A Full-time Life

Category: Boats

  • PICTURES FROM THE BOAT

     

    We watched part of  a regatta on the Caloosahatchie River  Saturday afternoon –just before we docked on our last boating weekend of the season.      

    The blue skies and fluffy clouds — and the river — are the true iconic Southwest Florida scenery.  The sailboats added graceful accent notes.

     

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    Pelicans were out in full force.  Keeping an eye on us as we motored under the bridge.  

     

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    It's been a great  season.    I have a severe case of wanting to be in two places at once.  Spring is so pretty in the Pacific Northwest.    But oh it is so lovely here too.     

      

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     Combining memes today because of limited time this week and next as we get ready to close up the Canal Cottage.  Thank you to the hosts of each of these wonderful sharing sites.

     SHARING WITH:  GOOD FENCES*,   SKYWATCH FRIDAY,  SCENIC WEEKENDS,  and  SATURDAY CRITTERS.

     

     *Pretending those pelicans are sitting on a fence.  The pilings kind of serve the same purpose.

  • MOONLIGHT CRUISE

     

    We enjoyed an unplanned  moonlight cruise one recent evening, when we decided to boat to downtown Fort Myers.  Our purpose was to have a late lunch/early dinner at the grand opening of a new river-front restaurant.

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    Just as our group of  ten  ordered our drinks, the electricity in the restaurant went out.  We hung around assuming it would come back on (in fact, since it was still daylight it took awhile before we even realized what had happened.)

    After about half an hour, the waiter told us that the restaurant would have to close for the evening.  I guess they had underestimated the amount of juice they would need!

     

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    We walked to another restaurant and back (and then found that the first restaurant had locked the gates to the marina, entailing a phone call to the dockmaster to learn the gate comination).   So we boated  home in the dark.  Happily it was a moonlit night and I did get some pretty sky pictures.

    (The picture in the center of the collage is a commercial river boat called the Captain JP, which takes tourists on the exact same river trips we are lucky to get to do with our own boat.   It was pretty all lit up.)

     

     

    FOR:  SKYWATCH FRIDAY (extremely late) and MOSAIC MONDAY.

     

    Thank you to the hosts.  

  • WORKING ON THE WATER

    We like work (we could watch it all day, as the bumper sticker says).  And we like water.  So it is great fun when we can combine our two interests — watching people work on the water.

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    Back when we were traveling full-time, we spent a very interesting morning talking to these men who were setting and retrieving crawfish traps in a Louisiana Bayou.   They make their living this way.  This trip was three or four years after Hurricane Katrina and the men told us their business was just beginning to recover.  

    Earlier on this trip, we had seen gunny-bags full of crawfish being dumped on the scale at receiving stations.  And we had eaten some of them at restaurants.  I'm sorry not to have pictures of those.  It was interesting to learn how those little waterbugs get from water to  plate (actually they are usually served on a table lined with newspaper).

     

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    This is a more recent memory.   We didn't get to talk to to this window-washer, but we waved at him.   We were eating breakfast on the deck of our boat, docked across from the one he's working on — it is the casino boat moored at Fort Myers Beach.   He finished his job before the day's gamblers boarded the boat.  (I'm guessing that most of the passengers on this boat don't spend a whole lot of time gazing out the windows, but I guess they want it to look spiffy just in case.)

     

     

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    A different kind of Florida working boat —  we waved at the guys on this tugboat as we boated past it on the Caloosahatchie.  That's  a big load of pipe they are pushing to a construction project somewhere down the river.   

      

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    BOTTOM CLEANERThis guy has an interesting job.  He's a diver hired to clean the bottoms of boats docked for the season — here at Fort Myers Yacht Basin.  

    I always thought about divers as having romantic jobs (finding treasure or learning about sealife), but we've learned that there are quite a few (slightly more ordinary) jobs around here that require their services.  

    This post is shared with all the wonderful photo bloggers at OUR WORLD TUESDAY.   Thanks to the team of hosts who bring us this opportunity each week.

  • MARTIN MARINA, LAKE OKECHOBEE

     

    For the last three or four seasons a group of us from Upriver RV Resort has taken a three-day boat trip to the edge of Lake Okechobee.  We had beautiful weather for our trip this year  – blue skies, sunshine, perfect boating weather.

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    We boat up the Caloosahatchie to Clewiston — a tiny, rather rundown town sometimes called  the sweetest town in the world because it is where sugar from Florida's cane fields is processed.   The huge fields  have been carved from part of the Everglades.  (The state is now in the process of reclaiming at least some of that acreage back to the grasslands it is meant to be.)  

    Nowadays, Clewiston is better known as the Gateway to Lake Okechobee, a fishing and birding hotspot.   

     The scenery along the way is wonderful…. and I am always a happy boater when I can birdwatch along the way!

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     We stayed at Martin Marina, more of a fishing camp than a fancy resort but a lot of fun.  There's a motel there too for those boaters who don't have sleep-aboard boats.    This year, we had three sleep-aboards and seven other boats–23 boaters in the group. 

     

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     This is a picture from last year — it was much colder then.    The rocky bank across the canal from our boat is where we saw the iguanas that I showed in Saturday's post (here).  For those commenters who were worried that I was getting too close to those scary-looking lizards,  you can see that it was quite  safe as I was standing on this same dock to take those pictures.

     

    The group leaving

     

     We had a great time doing not much at all  – just lazing around the Tiki Bar, taking a few walks, and visiting with friends.   Low-key and lovely.   

     

    On our boat trips,  it is definitely not so much the destination as the journey itself that matters.

     

     

    FOR:   OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  Thank you to Lady Fi and the OW Team:  Arija, Gattina, Sylvia, Sandy, and Jenn

  • BOATING TO THE THEATER

     

     

    Last week we had tickets for a Thursday night performance at the Florida Rep Theater in downtown Fort Myers.    We decided to go by water.

    Usually we just boat to lunch.  Boating to the theater was a new experience. 

     

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    We stayed overnight at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin.   I have joked before  that the Yacht Basin lets us in even though we definitely don't have a yacht.   It is actually the City of Fort Myers facility  and the  people are as nice as can be.  We love staying here or just tying  up to go to lunch in one of the downtown restaurants.  

     

     

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    Maybe the dockmaster thought  we were a yacht this time though, because  here is where he put us for the night.  That next door neighbor's dinghy is bigger than our boat!   

     

     

     

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    We could see the theater  from our dock — it's the low blue building across the other boat docks.  It was only about a two-block walk.

     

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    We went to see Arsenic and Old Lace — an oldie but a goodie!  The Theater Company was very proud to have received an outstanding review from the Wall Street Journal.

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    Does the Wall Street Journal usually review plays?  Out-of-town plays?  We don't know because we don't  read the Wall Street Journal.  I bet the people on that yacht docked next to us would have known.  I should have asked them!

     

     

    For:  Our World Tuesday.  Thank you to Lady Fi, Arija, Gattina, Sylvia, and Sandy for hosting this wonderful meme.

  • DECEMBER BLUES

     

    Sometimes it's not about dramatic sunrises or sunsets …. sometimes it's all about blue sky as a backdrop.  These pictures are from December.  Because ….

     

     

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    Early December, fuel stop along the River

     

    … we really haven't had either dramatic or blue skies much this week.   On Monday, temperatures dropped from 80 in the afternoon  down to the 40s as that night we caught the tail-end of the cold fronts from up North.    

     I should probably duck when I say this, but that is darn cold for here in SW Florida! 

     

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    Lake Morton, Christmas week

     

     But it is getting better … the sun is  shining today between rainstorms.    I sincerely hope things are improving at least a little bit for those of you in the arctic vortex.   Wish I could lend you some warm temperatures.   

     

     

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    Fort Myers Yacht Basin (city dock) New Year's Eve

     (Didn't realize that I was taking a picture of a guy working on his boat — see the yellow shorts on the top deck of the boat on the right?)

     

       

     

    Click on SKYWATCH FRIDAY to view more blue skies  – and more dramatic ones too .  Thanks to Yogi and the host team.

     

     

     

  • FLORIDA WINTER

     

     

     

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    Ft. Myers Yacht Basin 12/31/13 (not our boat)

    With friends in another boat, we spent New Year's Eve on our boat at the River District in downtown Fort Myers.   The weather was lovely.  On New Year's Day — about two hours after we docked back home   … it started to rain hard.  That was good timing for us.   

     

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    Not as fancy as the Times Square ball, but the temperature sure was nicer

     

    Since then, it seems like we've had alternate warm and cold/rainy days.   We get the tail-end of the weather fronts from up North (after they are almost gone).   Tonight (Monday) temperatures of 40 or below are expected — we will be turning on the heat for the first time this winter.  

      

     I cheerfully admit to being a weather-wimp and while I enjoy seeing the peaceful and serene snowy scenes that I see on other blogs, I am happy that "cold" here in Southwest Florida usually means temperatures of  "only" 50 to 60 degrees.  And I can't wait for the 70 to 80 degree weather to return.  

     

       

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    Sushi lunch, Lakeland

     

     Yes, Winter is different here.  This is the only snowman of our winter season (I hope, unless we go back to this restaurant). 

     

    Happy New Year and thanks to the hosts of OUR WORLD TUESDAY.  

  • BRIDGE WORK

     

    When we went out on our boat the other day,  I took some pictures from underneath  this freeway bridge repair project.  We drive over this bridge often but it's  much easier to photograph from the water.  I thought maybe taking the pictures would help me to understand a little better what they're doing.  It didn't really work — it still remains largely a mystery.   

     

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    But the tall cranes seem to do a good job of pointing out our beautiful blue Florida sky and fluffy white clouds, so I'm linking to SKYWATCH FRIDAY.  

     

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    According to the Captain of our boat (Bill), someday in the not-too-distant future, those pilings under the existing bridge will support the new one.  

    This freeway is about 2 miles  from where we live and this season when the wind is right (or wrong, I guess) we have been able to hear the pile drivers, especially in the evenings.  (The project has been going on for a couple of years and now the crew seems to be  working extra long hours to finish the project.  It's supposed to be completed by summer of 2014 .) 

     It will be good to have it finished.

     

     

    Thanks to Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy for hosting SF.  Click the links.

     

  • MARTEN (aka MARTIN’S) RAPIDS

     

    A couple of weeks ago, we got a chance to raft the beautiful McKenzie River with the best river guides in the world.  Here we are with those guides (our grandson Andy and g-daughter-in-law  Denae) at our lunch stop.    None of the pictures in this post are mine.  This one was taken by a nice fisherman who offered to take our picture with "your good looking kids".  (We agreed and didn't even confess that we were just the grandparents.)

     

     

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     I took some pretty good scenic pictures along the calmer stretches of the river and a few of rapids we had just passed through, but I had to put my camera in the waterproof bag when we got close to the adventurous parts.   I thought I'd be happy settling for blogging those but then we found out that a professional camera company called West Coast Action Photos has a gig taking pictures of rafts as they go through Marten Rapids, the best one on the river.  

     

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     We were delighted to go online and purchase the CD of our adventure.  And so here are the brave great-grandparents riding the rapids.

     

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    Having fun getting soaked!  The day was overcast and cool so Andy kept us out of most of the splash on the previous rapids (McKenzie River  water is COLD!).  

    Marten's was the last rapids before  our take-out, so it was a perfect time to get wet.  (And we didn't have any choice on this one anyway.)


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     I didn't put in any of the pictures of me yelling!   The photographer kept snapping no matter what we looked like.

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    We stayed with the raft.  That's a very good thing!


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     I'll show more of the quieter parts of the beautiful McKenzie in a later post.

     


    331 me bill andy(Denae took this one.)

     

     Sharing this great day with OUR WORLD    (thank you to Lady Fi, the new host!)  Visit the links to see adventures and beauty from all over the world!

     

     

  • BOAT-BY SNAPSHOTS

     

    From beach-cottage to condo high rises, boat-houses to boats, there are a lot of different ways to live along Fort Myers Beach.  

     

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    We boated by all these colorful homes  when we went to the Beach last week for the season's  last Boat Club lunch.    

     

     
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     The snowbird season is over,  but we'll stay for at least another month.  

     It was a good year and we'll miss our friends and fun activities.   But now we'll have absolutely  no excuse not to stay home and finish our cottage-reno project!

     

     
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     Shared with MOSAIC MONDAY and  OUR WORLD on Tuesday.

    Thank you to the hosts!