Pine Island to LaBelle, town wall

We zagged instead of zigged.

After making plans to have a diver take care of our worms in Marco Island we still had to find a marina to get that done. Russ had always planned on getting the boat hauled somewhere around the Carolinas to get the bottom painted. On a whim he called the River Forest boat yard in Labelle (we'd been there before) to see if they had the time to haul, clean, and paint us now. They did. So that's where we came.

First sunrise with a new view

It was a longer day getting here. Some rain, lots of wind, which totally died down just as we were docking. Serendipity! We'd been here a couple of times. You can only dock bow or stern into the wall, and it has no finger piers. The dock you are against is fairly tall, so the best option for us is nose in and get on and off the boat by the anchor. Many boats, those mono hulled jobs, use acrobatic acts to disembark. But, I'm happy to say, there's something definitely worth getting off the boat for, not matter how tricky.

Amazing walk to the brewery.
If you look at this tree closely there are 4
other plants thriving on it. Gorgeous!

The Labelle Brewery.

It was under construction the last time we were here. Russ has been looking forward to going. It's about a mile hike to the place, which we did in a drizzle, but we were able to sit outside while sheltered from the rain. The food was very good, but the beer was amazing. Some of the best we've had at a random brewery in a long time! They don't have breweries this good in Fort Myers, or Sarasota, or Tampa. Which begs the question, why are they here?! (This will be a problem for us in the future. Their beer is so good we may always want to cross the lake, and never go to the keys!)

Been a while since Russ ordered a flight and
everything was awesome.

We'll know later today what our plans are once the boat is hauled (I'm writing this the morning before we head out). It's a short run to the boat yard but we do have to go through a lock. Went through one yesterday, too. My next post will be once she's hauled and we have and idea of how we'll spend the next week, since we believe the paint job will take about that long.