Log - Dee Light – Little Loop –
2006 .. the
‘Little Loop’ that we are planning to do in the next few
weeks will take us from Fort Myers South to Marathon
Florida and then up the East Coast of Florida to the
Stewart area where we will take the Inland Waterway
System back to Fort Myers .. with this Log you can
travel along with us ..
Starting at
Week of June 11th 2006.. our week started
with the Tropical Storm ALBERTO heading up the Gulf with
the forecast that ALBERTO would become a Hurricane
before making landfall someplace North of Tampa ..
ALBERTO did provide us in the Fort Myers area with some
much need rain and also served as a ‘wakeup' call to all
Floridians that the 2006 Hurricane Season has started .. .. as
ALBERTO passed across the State on Tuesday she did dump so
much water on the Northern part of Florida that the American
Red Crosse set up Damage Easement Centers to aid the Storm
Victims .. Betty is a Red Crosse Volunteer and she got a
number of calls from the Red Crosse to help out but ended up
not being needed at this time .. so on Tuesday Betty drove
to Stuart Florida to spend a night with her son Danny and
his family .. .. when
Hurricane WILMA made is way across Florida Dee Light
took a direct hit causing much damage .. we have spent a
lot of time the last number of Months making WILMA
repairs to Dee Light .. on Wednesday Marv completed the
last of the repairs to Dee Light with the installation
of our reconditioned Life Raft ..
.. Wednesday afternoon when Betty returned to Dee Light
she had her Granddaughter Danielle with her as Danielle
will be joining us for part of our Little Loop trip ..
Wednesday night we all ended up at Daddy Dee’s Ice Cream
Parlor for one last visit before heading out ..
Tropical
Storm ALBERTO
Our Waters
after ALBERTO
Our Skies
after ALBERTO
Betty and Danielle arrive
Daddy Dee's
Ice Cream Parlor
Yummmm !!
.. Thursday was a day to get all the ‘odds and ends’ done
before we head out on Friday .. but there was time to enjoy
the Wisconsin Beer Cheese Soup at the Morgan House in
downtown Fort Myers and since it was Thursday we also had
our Boaters Potluck .. every Thursday evening the Boaters
that are at the Legacy Harbour Marina get together for a
Pitch In / Potluck .. and again this week we had a great
time sharing stories over some of Southwest Florida’s finest
foods .. Dave and Betty ( SONG OF THE SOUTH ) shared much of
their diving in the Keys expertise with us ..
Heading
to the Farmers Market
Danielle picked out the flowers
Betty and Danielle at the Pitch In
.. on Friday we headed down the Caloosahatchee River ..
the departure date for our trip has been geared around
the construction work on the Sanibel Causeway .. it has
been under construction for the last two years and the
last few weeks it has been closed to any boating traffic
on Mondays thru Thursdays but today we were able to pass
under the Bridge without any problems .. our first stop
was at he Ballard Oil Company to fill our Fuel Tanks ..
once we had the tanks full we boated back to the Moss
Marine of Fort Myers Beach for the night (( 01:30 pm ))
.. in short order Betty and Danielle were off to the
Beach ..
Sanibel Causeway
Shrimp Boats - Fort Myers Beach
Shrimp Boats - Fort Myers Beach
Dee Light at
Ballard Oil Company
Betty and Danielle were off to the Beach
Betty and Danielle
- Fort Myers Beach
.. when we were at the Beach we met up with the Crew
from SITTING DUCK .. Bernie and Barbara and their guests
Bob and Cindy .. they later joined us for a drink on Dee
Light and dinner at the Matanzas Inn ..
Bernie and Barbara .. Bob and Cindy
Barbara and Autumn
Danielle at
Matanzas Inn
.. on Saturday morning we headed out the Matanzas
Pass into the Gulf .. just outside the Pass we were
entertained by a flying Dolphin .. the Dolphin came out
of the and went 25 feet into the air about 12 times ..
we had a great trip to Gordon Pass ( the entrance to
Naples ) as the winds were from the East thus our route
to Naples was very well protected .. on our way up the
Gordon Pass we drooled at the massive homes that line
the Waterway .. the Naples Yacht Club is doing its
Summer projects at this time .. this Summer their entire
Seawall is being replaced .. I cannot believe that there
is not a WI-FI Signal at all in this area .. we
launched the Dinghy and explored the Tin City area of
Naples .. our first was the Ice Cream Parlor .. after
Betty had a Margarita at the City Dock we looked at the
Skies and headed back to Dee Light .. right after we had
the Dinghy docked we got dumped on .. we got just over 3
inches of rain in 30 minutes and the winds were clocked
at 28 knots .. our entertainment was watching all the
boats coming in off the Gulf that got cough in the Storm
.. Dee Light is now ‘salt free’ .. due to the weather we
decided to have dinner at the Naples Yacht Club .. just
887 feet down the Dock ..
In
route to Naples
Tin
City Ice Cream Parlor
Danielle
and Betty
Snails outside Naples Yacht Club
Dinner at the Naples Yacht Club
Autumn's ready for Dinghy Trip
Week of June 18th 2006
.. Sunday ( Fathers Day ) morning we took the
Dinghy down the Gordon Pass and then to the section of
ICW that goes to Marco Island .. on our way to Marco we
took an unmarked Waterway past Little Marco Island where
there were many Sunday Boaters beached on the Gulf side
of the Waterway .. once we made it to Marco we explored
the Waterways and drooled our way past many Condos and
Waterfront Mansions .. our first stop was at the Marco
River Marina .. after a little shopping we headed up the
Island River to Goodland where we had lunch with the
Flies at Stan’s Idle Hour Restaurant .. when we were
there Stan stopped by for a drink at the Bar .. on our
way back when we were in a NO WAKE area we put
everything that could get damaged if it got wet into a
watertight bag .. within 10 minutes we got dumped on ..
the rain never stopped .. when we made it back to Dee
Light all four of us were SOAKED but we had a great
Fathers Day outing .. ..
