallet busting $2.95) – was cooked to perfection. I will be back.

After a relaxing breakfast, I biked down to the new Library to work on the blog and get some other work done. It sure is a lot faster biking than walking around here. And biking along the hard packed sand on the beach is the only way to go – no traffic, great scenery and you don’t have to worry about getting run over at every intersection.

After a long, busy day (I don’t have a clue where all the time went), our new friends on OmarSea (Scott, Jean, Ben, Stephen and Julie) dingied by and reminded me it was Taco Tuesday at Yo Taco – $1 tacos – so we wandered down together and inhaled a bunch of cheap tacos. We took a long walk along the beach as the sun set and it was fun hear about their adventures – they are preparing to leave for the Panama Canal on Sunday (the dad and 3 kids) – its an 8 day passage across the Gulf of Mexico on their 50’ Beneteau sailboat. (And I think my To Do List is long). They are heading to the Galapogos, the south seas and Australia. Wow! They seem so calm.

Day 132: Monday, January 14, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First time seeing a coconut float by during the outgoing tide this morning.

Mile to Mile: So what is it like living on a boat – especially one as small as Aurora. So far, pretty amazing actually. We have been really lucky with long stretches of nice weather and almost no bugs to worry about. Our house moves up and down with the waves and tides but it also can move to a warmer, dryer, quieter spot anytime we want. We bump into each other more than usual but the small space forces us to go outside and experience nature – not some manmade, air-conditioned, expensive-to-maintain sheltered experience.

When we were deciding whether we could survive on Aurora for a year we considered several things. First, we spent 10 weeks on Aurora with two kids and a dog and had the time of our lives. We only have to spend 5 times that amount of time on her this time. Five times amazing – sounds like it could be fun. We rationalized this trip by comparing it to other ways of living. For instance, Jess’ friend Becky is spending two years in Africa with the Peace Corps in a mud hut without electricity, no internet, no phones, no running water and pit toilets. This is better than that (although I’m sure she is having the time of her life on her adventure). We talked to someone who traveled the entire length of the Mississippi – most of it on a pontoon boat with a tent for shelter. This is better than that (although that sounds like a cool adventure too). And, of course, billions of people around the world live in terrible conditions without adequate shelter, limited food, dirty water and poor sanitation – and they live their whole lives in these conditions. This is, (sadly) much better than that. We are incredibly lucky by any measure. It ends up being all about perspective.

While we are definitely living a minimalist life – Cindy calls it “fancy camping” – we do have some creature comforts. We have lots of technology – a laptop, an Ipad, two phones, an Ipod, stereo radio, vhf radio, TV (through computer), internet access (at marinas and with phone hotspot), GPS (on phone and Ipad) and two cameras (plus two cameras on our phones. We cook on a propane cookstove out in the cockpit or on a propane grill mounted off the stern. We have a cooler for keeping some things cold (using ice) and lockers full of food. Our sleeping berths are a little squishy compared to our king size bed at home but we seem to sleep soundly almost every night. We have a porta-potty but, if we time our gas stops, shore visits and marina stops correctly, we hardly have to use it at all. Most people we visit with notice us because of the size of the boat but are more amazed by the journey. We can’t agree more.

Day 131: Sunday, January 13, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First time changing the thermostat on Boris.

Mile to Mile: After a long walk this morning while it was still cool, I decided to finally take a look at the thermostat on Boris. Although water is flowing through the water indicator port, there doesn’t seem to be enough water flowing out the upper exhaust port. I hate messing with something that may or may not be broken but I don’t want Boris to overheat either so it’s worth a try. Well, the old thermostat was completely encrusted with some type of hard deposits and probably hasn’t been working well for a while. The project went quickly and I didn’t break anything or drop a part in the water – and a lot more water is flowing out the exhaust port just like it should. I like it when a project goes as planned.

I went back to my wiring project too. I finally decided to just run the new wire next to the antennae wire – it’s mostly hidden and much easier to get to than the old wire that runs through the bilge. I will finish that project tomorrow.

I’m running out of things to take pictures of here so I decided to try my hand at some time lapse photos – they turned out pretty good for a first try.

I’m sitting here working on the computer with the main hatch open (no bugs around here) on a beautiful evening listening to some of the best live music we have had yet. Life if good.

Day 130: Saturday, January 12, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: Rode a bike (thanks Boomerang) to get a flu shot and go to Publix grocery store at other end of island.

Mile to Mile: Illinois, Tennessee, Wisconsin, Georgia, Iowa, Michigan, Ontario and, of course, Florida were just a few of the license plates I saw on my walk this morning. Florida is filled with people not from Florida – especially at this time of the year.

After finishing blogging about yesterday, I tried to figure out a way to run new wires to the base of the mast for a new mast light connection – one of the old wires corroded away and broke below the deck. I was unsuccessful in getting the remaining wire to move either up or down (to use to pull new wires through) so I gave up and cleaned the cockpit instead – a little soapy water with bleach and some elbow grease and we have at sparkly white boat again. Pretty amazing for a 32 year old boat.

Florida is an interesting place – especially compared to Minnesota. We may have higher taxes in Minnesota but at least we invest in decent infrastructure like roads and sidewalks. Florida invests in the bare minimum and hopes for the best. You take your life into your hands walking or biking or even driving around Fort Myers Beach. You would think a tourist area would want people to get around easily, quickly and safely but I guess not. Everyone is forced to drive everywhere making traffic horrendous and parking a nightmare. The do keep the beaches clean and neat, though – even with thousands of people a day on the beach, I have seen very little trash anywhere. And it’s warm and sunny.

Cindy is in Mesa, Arizona now for a little over a week and is enjoying record breaking cold weather. And she didn’t bring her cold weather coat. At least half of us are warm and cozy.

Day 129: Friday, January 11, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: Whoo-hoo! I caught up on the blog today. It’s getting harder to find creative things to write about when we have been parked in the same place for almost three weeks.

Another day alone in Fort Myers Beach. After catching up on the blog, I went on a long walk along the beach – time seems to stand still walking barefoot along the waterline as the waves rhythmically roll ashore – every minute of every hour of every day. It’s mesmerizing and your mind just floats off and time seems to stand still.

Walking back along the busy road, on the other hand, is noisy, stressful and depressing. So many cars and bikes and people all trying to share a narrow strip of land. I only walk this way for a change of scenery and to find interesting things to take pictures of but it isn’t fun. At least traffic moves slowly most times and most people seem courteous letting people cross when needed. Sometimes traffic toward the bridge is backed up several miles and moving slower than I can walk. I’m glad I don’t have a car here.

I knocked off another item on my to do list in the afternoon – I added a spring-loaded support to the locker cover where our main gas tank is located. Up till now, whenever I added gas, I had to attach a bungee to the cover to hold it open while I poured the gas. Now, it will stay open automatically until I close the lid – a little improvement but will save time and avoid losing bungees overboard (I’ve lost two so far) – we still have 8 months of travel so every little improvement makes life just a little easier.

I’m working my way through our leftovers – I still have enough spaghetti for two more meals. We don’t like wasting food but it does get boring eating the same thing for several days in a row. Cheaper than eating out though. (One disadvantage of being parked near several restaurants is the good smells wafting by all day long – hard not to be hungry all the time.

It’s already time to start planning our next move. The marina has already rented our slip after our month is up so we will have to move somewhere. We are leaning towards heading to Marathon in the Florida Keys but it might be fun to head east a day first and spend several days in Fort Myers exploring. We have a lot of time yet before we need to start heading north along the Atlantic coast so our schedule is wide open. Its weird, though, having pressure again to make plans to move. I’m getting a little soft sitting in one spot for so long.

Day 128: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: I’m not sure where the day went today – I didn’t accomplish anything on my to do list. I spent way too much time again trying to get the new wifi booster to work only to find out that it probably can’t do what I want it to do. I don’t like giving up but this device just isn’t going to work. Technology is great when it works but can be extremely frustrating when it doesn’t. Now I will need to figure out how to return it (new item on to do list) and find another solution to the problem of weak wifi signals (another new item on the to do list).

Other than my technology challenges, I took time from my busy schedule to take two long walks and snap a couple of pictures and that’s about it for the day. I’ll take a stab at the to do list tomorrow.

Day 127: Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: Cindy headed home to Minnesota for a couple of days to visit and then is going to Mesa Arizona with her Mom. She’s worried its going to be cold in Arizona. Kind of funny how your perspective changes – it’s been around 80˚ and humid here.

Instead of spending $60 or more on a taxi to get to the airport, she took the trolley and a bus for about $4 – the downside is that, in order to be sure she got to the airport in plenty of time, she had to leave about 5 hours before her flight. It wasn’t too bad, she said – she just walked around some and read more of her books on the Nook. Rough life.

So this means I’m alone here in Fort Myers Beach for a week and a half – what should I do with all my “free” time? Party? Drinking? Lounging on the beach? Of course not. Cindy happened to talk to one of the boaters in the anchorage this morning before she left and found out her and her three kids were going to volunteer at the library moving books from the temporary library to the brand new library. So, with nothing else exciting to do, I wandered down there to see if they needed help and spent the entire day moving books – on the hottest day of the winter so far. At least the new library was air conditioned and comfortable. I had a great day helping out, getting to know some fellow boaters – Jean, Ben, Stephen, and Julie (their dad Scott was back on the boat getting lots of projects done for their planned trip through the Panama Canal and on to the south seas) and got to meet a bunch of new people from the community. I can’t wait till the new library is open – its going to be amazing.

Even though I had a lot of exercise already, I still had to take a sunset walk on the beach. I’m like the girls – I don’t like to miss a sunset and today’s was extra special. It kept getting better and more amazing. And a couple of sailboats out watching the sunset from the Gulf made for some picture perfect sunset shots from the beach. I even was able to track down both sailboats and send them a few of the pics of their boats from shore – they were surprised and enjoyed seeing them. All in all, a good day at Fort Myers Beach.

Day 126: Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: We had special visitors from home today – our neighbor Cliff and his daughter Emily (and Fitz – Emily’s cute fuzzball of a dog) stopped by to visit on their way from Fort Lauderdale back to Tampa (and then back to Minnesota). We have been able to connect up several times on this trip and it is a special treat every time. We chatted for a while on the boat, went for a walk by the beach and then went to lunch at Nervous Nellies. A little hot in the mid-day sun sitting outside by the water but it just doesn’t seem right to sit inside on such a nice day. A short but wonderful visit. And, again, they hauled away more junk we decided we didn’t need – this time about 150 pounds worth – back to Minnesota. It’s amazing how much excess junk you can have even on a boat as small as ours. We can almost see our waterline now.

We finished the day with a leisurely walk along the beach – it’s the beginning of the busy season but the beach is surprisingly quiet during the week. Tomorrow Cindy leaves for “vacation” with a quick stop in Minnesota and a week plus lounging in Mesa, Arizona with her Mom. I’ll be here all alone – what will I do with all my free time?

Day 125: Monday, January 7, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: After a rainy night and morning, the clouds cleared set up another beautiful day at the beach. The rainy morning was perfect for working on the blog and doing laundry – its amazing how a small pile of dirty clothes can morph into two large loads within minutes. But it is really nice to have everything you own clean all at the same time – especially in the small space we currently call home.

You know you’ve been somewhere awhile when you get mail. My wifi booster arrived on Saturday but today I got three packages – my new sandals, a 16 gb SD card for the camera, and finally, our AGLCA (Great Loop Association) burgee (flag). Its almost like Christmas.

A long, scenic sunset walk along the beach and through Bowditch Point Park at the tip of the island closed out a productive and relaxing day on the Loop.

Day 124: Sunday, January 6 , 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First breakfast buffet of the trip (I think); First (official) nap in four months.

Mile to Mile: With nothing pressing on our schedule – no docktails, no visitors, no holiday celebrations and no car – we decided to walk to a restaurant on the other side of the bridge that supposedly has a good brunch buffet. I thought it was a lot closer – it turned out to be 3.5 miles away – one way. At least we got some exercise on the way to breakfast. Brunch was marginal – nothing to get excited about although, for $7 each, what can you expect. We of course ate too much and ended up walking home (in the hot sun) because the next trolley wasn’t supposed to arrive for almost an hour (one drove by in less than 20 minutes). We were exhausted and feeling pretty lethargic by the time we got back to Aurora – we only had enough energy to sprawl out and take a nap – our first of the trip. (I don’t know if that is sad or good). Kind of a waste of a beautiful day, though – first New Year’s resolution: avoid buffets whenever possible – it isn’t worth the residual cost no matter how cheap.

We slowly came back to life late in the afternoon and spent some time touring one of our neighbor boats – Boomerang – and chatting with Richard and Sally. It was really fun to share stories and adventures – they stripped and rebuilt Boomerang over a 6 year period and have been cruising for several years on her now. We’ve kind of missed this part of staying in a marina – this is a very small marina with longer-term residents rather than fellow Loopers traveling through. They offered us the use of their bicycles whenever we want too– I can’t wait to go exploring at 12 mph instead of 3 or 4 mph. They also borrowed us the DVD for Second Hand Lions which we watched before crashing after another hard day at the Beach.

Day 123: Saturday, January 5, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First time watching a pirate ship come in and dock.

Mile to Mile: I spent way too much time in the morning trying to get my new toy – the wifi booster – set up. I don’t do this enough to get good at it and the terminology and instructions are like reading Chinese. I was unsuccessful but probably learned a lot of stuff that I will promptly forget and need to relearn the next time I have to set up a new network.

In the afternoon, we took a long walk south along the beach and wandered around the island stopping for a while at the Mound House (we have a Mound house too – just in Mound not on a Mound) – it was closed but we checked out the grounds and riverfront and rested on the benches there. The Mound House is a house built on top of a huge mound of shells left over from when the Calusa Indians inhabited this area thousands of years ago – of course someone at some time decided to build a house on this archaeological site. At least it has been converted into a museum and educational center so something good has come of it instead of just someones’ home. We’ll have to come back sometime for a tour.

Day 122: Friday, January 4, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

Mile to Mile: You know you’ve been somewhere for a long time when you start getting mail. I ordered several things (wifi booster, Looper flag, SD card for camera and sandals) we’ve been wanting/needing for a while last week and they are already starting to arrive. One item we ordered was a wifi repeater – we hope to get it set up so we can easily mount it up on the mast to pick up the relatively weak wifi signals at marinas and boost them so we can get a strong signal on the computer, Ipad and phone. I was hopeful it would be an easy task but after four hours of frustration, I gave up for the day to try again another day. I’m sure I just have one setting or one number wrong somewhere. These are dumb devices – they can’t tell you why they aren’t working – they just don’t work – and there can be dozens of things wrong. I usually can figure it out but I don’t do it often enough to get really proficient. It’s really eating into our beachcombing time but I guess we all have to make sacrifices.

Cindy’s friend from work Trece and her family happen to be staying at a hotel down the island for vacation this week so they got together to do a little shopping and walking along the beach in the afternoon. It’s always amazing to cross paths with people we know either from home or from the Loop. It just shows how small the world really is.

We all went out to Nervous Nellies next door for dinner. The food is decent and the ambiance is perfect – we sat on the waterside deck with a view of the river and the 78’ Lynx Privateer docked on the end of the pier. They have these cool propane heater by every table that have a vertical glass tube running 4 feet up the middle to enclose a swirling orange flame dancing up the middle. I want one on my next boat. Thanks Joe, Trece and Lauren for visiting our end of the island and for the wonderful dinner. We enjoy these connections to home.

Day 121: Thursday, January 3, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First square rigger ship

Mile to Mile: Another day to catch up on blogging, reading and sightseeing. Not too exciting. We took a long walk down the beach on another sunny warm afternoon. The sights are interesting along the way – lots of bikini girls (and muscle guys) mixed in with other beach lovers of all shapes, sizes and ages who maybe shouldn’t be wearing so little clothing. It is a sight to behold though sometimes hard to forget. Watching the little kids playing on the beach is probably the most fun – it brings back a lot of memories for us about some of our trips to the beach a long, long time ago.

We ended up near the new library so we decided to wander by to check it out. Its Grand Opening is in less than two weeks so we will be able to see it all before we leave. What an amazing new building for such a small community. It’s a bright white three story building with multiple decks facing towards the beach. I’ve never seen so many large print books before – not surprising given the seasonal clientele here. They even painted seascape murals on the walls of the elevator column so when you ride up the glass walled elevator you pass by a forest of kelp, schools of fish, dolphin and shark. They will even have a large enclosed area to display examples of real sand sculptures. What a great community resource – I wish it was open right now.

There are some things you just can’t plan for on this trip. The Lynx Privateer is a perfect example of this. It docked on the end of the pier in front of Nervous Nellies only a stone’s through from the back of our boat. What a treat. The Lynx is a 78’ (122’ including its bowsprit and other extensions) square top-sail schooner built as a replica of a privateer from the War of 1812. It is made of wood and even has cannons and crew in period costumes to complete the period look. (Of course it also has a 200 hp caterpillar diesel hidden somewhere down below to help it along too). They are touring the country on an educational mission and give tours, host parties and weddings and take tourists on cruises to pay their expenses. Another interesting lifestyle for the people who crew her.

After another amazing waterside dinner of grilled pork steaks, fried red potatoes and salads, we relaxed and watched a movie on Netflix and crashed fairly early to rest for another exciting day at Fort Meyers Beach.

Day 120: Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First time using a marina hot tub.

Mile to Mile: After all the fun we’ve been having today was a “work” day. I spent all morning working on the blog – my goal is to post 2 or 3 days for every day so, I can catch up or at least not get any further behind. It takes a lot of discipline to sit in the laundry room/library for hours on a bright sunny day but we can’t wait for the cold cloudy days or nothing would ever get done. Cindy pulled out the cushions and put them outside to bake in the sun and kept reading her Nook books. She is definitely addicted now. She really likes a new author – Randy Wayne White – whose adventure stories are based in Florida right where we are located. She keeps seeing places and names that show up in her books. Thanks Caroline for the referral (I think).

Tom, our neighbor at the end of the dock, wandered by this morning and informed us docktails today would be on the roof at the Lani Kai Island Resort – a local hotel with an open air rooftop restaurant 6 stories up overlooking the beach and sunset. Sounds like a nice place to spend an evening. (We had just commented to each other on our morning walk that we needed to check this place out sometime soon so no time like the present right). I guess they have cheap chicken wing, oysters, shrimp and drinks for Happy Hour – sounds like a good reason to stop by. We were the first to arrive after we wandered down the beach for awhile but soon we had about a dozen fellow boaters/travelers stop by – we really enjoy these gatherings where we get to know our neighbors better and share stories and laughs. That is a huge advantage of staying somewhere for a longer time.

After a long, “busy” day, we decided to finally take advantage of the empty hot tub and pool. And it was definitely hot! Even the pool felt pretty good even though it isn’t heated. I can’t believe it took us so long to check this out. This may have to become a new daily ritual. We better be careful though – we may not want to leave anytime soon.

Day 119: Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Port to Port: Fort Myers Beach

Underway: 0:00 am      Motor Off: 0:00 pm      Miles Traveled: 0      Stayed At: Marina

First Things First: First fireworks laying on the beach; First Chinese lanterns floating into the night sky.

Mile to Mile: Wow! What an amazing way to start the New Year. We (along with thousands of our closest friends) found a soft piece of sandy beach to lay out our towels and we watched the moon and stars as fireworks danced, boomed and whistled out over the waves. The soft glow of the Japanese latterns floating by on the breeze only added to the display of light. It was one of those nights we will remember forever. The only thing missing was the girls – we wish they could have stayed to share the experience with us. We miss them already.

The New Year dawned bright and sunny so we ate a light breakfast and walked the beach – our new daily ritual. This is the beginning of the busy winter season here but the beach was relatively quiet this morning after a very busy night last night. Even though there were thousands of people here yesterday, the beach was clean and ready for thousands more people today. Fort Myers Beach does an excellent job keeping the community clean and safe for all the visitors that vacation here – now if they only could spend a little money on sidewalks and bike paths, life would be perfect.

It was a lazy day. We did finally get around to making a batch of chili using ingredients we brought from home nearly 4 months ago. We have a little celebration every time we can get rid of 3 (heavy) cans of food we have been carrying for many, many miles. The chili was delicious too so that was an extra bonus. Plus we have leftovers for the next cool day. Life is tough out here but someone has to do it.