Punta Gorda with Friends and Friendly Pirates

We arrived at Fisherman's Village Marina on Monday evening July 21st to spend a week.  The reason we selected this marina for a stay was that it had good reviews and also was the home of a Pirate Festival that we planned to attend.

On Tuesday evening our long time good friends, John & Sharon
Daffer came to spend two days with us on the boat.  We enjoyed visiting, shopping, sunsets and meals.  We were sad to see them leave but we made a plan to get together when we return to this area on our way home.

Thursday afternoon after the Daffer's left our good friend Glynn Grisham arrived for some appetizers
and to talk about old times.  He lost his wife, Judy, 6 months ago to cancer and he shared the video
that was shown at her celebration of life, which we were unable to attend.

The Pirate Festival began on Friday and we had invited my high school buddy, Cindy Cooper Jones, to join us for some fun and entertainment pirate style on Friday.  After a great lunch at Fish Market we watched and listened to Dirty James & the Rusty Anchors( Buff's favorite and we got the CD) Bawdy Boys, A-Tribe and saw the "live Mermaids" then back to the boat's flying bridge for some
quiet visiting.


The fun continued on Saturday and Sunday as we continued to visit the Festival by ourselves
seeing several more bands including Celtic Mayhem, which was my favorite (got the CD).  We saw
two different mature dance groups that were great entertainers.  If you ever get a chance to see "Hot
Fashz" or the "Calendar Girls" (yes, we bought the calendar) dance groups you should go see them.  Both groups member are over 50 and some well over that and they raise money for good causes.
On Sunday beside more music they had the pet custom and children custom contest.  What fun.  A rabbit actually won the pet custom.  The closing ceremony was dancers and fire dancers with lots of cannons going off.

THE CROSSING CONTINUED

The calm beautiful Sunday quickly became crazy as we got closer to Fort Myers.  It reminded us of why we do not like to be out on the water on the Weekend with all the party people in go fast boats.

It is hard to believe that you can go from this open water to what was going to happen soon.
The floating bait shop was interesting.  Something you would not see often.

Next the go fast boats appeared and where all heading somewhere so fast.  It was not long before we saw the island in the distance with hundreds of boats crammed around it.  We were so glad to get out of the Fort Myers Beach area and get into the intercostal waterway and head north on the West side of Pine Island.  We found a quiet anchorage to spend our last night on the hook before arriving at Punta Gorda.

AS THE TRAWLER CRAWLS

Saturday the 19 was a very slow calm day as we crossed Lake Okeechobee taking the middle route.   The water was very calm and we almost had the lake to our selfs.  We did see the white pelicans which are rare in most area but they love the lake.

White Pelicans

We went through 3 locks on Saturday leaving only one more before reaching the Gulf.
We were very lucky to find one slip available that we could shoehorn our boat into for the night at Labelle City Dock.  Other boaters helped with stern lines and we quickly got the free 50 amp power going and the A/C on.  They also provide free water and trash collection neither of which we needed.
This was a BIG improvement over the dolphin pilings the previous night.  Did I mention that all this
was FREE.



TRAWLER BUFF DAY 3 Of  CROSSING

Sunday, July 7, 2014 departed FREE SLIP at 8:00 AM to make a 9:00 AM bridge opening, we got there early and she starting opening as we approached.  What a nice surprise.  As we continued along the Caloosahatchee River we saw some beautiful homes and this was one of our favorites the picture does not do it justice a s the garden, patio area with a beautiful waterfall did not show up.  As we proceeded we saw the metal statue of 2 dolphins.
 

TRAWLER BUFF is finally on the move.

After what seems like forever getting the boat and the condo ready for our first big trip, we pulled out of our slip at Colonnades at 6:52 AM on July 18, 2014.  We had our first Dolphin sighting on the trip at 8:10 AM.

We made it through the first lock heading to Lake Okeechobee and stopped and tied up to the dolphins (large pilings in a teepee shape that barges tie up to) just before the second lock.  We shared our first lock through with a Manatee and the water way with some other interesting sights.

Our first dinner on the cruise was shrimp scampi, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus and our wine of choice.  Followed by glazed fresh figs over Greek yogurt.  Dinner was great but clean up no fun, missing my dishwasher already.

TRAWLER BUFF FIRST BIG TRIP

On Tuesdsay we said good bye to our dear friend, TUG BUFF, who is going to be trucked to her new home in Ohio on the Great Lakes no more barnacles for her.

Now we are ready to finish the new items on TRAWLER BUFF, our 2007 North Pacific 42' and get her loaded for her first extended trip.  We plan to leave within a couple of weeks and head south and then west across Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf Coast of Florida.  We plan to spend a little time in Fort Meyers visiting friends and then turn right and head up the west coast of Florida.  Area we have never crused.  We hope to make it as far north as Crystal River but as always with cruising it is weather, time and health dependent.

We will try to keep this site updated with our progress, but this is my first real attempt at blogging and don't know how it is going to work for me.