Fort Myers, FL February 22-29

Finally, We Found the Beach!

Last week we decided to again take a trip to the beach.  Mid-week, shouldn't be many people going that way.  Guess again!  We ended up in the same traffic jam heading to Fort Myers Beach that we found the last time.  So, we turned north and west and unwillingly coughed up the six dollar toll to go to Sanibel Island.  Then, when we found a public parking area, it cost another two dollars for parking.  We did have a pleasant walk on the beach and lunch on the island at a marina Wayne remembered from another visit.  So here's the west coast beach photos:

That's the beautiful Gulf of Mexico behind Wayne.

West coast sand between my toes.  It feels as good as the beach
on the east coast.

The beach fishing was good for this guy.

Sanibel Lighthouse

Colleen Finds a Quilt Show

On the 24th I went to "Gathering of Quilts,"  the quilt show for the Disconnected Piecers Quilt Guild in Punta Gorda.  I always love to see the work of other quilters and I was fortunate to happen to sit near the show's featured quilt artist, Shirley James, at lunchtime.  She and another local quilter convinced me I could not go home until I visited a local business, Sandy's Quilt Shop.  So I did, having a fine day and bringing to four the number of quilt shops I've enjoyed around here.  Two others were Quilt Lovers' Hangout and Susie Q's Quilt Shop, both in North Fort Myers.  The quilt show was so much fun that it inspired me to finish two more of the projects I've been working on, a flannel quilt to donate to Project Linus and a table runner/wall hanging I'm making with the Stack and Whack blocks.

Quilting a flannel blanket on an 85 degree day

One of the pieces by featured quilter, Shirley James. 
This is not a painting.  She's created this picture using fabrics.  Wow!

Generator Problems:
While Colleen was at the quilt show, Wayne occupied himself with changing the fuel filter on the generator set.  Well, that is, trying to get the gen set to start and run after changing the fuel filter!  This was supposed to be a routine service item.  When the generator would not start, he was turned down by five different diesel service companies.  After much diagnostic thinking, he set about solving the problem himself.  As usual the pros were of little help except for one who consoled Wayne and said that the Kohler gen set was probably powered by a Yamaha diesel engine and that it was a terrible engine to get primed, even for him.  Wayne could hear the fuel pump whirring and gurgling but no air or, most importantly no fuel, was purging from the fuel lines or injector lines.  The fuel tank that the gen set pulled from was only about a quarter full and the fuel level was below the level of the fuel pump.  The pump was air locked and would not draw fuel.  Wayne transferred fuel over to that tank.  But after many hours of attempted purging of the fuel lines and being stood up by the only available mechanic in town, Wayne went to NAPA and purchased a pulsing automotive fuel pump, fuel hose wiring, crimp connectors,and hose clamps.  He cut the electric lines to the pump and crimped on new quick  connectors.  He then installed the new pump in line after the Kohler pump and immediately had fuel flow.  He was able to purge the injector pump and lines and get the gen set running again.  Now we can have 120 volt power when we are at anchor again.  All this just in time to shove off from Fort Myers for the trip back across Florida.

Another auto show in downtown Ft. Myers:

The were about 70 cars at this event on Saturday.  Here are some photos:

Good-bye to Fort Myers

We've had a wonderful stay in this city, met some new friends, John and Kay and Gordon and Mary Lou, and we've seen a lot.  We'll miss this extraordinary, idyllic weather but it's time to start the trip back to North Carolina.

Good-bye, Fort Myers. We'll be back.

Tuesday Feb. 28th:  Fort Myers to Moore Haven

After buying 95 gallons of diesel we shoved off at 8:45 on the first leg of our trip back home to NC.   This leg encompassed 55 miles of  the Caloosahatchee River.  We traveled at 8 mph alternating on one engine at a time to save fuel.  At this low speed Cool Change steered very well.  Any faster becomes a handful to keep on a straight course.  We arrived to the Moore Haven City docks at 4:45 only to find that the 55 foot boat that barrelled past us just two miles back had taken the last space.  Actually they managed to get the front half of their boat to fit on the end of the dock.  As we floated off the dock deciding if we could fit our 42 feet of boat into 35 feet of dock,  a couple aboard a sailboat started to move their boat forward with no prompting from us.  After much effort and high volume conversations,  they managed to clear what we thought was enough space for us.   All the boaters came out on the dock to watch us screw up.  With only four feet astern and six feet in front, Captain Wayne somehow slid our boat sideways up to the dock without touching either of the neighbors.  The sailboat couple was presented with a bottle of shiraz for their generosity of spirit.

Wednesday Feb. 29th (Leap Day):  Moore Haven to Stuart

We decided that we wanted to push our range limit (within fuel sensibilities) and make it all the way to Stuart, a distance of 78 miles.  We left the dock at 7:15 AM and immediately entered Moore Haven Lock for a rise of 3 feet.  Then off we were around the south shore route of Lake Okeechobee at the high speed of 9 mph and later 10 mph.  We travelled the first 20 miles on one engine, but when we advanced to 10 mph the steering effort became too much as we fought the high winds that developed during the morning.  We ran on two engines from that point on.  Several times during the day we encountered sugar ash rain from fires set in the sugar cane fields.  We are told the growers burn the sugar cane just before harvesting to remove much if the leafy husk.  The leaves are carried high into the air and then rained down on us like small butterflies as they wafted in the winds.  They are black and sticky and fall apart when touched.  They have to be washed away or carefully blotted off a surface with a damp paper towel.  We had a real rain shower just before getting to the east side of the lake and the Port Mayaca lock.  We were lowered about 3 feet and then entered the St. Lucie River.  28 miles later we entered the St. Lucie lock and were lowered 13 FEET!  From that point on we were at sea level and just 4 miles from Stuart.  We had met another NC couple at Ft. Myers, Jack and Pat aboard Another Chapter, a 38 foot Marine Trader trawler.  They had also been tied up at Moore Haven dock.  Jack had taken the route straight across Lake O and shaved off 11 miles.  He and Pat decided to also take a mooring ball in Stuart.  Jack very graciously came out in his dinghy to help us get hooked up to the mooting ball.  This is one of Colleen's least favorite boat tasks and she is greatly beholden to Jack for his efforts.

We have not decided whether to head on to Vero Beach tomorrow or stay here in Stuart another night.

See the man hand operating this swing bridge at Torrey Island on the south end of Lake O

He inserts a long pole into the gears and pushes round and round to move the bridge for us to pass

The St. Lucie Lock on the Okeechobee Waterway

Wayne's favorite boat snack - crunchy Cheetos - Yum!  He
has consumed at least one bag a week for the entire trip.

What much of the OWW passage looks like

There are also beautiful home sites along the OWW

I don't like gators! (Wayne said this) 50 yards from our dock at Moore Haven.

We saw a lot of bird life - smelled some of their roosts too.

Fort Myers, February 14-21

This statue of good friends Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone on a
camping trip sits in the middle of a fountain in nearby Centennial Park.  Edison was an enthusiastic camper
 and enjoyed showing the wilds of early 20th century Florida to his friends.
It was interesting to see that a large support staff of cooks, drivers,
and camp personnel accompanied these "roughing it" outings. 

A Trip to Tom Edison's House - Finally

If you've been to the Edison-Ford Winter Homes here in Fort Myers, you know what an interesting place it is.  Wayne and I visited last Wednesday and spent 3-and-a-half hours wandering through the museum, Edison's lab, extensive gardens, and the winter homes of both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford located next door to each other at a wonderful scenic spot on the Caloosahatchee River.  If you're a plant person, you must make a trip here.  Also, if you're a history buff you don't want to miss this home of America's 19th and 20th century version of Steve Jobs.  I enjoyed the trip so much that when our friend Marcy expressed an interest in going last weekend, I was happy to go again for another 3-and-a-half hours.   www.edisonandfordwinterestates

Here are a few photos:

This is a single banyan tree, around 300 feet in diameter with
probably around  a hundred major trunks reaching to the ground.
  It's the largest of numerous banyan trees on the grounds.

The Edison family winter home, Seminole Lodge.  The wide porch wraps
all the way around the house, with a lovely view of the river on this side.  The
Edisons regularly entertained famous people at their winter home and a
mirror image guest house is located through the breezeway on the right. 

A Mysore (2 syllables) Fig tree.  It's actually
in the rubber tree family and was planted as part of
Edison and Ford's research into rubber.

Thomas Edison's wife, Mina, created this garden
as a birthday gift to her husband in 1929.  It forms
the back of a little office she also had built for him.

One of hundreds of varieties of plants on the property.

The Edison Light Parade

This is a big local tourist and resident event in the winter, a two-and-a-half hour evening parade full, of course, of electric lights to celebrate the town's famous winter resident.  We mentioned earlier that we'd been advised to tape off a section of the sidewalk to stake out a spot to watch the parade so we did, not sure why that spot should be vacant as there were taped off spaces all around it but it looked like a good place to be.  We were looking forward to Roger and Marcy and Jann and Gary joining us for the day of the parade.  Well, on Saturday afternoon we discovered why the spot had been empty - it was at the location where three Port-a-Potties had been set up!

I guess the locals knew about this spot.  Roger is holding his nose but it really wasn't that bad.

The parade was a good one, full of high school bands, every local dignitary you could name, representatives from every nearby city, county and state police agency and every local fire station, and, of course, one elaborate brightly lit float after another.

Low Country Boil

With company on Saturday night, we fixed a favorite boat meal, low country boil.  Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
5 lbs. small red potatoes
7 ears of corn
1 1/2 lbs. Kielbasa
1 1/2 lbs frozen medium shrimp, uncooked
4 onions
1 Boil-in-bag seafood seasoning
1/4 cup vinegar

Fill a large pot half full of water and bring water to a boil.  Add vinegar and the bag of seafood seasoning.  Boil 10 minutes.  Add potatoes.  Cook for 12-14 minutes.  Add the corn-on-the-cob.  Cook for 7 minutes.  Add the Kielbasa and the onions.  Cook for 8 minutes.  Keep the water in the pot but transfer the food to a LARGE bowl and cover to keep hot.  Add the shrimp to the water and cook until the shrimp turns pink and floats to the top of the water.  Serve to a crowd.  This amount will serve eight to ten people.  A turkey fryer with a straining basket is a great way to cook this but we just use a large pot on the boat.

Boat Work

Well, it's not all parades and tourist trips when you live on a boat.  Wayne wanted you to know that he changed the oil for the port engine today, a messy job that he has survived once again.  He also makes regular, willing trips to the post office and grocery store on his bike, not to mention helping me wash and dry the laundry.  You mustn't assume that we're just loafing around and taking photos all the time here.

Colleen's favorite errand boy

Trying to spill as little oil as possible

Fort Myers, February 8-13

Greetings from the Chilly South

A few of you have written to tell us that you've heard we've had a cold snap.  Did we ever!!  Beginning Friday through this morning (Monday) a blast of cold air sent our temperatures crashing down into the 40s.  I can hear you Iowans and Wisconsinites jeering at what wimps we are.  It is incongruous, however, to be bundled up in gloves and our heaviest jackets and looking at palm trees swaying all around us.  We'll survive.  It's due to warm up today and should be in the low 80s by tomorrow.

A Visit to Jann & Gary

We met Jann and Gary in Marathon last year and enjoyed reading the blog they wrote as they traveled up the east coast as far as the Chesapeake and then returned via Lake Okeechobee, completing a ten month journey by the time they returned home to Charlotte Harbor in September, 2011 (see www.tieingaknot.blogspot.com).  We visited them in their home last Wednesday and stayed overnight.  Hurray!!! A real shower.  Oh, and great to see Jann and Gary too.

You have to live on a boat to truly appreciate a real shower!

 Jann and I share an interest in quilting and she took me to her local quilt shop, A Quilter's Cottage, in Englewood.  I've been wanting to try a quilting technique called Stack and Whack and, egged on by Jann, I purchased fabric and a how-to book at the store.

How much did that cost, Colleen?  You say just a little bit?

We returned to Jann's house and spent the rest of the day and a good part of the night trying to figure out how to do it, Colleen doing the stacking and Jann doing the whacking.  I've been sewing the blocks together ever since we returned home on Thursday.  Eventually I'll have fifteen blocks in the style you see here.  It was lots of fun but I wouldn't have tackled it without a cohort.  Thanks, Jann.

The cutting technique gives you a kaleidoscope effect when
it's sewn back together.  Every one is different and unique.

It's impossible to anticipate how it's going to look until it's
all together.  I love seeing the design emerge.

Our Search for the Beach

Last Friday we decided to travel by car across the bridge and go down the coast of Fort Myers Beach to Lovers Island and maybe as far as Naples.  We packed a picnic lunch and our cameras so we could send you a nice tropical beach picture from the west coast to go with the beach photos we have from Vero.  Within five miles of our marina we hit a traffic jam and crawled along until we finally crossed a scenic bridge with a beautiful view of both the Gulf of Mexico and the ICW.  Fort Myers Beach was packed wall-to-wall with beach goers.  Although there is lots of public parking, not a space was to be had.  We drove south for miles, getting hungrier and hungrier and seeing nothing but people and an occasional tantalizing glimpse of beautiful blue-green water.  There were many pull-offs with 4 to 5 public parking spaces but every one was full.  Finally, our stomachs would let us go no further and we pulled into a little park/playground area and had lunch.  By then we were in sight of a mangrove swamp and a canal but no beach.  So, sorry guys, no Florida west coast beach pictures -yet, unless you're really craving a sight of sun drenched sand.  In that case you can sign onto this website and then click Beaches on the right: 
www.fortmyers-sanibel.com.

A Little Taste of the Upcoming Edison Light Parade

Yesterday we had an unexpected treat when we heard that the Edison Children's Parade would be taking place in the afternoon.  We trekked a few blocks, found some Girl Scouts from whom we bought Thin Mints and claimed a good spot on the sidewalk to watch this "just for kids" parade.  It featured many entertaining local high school bands and lots of cute kids and was a great way to spend a bit of the afternoon.  This Saturday is the main event, the annual Edison Light Parade, and the locals are pretty excited about it, already taping off sections of the sidewalk and laying claim to their favorite viewing areas.  We'll look for a spot we can claim too.

There were 8 very tired looking daddies harnessed by rope to this line of children - about 50 wagons
 in 2 rows, two kids/wagon.  I think they did not know how hard their task would be!

There were maybe 20 high school marching bands participating.

There were quite a few floats

Many of the floats were quite small and imaginative and were education themed.

First street was blocked off so were able to get a good photo of the palms.

Still More Palm Trees

Last week we watched some guys in a cherry picker trimming palm trees on the street behind our boat.  We thought you might enjoy the photos.

A frond is about to fall.  I just couldn't get one in motion.

This is the pod that encases the seeds you see on the right.. 

This is inside the seed pod, which breaks open and sends
 pollen into the air when it's ripe.  Wayne later saw one
fall to the ground and spew out pollen.

 

Fort Myers - February 4-7

Yet another palm tree in the City of Palms

Artfest Fort Myers, 2012

ArtFest Fort Myers last weekend was an impressive three-day immersion in all kinds of visual art.  Wayne gave you a taste in our last blog of the show setup that we could watch from our back deck and then Saturday and Sunday hordes of people showed up to see the work of 214 artists.  This juried show accepts only about one-fourth of the artists who apply to exhibit here,  We're told that the city of Fort Myers maintains a staff of three people whose job it is to prepare all year for this show.  Wayne and I both enjoyed the unique opportunity to stroll through the art booths at will and eventually found our own favorites.  We had a chance to talk with several of the artists and to learn about their techniques, all the way from the Best of Show winner, John Costin (go to www.costingraphics.com to see the etched piece that won him the prize) , to Prince Duncan-Williams who painstakingly glues silk threads in different colors to create large splendidly detailed iridescent pictures (www.princesilkcreations.com).  A special favorite that we found is Christine Reichow, a watercolor artist who draws and paints wonderful birds (www.christinereichow.com).

Wayne enjoying the ArtFest

Crowds of folks all day Saturday and Sunday

This booth was located right behind our boat.  We watched its
owner arrange and rearrange her art works over several hours Friday afternoon.

The show ended at 5:00 PM on Sunday and within a few hours all the tents and the art were packed up and gone.  You would never have known they were there.

Stinky Boat Repairs

On Sunday our aft shower drain ceased pumping water.  Wayne investigated that and discovered that the pump switch on the sump pump that gets rid of shower water had gone bad.  Water had overflowed the shower sump and had dumped into the bilge under the floor of the boat.  Oh, goody!  You would be surprised how smelly shower water becomes.  Another trip to West Marine for a new switch and then several hours spent re-installing the sump system and hand pumping into a bucket the very soapy, smelly shower water that must have been  collecting in the space for some period of time.  Problem solved in time for Colleen's next shower.

More stinky stuff:
Then Wayne had a busy afternoon yesterday as he attacked the lingering sewer odor that we notice in the boat occasionally.  Without going into too much gruesome detail, I can tell you that he thoroughly pumped and flushed our two sewage holding tanks five times; then crawled into the engine room located under the salon floor to replace a sewer system Y-valve.  This had the potential to be a very odoriferous job but fortunately he spilled only a small amount of sewer water in the course of the repair.    Following this experience he washed thoroughly multiple times and changed clothes.  After which he cleansed all the tools that he had used as well as his hands in Clorox water.  My hero!

One Cooking Triumph
Okay, I'm getting better.  Rice Krispie Treats I can handle.

Three tablespoons margarine; melt and mix in 40 large marshmallows.  Stir over medium heat
 until all is melted.  Stir in six cups of Rice Krispies.

Quilting Projects

Colleen is pleased to announce a completely finished quilt.  This small baby quilt will be donated to a charity that I work with in Charlotte.  Project Linus is a national organization that donates homemade blankets to children who are ill or who are experiencing difficult life situations.  Check out their web site (www.projectlinus.org).  It's a wonderful worthy cause.