Hanging Out in Fort Myers

Days on cruise:  271

Tuesday evening is “Dinner Out” night at Legacy Harbour Marina. Someone picks a restaurant, and off go a couple dozen people to share a meal. We participated and met a bunch of nice folks, many of whom did the Loop in the 2005-2010 timeframe and now keep their boats at Legacy Harbour to live here every winter. Don and Anita from Limelight (Gulf Crossing Buddies) arrived that afternoon, so were along too. Great to see them again! Afterwards Michael and Claudia invited everyone back to their 63-foot boat for more visiting and treats.

Wednesday we hung out on the boat and worked on projects. Boats our size are required by the Coast Guard to have 3 certified fire extinguishers. Our certifications expired in January, and we want a Vessel Safety Check done this Saturday, so Cathryn made arrangements for someone to come service 3 portable extinguishers plus the one in the engine room. We actually have 3 more on board, but didn’t get them certified.

Bob spent most of the day in the engine room.

We had developed a slow functioning drain from the shower, so he bought a snake at a nearby hardware store and took a variety of steps to get it unclogged. In the process, he found the sporadically-performing float switch on our shower’s sump pump, so replaced that too. Voila, no more standing water in the shower while we bathe!

We also tired of running our engines in the marina to keep the 8D batteries charged, and learned it wasn’t working on one of them anyway, so Bob bought a small, portable automotive battery charger at an auto parts store and hooked that up to the ailing 8D to see if we could resuscitate it. No luck, so he called Felix Marine to tell them to add a new 8D battery to the plan when they come to install the new battery charger. Meanwhile the other 8D battery continues to work like a champ.

The cold front finally disappeared, and the weather has been perfect: 60-ish at night and 80-ish in the afternoons. Wednesday night Don and Anita from “Limelight” and Bill and Joyce from “Carried Away” came to our boat for docktails. We all provided appetizers, and 3 hours later no one needed dinner, so we called it a night. We had lots of laughs and good Looper stories.

 

Thursday morning found us headed along the waterfront to the Farmer’s Market.

As always, there were gorgeous fruits and vegetables, potted herbs, and lots of food booths.

Seagrass planting pots were an item we’d not seen before.

Mid-day today “Carried Away” left for destinations east . . .

and an hour later, “Limelight” also left for a different destination.

We got a call from Joe at Felix Marine telling us our new battery charger arrived from Atlanta today, so a technician will come to install it and the new 8D battery tomorrow afternoon, Friday.  Woo hoo!  We’ll be good to go again.