Naples (February 8 thru 9, 2013)

Friday February 8th and 9th, 2013
26 08.256 N
81 47.433 W

Good nights rest Thursday night. There was a storm hanging around, we could see it on the radar and hear the thunder, but it did not seem to materialize. We were up and underway by 8:30 AM, and headed back into the Gulf through the Boca Grande entrance. We had about 50 NM ahead of us with only one 12 degree course change of Sanibel Island.

Naples Boat Club

Very nice day for cruising with light winds on our beam. Tide Hiker was cruising at 7.1 to 7.3 kts, right where she should. On Wednesday we cruised at 6.3 to 6.5 kts and I was concerned that we must have some growth on our running gear. But apparently the loss of almost a knot was just the head wind. Tide Hiker is obviously "a bit windy".

We entered Gordon pass right on time at 4:30 after a pleasant but uneventful day. We had a reservation at a fancy club for just $1.00 a foot (usually $2.50!), compliments of a captain I met on the dock at Longboat, who turned out to be the President. At that rate we decided to stay two nights.

New outfit with matching purse

After securing Tide Hiker and hooking up power and water we gussied up and went into town for dinner. WOW! We have never experienced such an enormous and fancy dining area in our life, and there is not much of this country we have not seen. The street of fancy restaurants made Worth Avenue and Rodeo Drive look like Cleveland. It was amazing and very busy. Deidre and I wandered along the street like a couple of country bumpkins.

Unfortunately the pricing of most of the places were just out of our budget.

Saturday February 9, 2013

Saturday morning we walked to the Post Office but it was closed. We continued on to the bank but it was closed too. We continued on to the Verizon store to re-negotiate our phones and that was not successful either. So we walked back to the marina and purchased 200 gallons of fuel. Then we sunned ourselves at the pool for a bit. Late in the day we took down the bikes and rode over to the beach to watch the sunset. There was a wedding on the sand and quite a crowd.

Sunday February 10, 2013

This morning we leave on a 3 day trip to Marathon in the Keys. Our overnights will probably be in the "10,000 Islands" area and Little Shark River. These spots are in the Everglades and there will be no internet. So next entry probably will be Tuesday night.