Friday, February 15, 2013 – Ft. Myers (Mile 135) – Captiva (Mile 15 – ICW West Coast):

            It was an awesome day!

            Woke up to gray skies, but calm – just a slight breeze.  After a light breakfast, we filled the water tanks, emptied the trash, and got ready to head out.  We missed visiting the Edison House, but hopefully we’ll see it when we come back this way.  We left Ft. Myers at 10:20 a.m., and turned left back into the Caloosahatchee River and on past Cape Coral.  There are lots of marks for the channel in the river, marks for various channels going to various other places, and range marks.  The magenta line disappeared and so did the channel on the Raymarine chart plotter, but Bob started playing around with various mysterious buttons on the darn thing and lo! And behold! the channel and the magenta line reappeared!  And you wonder why I get nervous! 

            Today in Ft. Myers is the Parade of Lights, and it is apparently a very big event.  It is one of the reasons why we left today – the marina said they could accommodate us, but we would have to be moved to another slip as they were expecting over 50 boats today, and I think we passed all of them on their way there.   Most of the boats were going somewhere in a hurry because they were all going at breakneck speed with no regard for the wake they left.

            Once you leave the Okeechobee Waterway, you enter San Carlos Bay and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.  It is a shame that the weather isn’t sunny.  It is beautiful just the way it is, but if it had been sunny it would have been spectacular!  Lovely islands dotting the landscape everywhere amongst this giant body of water.  It is here that we start to be escorted by pods of dolphins along both sides of the boat, all of them jumping and playing in our wake.  They are amazing, and I never get tired of seeing them.  They swim on their sides, and upside down, and do the most amazing jumps in the air and slap the water loudly as they dive back down.  It’s almost like they know you are watching them, and they do their best to put on a thrilling aquatic show for you.

Dolphins leaping in our wake

            We approach the mark where we make a sharp turn left and follow a compass course to Red #2 to enter the channel to Captiva and the ‘Tween Waters Resort and Marina.  This is true resort, with a hotel, heated pool, tennis courts, several restaurants, and boutique shops.  We get tied up in our slip, and do a preliminary walk around.  This is a beautiful place – one of the nicest we have been to on this journey.

"Tween Waters Resort and Marina

            One of the best things about this resort is that we have finally met up with our friends from up north who are also cruising in this vicinity.  We meet for drinks at 5:00 p.m. and have a wonderful reunion!  After a couple hours of wine and great conversation, we decide to part for the evening and catch up again tomorrow.  We have had enough h’ors d’oeuvres, and aren’t really hungry, but Bob and I decide we really want to walk around this area and see what’s here and maybe find a restaurant where we can get a sandwich.  So we wind up at the Crow’s Nest and order a beer and a pizza.  It’s a good thing it’s February, because this interesting little restaurant had a roaring wood fire in the fireplace (and I think they had the air conditioning on also!).  We brought home leftover pizza and called it a night.

Meeting up with friends!

            Tomorrow morning we’ll plan the day – maybe take a bike ride, maybe explore the beach or just go for a walk.  Whatever – this is a lovely place and was definitely worth the trip here!