After kayaking the Ding Darling Trail with Tom and Paula Vail, we stowed the kayaks, pulled anchor and headed for Ft. Myers. The weather was very stormy, with big wind! Tom and Paula wanted to get to the Owl Creek Marina today because they plan to fly back to Arizona and need to get
Life's TraVails settled. Owl Creek Marina is located up the Caloosahatchie River, ten miles north of Ft. Myers. We plan to stop at the Ft. Myers Yacht Basin to catch our breath over the next week. In addition to exploring the area, we hope to see Lake Okeechobee rise during our layover.
We bid farewell to the Vails and headed back out into the channel. Sailing vessel
Argo II is anchored with us and leaving at the same time. The crew struggles with the anchor against the strong winds, but quickly catch us and run down the channel with
Life's TraVails at their starboard side. It looks like they are racing!
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| Paul and Tom Raising the Anchor |
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| Argo II Wrestling With the Wind |
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| Argo II and Life's TraVails Racing to Ft. Myers |
Video of Argo II vs. Life's TraVails
It was a relief to turn up the Caloosahatchie River toward Ft. Myers. The storms chased us all the way in. We passed a funny looking shack on the south side of the River. There was no mention of it in our Waterway Guide or on Active Captain but we found Jasper's Bait online later. It sure got our attention and inspired a good look-see through the binoculars.
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| Jasper's Bait on the Caloosahatchie River |
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| Our view of Jasper's Bait from the channel |
We had to go under three high bridges in very choppy waters which only got worse throughout the day! As we went under each bridge we battled washing machine motion and were tossed around like a toy boat. We barely made it to Ft. Myers Yacht Basin Marina before the sky opened and the wind gusts began to rattle our halyards! It rained so hard, we were happy with our decision to make this a layover instead of a one day pass by. These storms are frightening! We are docked just inside the jetty for the night. We will have to move to a slip tomorrow for the remainder of our stay.
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| Beautiful private home on the Caloosahatchie |
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| Our Haven For a Week |
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| Rain streaming down our windows |
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| It's so heavy we can't see out our windows |
Rain Streaming Down Window
Rain at the dock, Ft. Myers Yacht Basin
The sheet of water running down the window looks like a movie special effect. It's easy to forget how fierce the summer t-boomers can be in Florida. Hope Okeechobee comes up enough for you to traverse it. Hugs!
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