Thursday, October 17th - to North Fort Myers, FL, the end of the voyage
Lazy morning, with cinnamon rolls for breakfast before we got underway at 9:30 am. Before leaving we took a walk around the park looking for manatees and alligators but there were none to be seen.
The morning was cool - a big change from what we'd been experiencing. For the last week we'd already been sweating at 8 am with the heat and humidity. Because of the front that went through, it was 67 degrees this morning, not humid at all and I actually put on a fleece jacket due to the "chill." The day warmed up by 9:30 - just gorgeous with clear blue skies, no clouds whatsoever - and temps that eventually reached the low 80's.
As soon as we left our dock at the park we called the Franklin Lock, situated right next door. This is the last lock on the US Army Corps of Engineer's canal, and the last big hurdle we needed to pass before our destination. They were ready for us so we entered the lock without any wait and zipped right through. It was only a three-foot drop and then we were back in tidal waters heading west to North Fort Myers.
The upper Caloosahatchee River was pretty, with a combination of nice houses and mangrove swamps. We rounded a bend in the river about 10:30 and could see the Ft. Myers skyline in front of us - very exciting. We motored by downtown Ft. Myers, then at ICW Red Day Marker 58 took a right turn to the north and followed the private day markers into the Paradise Yacht Club.
We arrived at the entrance to the PYC basin - and our GPS's alarm went off`- at 11:31 am. In 22 days we traveled 1,898 statute miles, with only one day "off", the day we spent in Morehead City, NC where we met Gram and Anne. That's an average of 90 miles a day - pretty good considering we were running at 10 mph!
We found our dock space and Mike did a heck of a job backing Golden into it - a tight fit in between the dock fingers. We were welcomed by our next-door neighbor Arnie (on a DownEaster 38 sailboat), and tied up our lines.
We then all stood around the boat and looked at each other and said, "OK, now what?" It was very anticlimactic. Where are the dancing bears and fireworks? We decided we definitely needed a celebratory dinner tonight!
So here we are, in North Fort Myers, Florida, safe and sound. I hope everyone enjoyed our adventures, which - fortunately - weren't too adventurous, but lots of fun instead.
