Ok so today we pull up that anchor, me groggy sleepy and still in my sleep clothes drag myself up on deck for the pulling of the anchor ceremony. haha Sometimes i jump out of bed others i fall out of bed dragging my Admiral self up the stairs to the cockpit. But no matter how i get up, i am always in paradise! Today was a short trip up to Venice to anchor out for the night then continue on to Anclote Key / Tarpon Springs. Beautiful houses and scenery on the side of the ICW dolphins following us alittle. They have to be careful of the idiot motorboaters that run over them every year and have killed more manatee in the past two years than ever before!! Cant stand them. Not speaking of boaters who take care and move slow in these areas just the narcissistic WOL that need to go away for good. Finally at Venice (not my favorite place to anchor out due to shallow anchorages) and we find an anchorage that will suffice for the night. The greatest thing about this area was the young sailors that were out racing their little sailboats followed by instructors to ensure their safety. One of them accidentally jibed and tipped over and was ok water was only waist deep. He flipped his boat back over bailed out the water with a little bucket on board (loved it) and got back in after a few tries and continued to bail until he could take off again! Check out the pictures these little guys are not afraid to tack jibe and catch all the wind they can. I am out of here and off to sleep. Stay tuned friends.

Loaded up our bikes and scooters and took off to the park to bike into Punta Gorda. We took our bikes to a place called the Burg R Bar restaurant that had a great breakfast. The neart thing was that you can ride your bikes all the way down the riverwalk around a hotel and under the highway with a beautiful mural underneath. After going under the overpass we headed down the street following directions to the restaurant. After eating we took a ride along more of the Peace River with some cool art structures and pretty scenery. We then decided to head over the river bridge to go to the Mariners Trading shop that i love to hit when we are anywhere near. It has all kinds of used marine boat gear including sail bags, pulleys, clamps and just anything marine! Luckily they had a bike lane but i rode over on the sidewalk side that had a wall between me and the traffic. Dont trust Punta Gorda Traffic. We did arrive safely although i hear Andrea behind me “say we are gonna die”. Following Steve Hudlow i have heard this phrase a lot if you havent followed him before, but all i can say is I am still alive and well after all of our crazy adventures over the years! The Mariners consignment shop has shirts, books, wall art, and all kinds of goodies. Then you go to the other side of the store with all the amazing used boat hardware! SO awesome they have stuff i can use on my backpacks bags and boat bags. Plus i found a sail bag with an emblem on it that will go on my backpack made from a sail. It looked like a lot of stuff outside was gone from my previous visit and that the store was for sale! I hope it is there when i come back to this way. We took our bicycles back to west marine and JOANNS on the opposite side of the road back toward Punta Gorda. Once we passed over the bridge ( oh saw a stingray gliding around in the shallow water by the bridge when we rode through, stopped and got a pic) we found some of the coolest trails through the town and outskirts. Beware of alligator signs along some stretches of the trail, beautiful historic areas and gardens. There was so much to see and we made sure we tried to ride and see all we could.Back to the boat and sunsets again NICE! Check out the pics below.

Up and on our way today to Punta Gorda which is an hour or two out of our way but it is a place we have driven to and loved and want to sail to it and see what that approach is like. We had to follow a trail of deep water to get over to bridge and under to head to our destination! So many shallow areas near the ICW or GIWW you have to stay in the cutout dredged area or experience the feel of the sand and or rocks beneath your keel. As we approached the anchorage area we did not see any boats but upon a closer look there were many boats already there..we came in toward the outside of the area and anchored close to the Fishermans Village(a restaurant and shopping mall area). A white Ibis landed on my anchor chain and just hung out for a little while.The first thing you notice is the dark brown water, it is a river outlet from the peace river where many Megalodon teeth have been found along with many other shark teeth and fossils. We lowered the dinghy along with Caretta and headed in to find some food. We found a restaurant on the water that had this incredible bbq grilled macaroni and cheese sandwich that makes two meals! It was delicious! Strolling the stores we found some cute dresses and jewelry as well as the sail bag store where the sell printed boat sails that have been cleaned and bags have been made of them. Barrys friend Jason and Keisha gave me 4 boat sails that i will construct my own bags from. I cant express my gratitiude enough for those sails. After we searched the shops we headed out to the park by the river. It really stinks by the dinghy dock but it was a nice place to tie your dinghy up at. We walked the pretty and clean side walks down next to a cool kids park, tennis courts, and an area under construction that has just laid new tiles and was surrounded by a sitting ledge with pretty ceramic or something images every few feet of shells turtles etc. Nice place very nice. We headed back to the boat to enjoy a beautiful sunset. Goonight friends.

Captains Log: Great holding right outside fishermans village, great dinghy dock with great access to parks and to ride bicycles or scooters through into and around town.

We got up early and headed to Sanibel Island across the bay at Ft Myers We passed a coast guard boat named Crocodile or Alligator cant remember but it is the first one i have seen named like that.Nice little trek across the bay and anchored out outside some very pretty houses and close to the inlet we are going to dinghy into. We waited to make sure the anchor held good then dropped the dinghy and headed into the inlet. Surprisingly the marina and restaurant were very close on our left/port side and a wonderful man came out and helped us tie up and directed us over to Grandma Dots restaurant. It being mothers day there was a waiting line for about 30 min or so. We were seated inside right by the door(i mean the door was right by my back) lol. It was such a cool little place and our waitress advised us it was under new ownership. The food was good and we enjoyed the atmosphere. The outside patio with tables looked like a garden area. There were some bronze dolphins and the bathrooms were outside with very nice tile and shower inside. We read we could leave our dinghys there and ride our bikes into town. So we took our bikes with Andrea and Barry on their scooters and headed to the end of the island. We came to a lighthouse near the beach entrance with hundreds of people on the beach cooking out swimming eating and having a great time. We walked a little ways on the beach and then rode our bikes back to the pier area where a small boy was throwing a fish net, practicing catching fish while the white ibis were waiting to be thrown a fish or two. A big dog was there and stood by Steve and Barry as they looked over the rail as if saying, “whatcha lookin at?”. We rode on around the island toward the other end taking the back road with great bike riding trails, sidewalk and road provided for bikes and scooters. Sanibel is very bike friendly. And it is soooo pretty! Passing a purple tennis court and tennis courts of bahama blue dark blue outlined with light blue teal and many other colors and styles as we rode. SO many tennis courts! Many cute bridges and beach entrances neat and clean with no trash here. We rode the whole island coming out close to a restaurant that is called, “The Island Cow” and ate there. It was good food but the ice cream place next door was YUK I asked for a Hot fudge Sundae with wet nuts(walnuts in syrup) she said she had them, and I received a bland bunch of vanilla ice cream with a little bit of fudge and chopped up dry peanuts YUK. It is no longer a family owned but big corp owned so YUK. Wait and go to the Dairy Queen on the island or JOEYS custard. The yukky place was called Pinocchios ice cream. Riding on we stopped at a little shop that had its stuff outside and some of the coolest shells, loved the place bought a couple of neat stone bracelets there. Over the cool bridges past lots of cute houses and back to the marina. I cannot describe all the beautiful natural places we went, trees leaning over the sidewalk, shady tree and plant covered areas with all kinds of little trails running through them(animal trails), pretty waterways as we went over the small bridges, just so pretty and quiet and peaceful. I will be back to this island again.Such friendly people willing to help you and a place to dock your dinghy!

Captains Log: Anchoring near the inlet at Sanibel has great holding.

Good morning. Today was dreary and storms are coming in so we just stayed in on boat and worked on projects and chilled. We did go out to eat at Matanzas restaurant that was right by the dinghy dock. It is called Matanzas Inn and Restaurant. They used to control the mooring field until city of Ft Myers bought it.(that is what we were told). We decided to sit outside since it was not raining yet, and if you know anything about South Florida it can rain next door and miss you or just not rain as predicted! We were sitting beside a table that two doves decided to visit by flying under it and landing, the lady sitting there was swatting at them and fell backward chair and all,OOPS. Steve helped her up and i handed her her purse. By that time the rain had moved in and i went in to get us inside but our waitress(great waitress)already had a table for us and right next to the lady and her friends that had the great dove war of 2022. hahaha Our food was delicious and the lady bought us a drink to thank us for our help. We enjoyed talking to them throughout out dinner and bid them goodbye and safe travels as we headed back to the dinghy.OH YEAH got my water car back, lol. Good night friends and thank you for checking out our blog.

Today was the big day Tow Boat us showed up to tow our dinghy to the dock, The mechanic we were supposed to meet never showed. So the driver recommended a mechanic and towed Steve there, and within an hour they had fixed it and it was up and running! Knew what was wrong as soon as Steve told them what happened. Great guys and the part was so cheap not the expensive pump everyone else said it was! I was so excited to see him driving it in yay our water car is back!! So we took a day to just hang out on the boat and get our chores done. Watermaking, cleaning bilge, cleaning boat inside, and rearranging “stuff”. Everyone have a great day stay tuned.

Captains Log: If you need a good boat mechanic just ask the local Boat US guy. He has the knowledge!

Steve had a guy come and look at boat motor today and the guy made an arrangement to fix it. He is calling Tow Boat US to tow him over to the boat dock so they can load it and pull it out to replace the low pressure pump he said was bad.(as well as others who stated that part was bad). So today is Smugglers Golf today over the bridge and up the street about a mile or two! On our way we stopped to eat at the Naughty Parrot on the way. They had some very good live music with the sax flute all guitars drums keyboard great vocals and i loved them! The food was good and the environment was very loud but fun. After that we went outside and mounted our cool bicycles and scooters(the cycle scooter gang)! Off we went to the Smugglers golf course! Mini golf that is. The Seven Eleven by the golf course had COKE icee today! So we bought our icee and hit the golf course. They were updating alligator ponds and had relocated the gators that are usually there. It did smell a bit but not much and not or long. We just played by our rules and had a ball!! Afterwords we headed back to the old hacienda back over the bridge with no bicycle malfunction this time. WEEEEE no brakes on the down side like a kid with a new bike.lol

Today we went to our regular breakfast place and checked out the Suzuki dealership marina to help us with our little moose dinghy. They put us on a list and said they would call us back and get us an appointment. They had a really cool ships store with some neat items. Maui Jim and Costa glasses, tons of neat fishing stuff. The store was located on the second story of the marina building. We walked around that area found a cool dock to walk on under the bridge, it has another one on the other side but they cant connect due to the boat heights that have to go under it. I love the dinghy dock here, it is very roomy and most of it is under the bridge under the shade and easy to tie up. People here are nice to sailors and their dinghys have a place to dock. So much to see here too. When getting off the dinghy dock you have to watch your head because the dock floats and when the tide is high the concrete bottom of the upper dock doesn’t. hahah It is actually padded on the bottom so if you do hit your head it wont be so bad. We also had a place to lock up our bikes there at the dock so we didn’t have to take them back and forth in the dinghy to the boat. I felt safe there due to the safety measures taken by the mooring field employees. Back to our great day, that evening we went to the Parrot Key Grill by dinghying down the mooring field and tying up on the north side and found two restaurants one being the Parrot Key Grill (actually Andrea and Barry had found it and suggested it to us). So Steve is still trying to get help for our dinghy NO NO NO return call yet. (from anyone). Little stressful not having a dinghy to boat around in. But our good friends and best boat buddies have really stepped up and helped us out. We sat by the water in the shade(inside not outside patio) and ordered our great meal. We wondered around outside, took pics in the big chair and looked around at the other shop with the ice cream that was closed, dagnabbit! It is fun looking around the docks at all the different types of boats, blue water sailboats, fishing boats, and just sport boats. Some huge yachts also. After viewing the boats we ran through the mooring field checking out all the sailboats and trawlers. SO many sailboats and so many people living on boats that work in the tourist areas tha cant afford to live on land. Saw one poor sailboat that had been beached and stripped. The sail was gone or i would have had some more sewing material, hehehehe. I did find one with a sail but the weather was bad and i couldnt get to it. Salvage boats are salvage boats in my book. Back at the boat and happy i didnt fall in the water going from the inflatable bouncy dinghy to my swim platform. Sort of looks like a monkey swinging tree to tree getting on the boat, hahaha. You get all kinds of good exercise living on a boat like core exercises(boat swinging side to side and maintaining ability to stand sideways while making sandwiches), agility ( grabbing mooring balls way low from the bow with a boat hook and ability to walk outside in rough weather throwing lines and maintaining place on boat without being thrown over), balance( leaning against stern door on platform it swinging open because it wasn’t latched and doing the “i refuse to fall in the water dance!”), and last but not least the upper extremity shoulder stretch when quickly turning the wheel because you weren’t watching and are now in shallow getting stuck depths and have to move FAST to turn wheel and get out. Still learning lessons with sailing and enjoying every minute.

Captains Log: Lithium batteries with solar are a must