On To Port Charlotte

The next day, Wednesday, March 19th, had us continuing south towards Port Charlotte. As is often the case there are wide waterways that have only a few feet of depth except for the dredged out ICW.

We are starting to get used to that but it means that we have to be " on the ball" all the time. Then you have to decide if the markers are really meant for you...

or for the local osprey family.

After a while we were forced into a narrow channel which had a car ferry running in each direction at the same time. This was a good time to back off on the throttle, let them make their pass by each other, and make our pass when they were out of the way.

Those ferry captains did a great job. They were in, out, circling around, and back in again on the other side. It looked like they were square dancing for a while.

By mid-afternoon we were in our marina, Gasparilla's. We think this was the nicest one we have stayed at so far. After we tied off and settled in, our friends Doug and Judy came by for a "docktail". That's what loopers call "dockside cocktails". We learned there and at dinner that they were in the process of selling their previous boat and buying another. Both deals were closing the next day. Can you imagine having the two happiest days of a boater's life take place on the same day?

While there they loaned us their Suburban so that we could re-provision our supplies and our ship's stores... code for liquor locker. We were also invited to Doug and Judy's beautiful home for a visit on Thursday...

followed by another great dinner out at their favorite Italian restaurant. Sorry about that second carafe of wine, Judy!

We had a really nice young lady wait on us. She was quite entertaining with stories about her college life.

We greatly enjoyed our short stay there and their kind hospitality. We hope to meet up with Doug and Judy and other loopers, Frank and Carrie, in May. We'll be keeping a look out for them in Chesapeake Bay.

Friday found us journeying further south yet on the ICW until we intersected with the Okeechobee Waterway at Ft. Myers. About 14 miles up the Caloosahatchee River we found our next marina, the Legacy Harbor Marina, near downtown Ft. Myers. Our first visitors, Jeff and Kathy, will arrive tomorrow and we are excited to see them.

Nautical Word For The Day: [ from seatalk.info ]

Under Command:

1. Having properly functioning steering and propulsion, and being under the authority or direction of a legitimate ship's officer.

From Great Loop Jargon:

2. One would think that the Captain of the ship would fulfill this role. However, most loopers carry an Admiral on board to defer to for all the major decision making.