Naples and Fort Myers Beach

After spending the 4^th of July at Naples City Moorings and watching 2 spectacular fireworks displays from the boat we set off early on the 5^th for Wiggins Pass and the Delnor Wiggins State Park.



A Naples channel marker

A Naples Beach Shack

Nice quick sail, 6 to 7 knots in smooth seas. Wiggins pass is quite narrow gets even narrower as you enter the park. There is a small lagoon in the park which was ideal for us. We dropped the anchor in 2’! The daily thunderstorm tested our holding but we passed.

Wiggins Pass

Our daily storm in the Delnor Wiggins State Park Lagoon

On to Fort Myers Beach next and the City Mooring Field. We chose to stay out on the ocean side and approach the mooring from the west instead of the Big Carlos Pass to the east. The main beach was packed with weekend holiday makers and several boats with parasails were operating in the area.

The Fort Myers Beach mooring field

Fort Myers Beach

The moorings at Fort Myers Beach are administered by the nearby Matanzas Inn and are really quite nice and the staff are friendly and efficient. They have the best bathroom facilities we have seen at any marina and a clean coin operated laundry. There are grocery, hardware, and marine stores nearby and a trolly bus service if you need to go further afield.

We have stayed longer than expected at Ft Myers Beach due to some fairly foul weather systems moving into the gulf. Even had a strong gust flip our dinghy over at the dock and Neptune grabbed one of our oars. The people here are so nice, one guy grabbed the overturned dink and saved further loss and someone else went back to their boat and returned with 2 new oars! Thanks Fort Myers folk, you are just great! Hopefully we will be on our way again in a few days.

A small waterspout over the beach

A cold front approaching

 

Next: Sanibel, Captiva, and Cayo Costa Islands, Boca Grande, and Venice Beach.

Back on Board!

We are back on board our little Seawind after almost 2 years. The last 22 months have been really busy but truly interesting. We worked for a few months and then did a 10 month backpacking trip around the world, spending most of the time in India and South East Asia. (Blogs for that trip are still being completed ).

Anyway, the boat is in fine shape, a little more faded but Calusa Island Marina took fine care of her. We put her back together at our old spot at The Pink House Motel and set off for our next planned residence, Panama City, FL. The plan is to take around 2 months to get there stopping and exploring the Florida west coast as we go.

We set off from Goodland and snaked our way up the ICW via Marco Island and on to Naples where we will be staying to enjoy the Independence Day celebrations before moving on to Fort Myers. The Naples City Dock is a small but really friendly marina. We chose to stay on the moorings as it gives us good privacy and at $10/day it is good value. They have clean showers, and laundry facilities on site and a good grocery store in easy walking distance.

Naples City Dock Florida

Big storm approaching at Naples



A few minutes later
 

Beautiful sunset after the storm

Next, Naples to Fort Myers..........