Back to Ft. Myers Beach

Crazy late start, much later than we wanted. Not our fault, really. Well, not directly.

A while ago (in the continuing story of "new boat blues") we had an issue with our inverter, a big box that powers all the outlets on the boat when we're at anchor or underway. Some of our appliances didn't like it. Like our toaster oven, which would not turn on the heating coils -- so no toast. We got a new inverter, but our favorite electrician couldn't install it to due his own time being in great demand.

When we got to Naples Russ asked around for a local guy, and we got one. He isn't an electrician so much as a handy man, but he does know his way around an inverter. The job, which he started on Thursday, didn't get finished. He finished it today, showing up at 8 am.

We didn't get underway until after 11.

My frustration with that was a) the weather was awesome in the morning, calm and warm, and would have made a wonderful travel day (spoilers: turned out to be a wonderful travel day anyway), and 2) windy weather was coming, and in my experience (slight though it may be) you don't want to wait, just in case the weather comes early (spoilers: it didn't, everything was wonderful). We even had lunch along the way -- a toasted sandwich (because the new inverter works, donchano!)

Flat gulf, with slight swells

We did see some dolphins on the trip, but the big animal sighting was sea turtles. We spotted 4 of them. Sadly, I have no photographic proof of this since the wily devils duck under so quickly. The spotting is a bit of a panic event, since they first appear like a big log in the water you're about to hit. Then they disappear.

On our way into Ft. Myers Beach we decided, quite last minute, to gas up at Moss Landing. We hailed them but got no answer. The fuel dock was open so I headed for it. Right away the current pushed me off, so I backed up to line up for a second try. The current was coming in, pushing the boat away from the dock as well as toward the bridge (which we hadn't gone under yet). In other words, we were doing it all wrong. Russ got a line to a dock worker (who hustled out once he saw a boat was trying to fuel), and we let the tide swing us around, keeping the nose close to the pier. Once heading into the current, it was a breeze to get her up against the dock. Should have done that right away.

Must be back in Ft. Myers Beach.
This "sails" several times a day.

Once fueled, we let the current push us off the dock and back into the channel (the trick there was getting an opening since, being a lovely Friday afternoon, boaters abounded). We spun around to head to the bridge and made our way to Salty Sam's. Docking inQuest is tricky since I really have no good view of what's behind me. We installed a camera, so I have a tablet that's a dedicated "rear view", but it's not in the perfect spot yet, so a glare on me makes it hard to see. Basically, I move real slow and listen for Russ to yell, "More to port!"

Apparently, fish love green light. Many restaurants and
boats have underwater green lights, and, well, fish!

The only bummer about the day -- the whole last 10 days, really -- is that I have a cold. Not enough to lay me out or need a doctor, but enough to keep me coughing and feeling rather un-enthused. It's made traveling less fun, to be sure.