Fort Myers, FL to Marco Island, FL

Total Miles Traveled 1361

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 Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a Happy and Healthy New Year!

We were very fortunate to have a great year in 2021.  We avoided the Corona Virus, although several of our friends and family weren’t so lucky, and we cruised over 6500 miles, to and from Key West, Pittsburgh, PA, and back down to our current location at Marco Island, FL. 

We really enjoyed our stay at Fort Myers, visiting family and friends, and getting a few items checked off the “to do” list.  Our friends David and Barbara invited us to a Volkswagen Club gathering at David’s shop at Fort Myers.

David's Fleet

I believe the front end is a  1937 Chevy with a 1988 bed and small block V8..Sweet

Scooter made from the fender of a VW

We rented a car and visited Moni’s family at Cocoa Florida for Christmas.  We had a great visit and perfect weather during our stay. 

Moni and her mom Delores, Sister Janis, and Sister in law Marla

David and Barbara also took us to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates Holiday nights, where thousands of Christmas lights and decorations cover the estates.  If you ever get a chance to visit Fort Myers, the Edison and Ford Winter Estates is a must see.  The estate contains a historical museum and a 21 acre botanical garden on the adjacent sites of the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, next to the Caloosahatchee River. It is amazing to see and hear of the contributions these two individuals made to society. 

The lights changed with music and it was really cool.  I spent an hour trying to edit the video and put it on the blog but couldn't get it to work, had to settle for a frame pic.

We departed Fort Myers December 30^th and traveled 24 miles to an anchorage near Cape Coral Florida at Glover Bight.   It feels good to be cruising again!

On New Year's Eve we were fogged in until 11 a.m. before we could depart for Marco Island, a 50 mile cruise in the Gulf of Mexico.

This section of the GICW is called the miserable mile, it's narrow and shallow on each side and when the tide is changing swift currents flow through the small islands AND because we were fogged in until 11, so was everyone else so it was pretty congested.  I have just as many boats behind me.

Yep, that's fog past the bridge over the Gulf of Mexico, luckily as soon as we passed through the bridge it drifted north of us and we had clear cruising all the way to Marco Island.

 

We passed the mega yacht Silver Shalis, a 175 ft yacht accommodating 12 guest in 6 cabins, and 14 crew in 7 cabins.  She was crusing along at 14 mph looking pretty sleek on the water. 

We will stay anchored at Marco Island a few days waiting for settled weather on the Gulf before making the two day cruise to Marathon Florida.