We got a good night’s sleep and woke to cloudy skies. The threat of rain would haunt us all day according to the weather reports. We did some checking of the weather for the next week and discovered, much to our dismay, that the huge storm system that has been hanging over the entire tip of Florida and the Keys is stuck and not moving very fast.
It does not look very promising for us to cross Lake Okeechobee with the windy and wet weather that this storm system is bringing. The lake levels keep dropping without rain over the lake and we would have to wait until mid-week for better weather to cross Lake O. If it gets too shallow, we run the risk of running aground in the lake and also the 4 locks that we have to pass through would be opening on limited schedules making things more tricky. Even IF we could get across the lake safely, the weather report for Miami is not very good for this entire week. We would have to waste a week just waiting for things to improve. Add to that, traveling along the Keys to Key West is always dependent on the weather because of the open water exposure to the Gulf. Of course, EVERYTHING in boating is dependent on the weather, so…… we had to make an informed decision today. We will not be crossing the state to get to the East Coast on this trip. We will try to move south down this coast and IF things start to improve with the weather, there’s the possibility that we could go from Goodland directly to Key West. Right now we have to take things day-by-day, checking the weather frequently. Yesterday, our friends, Bernie and Barb, invited us to dock our boat at their home in Cape Coral for the next couple of days, so that’s what we decided to do. We thank them for their offer and wonderful hospitality. We would like to try and make it over to Ft. Myers Beach on Tuesday and take a mooring ball for a few days if the weather improves. We’ll see what happens with the weather and take it from there. All boaters know that plans have to be flexible, so there you have it. We left Ft. Myers Yacht Basin around 10:00 and headed down the Caloosahatchee River back to Cape Coral. We went through the lock that allows boats to enter into their canal system and took the slow drive to their house. They were waiting for us on the dock when we arrived at 12:30. We got all tied up at the dock and went inside. We enjoyed the afternoon visiting and watching Auggie explore inside the lanai by the pool.
He loved looking into the swimming pool and watching the water flow over the edge. He never stopped moving!
Barb made a wonderful dinner and we made plans to do something tomorrow…depending, of course, on the weather. Bob and I retreated to the boat after dinner to feed Auggie, make some phone calls, and work on my blog. We watched a beautiful sunset and relaxed a little before bed.
Auggie was asleep the minute he finished his dinner and laid down. He had a very busy day….and so did we. Good night all!
