Hi there F&F ,
Well, back on the trip again after a wonderful 8 days in Naples.Caught up with Exxon Mobil Friends, Karen and Bob and Curtis and Judy.Also our Canadian friends who we had Christmas with, Barbara and Stephen plus their Florida friends, the Murray's . We stayed 5 nights at the Naples City dock, a basic marina but we had a great face dock with wonderful views of the water and then 3 nights at the Naples Boat Club which was more fancy including a daily newspaper delivered each morning to our boat.Also had a heated pool and lovely club house .Of course it was twice the price! The City dock had lots of sightseers coming to look at the boats so not a lot of privacy on occasions.The Naples Boat club slip we had was opposite a working marina , so we got lots of noise and activity from about 8 am til 5 pm with cranes and boats being pulled out of the water .But these things didnt affect our stay too much.Naples is a clean , well planned and nice city.Lots of entertainment and restaurants.We went to a play called Barefoot in the Park which was cute.Houses are amazing ,lots of money in this place! And nice beaches too.
So we left Naples around 10 am on the 24 th , winding our way back down past the huge waterfront homes to Gordon's Pass and out to the ocean of the Gulf of Mexico. Lovely sunny day and waves about 2 ft with a headwind. We saw our first sea turtle shortly afterwards and then encountered lots and lots of crab pots .Some of the crab pot markers (usually round floating balls of various colors )were difficult to see especially if they were painted black.So instead of putting the boat onto autopilot, we needed to keep alert and steer between them. Fortunately we had the sun behind us which made it slightly easier. Nice trip though and we saw very few boats out. At the Boca Grande inlet we saw another sea turtle and some dolphins and a few fishing boats.The area is know for its tarpon fishing.In fact they call it the tarpon fishing capital of the world! The area teems with many fish varieties such as flounder, pompano (an area favorite),snook, grouper snapper , sheepshead, king fish , and mackerel just to name a few!
As we entered into the Boca Grande marina, who should we see,friends we made a year ago when we were at Lake Okeechobee, Mary and Bob MJM boat owners.In fact they were docked right next to us.It was a fun reunion and after drinks on our boat we all went out to dinner on the golf cart to PJ' s Sea Grille and had the wonderful freshly caught Pompano fish. Truly delicious.
Then it was back to our Marina to watch some of the days golf on TV and bed.
Over and out
Erica
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