Monday, April 14, 2014 After the heavy rain yesterday, everything was damp with the high humidity. There was a fog over the river as we went about our morning duties.
We pulled away from the dock at 8:30 after paying our bill in City Hall across the street. It was mostly sunny, with calm winds, and HUMID. We reached the Ortona Lock at 9:15 and had to wait 10 minutes until they could lock us through. Once inside we dropped 8′.
We traveled on the Caloosahatchee Canal at 18 mph through La Belle to the Ft. Denaud swing bridge which we had to have open.
Then on to the Franklin Lock, arriving at noon, where we dropped another 2 1/2 feet. We shared that lock with 3 other small boats.
The lockmaster told us that he had already locked through 10 manatees this morning. They come through quite often, I guess. We are now officially back on the west side of the state!! We passed a boat from Valparaiso, IN called Laughter and their dinghy was called Giggles! That was very cute! It made me chuckle! This was another weird boat we saw. It looked like they made it themselves.
We recognized the city of Ft. Myers from a distance. It was a pretty sight!
We needed to stop at the Ft. Myers Yacht Basin for fuel–our last fuel-up before arriving home. We saw this unusual craft motoring past the Ft. Myers Yacht Basin.
We left the fuel dock about 1:15 and headed down the Caloosahatchee River to Cape Coral. We were spending a few days with our friends, Bernie and Barb, tied to their dock. There was quite a bit of boat traffic today due to the beautiful weather. We passed this boat that was being towed. It was a sunken boat that was being salvaged.
We entered the private channel past Shell Pt. that would take us into the canals of Cape Coral where they live. This house on a barge sits in Glover’s Bight, an anchorage on the outskirts of Cape Coral. It looks like it is on stilts.
We had to stop and wait in front of the Rumrunner Restaurant for the lock to empty.
We had to pass through one more lock to get into their community and find the canal where they live.
We had been there by water before, so it wouldn’t be a problem. It took us about an hour to get to their house from the turnoff and Bernie and Barb were waiting on the dock to welcome us at 2:45.
Bernie helped us get all tied up and settled in. We all relaxed around the pool. Auggie enjoyed prowling around the lanai looking for geckos. He was sure there were some lurking in the bushes around the pool. He circled around and around, never stopping……. for hours. I got tired just watching him. We had cocktails before Barb served a delicious dinner of grilled chicken. After dinner, we enjoyed a game of dominoes and then it was time to call it a night. Auggie went right to sleep. He was exhausted. We were also tired from a long day on the water.
