Delilah's Meanderings

On a quiet morning sprinkled with rain, we set out for warmer temperatures. We have spent the last six nights at Ft. Myers Beach mooring field. Today we are making our way south down the coast to Marathon in the Middle Keys. With luck we might be able to pick up a mooring ball at Boot Key Harbor. There is usually a fairly long waiting list this time of year. I called a few days ago and only six boats in our size range were waiting. Fingers crossed that number hasn't gotten too much higher!

We were in Pelican Bay on our last blog post. We left there Wednesday morning, January 6. The day was cool with enough breeze to motor sail. On our way, we saw lots of wildlife. Always such a pleasure. There was a large fleet of brown pelicans diving for breakfast and later a really big pod of white pelicans lazing on a sandbar. I actually looked up what a group of pelicans are called. There are many names such as pod and squadron and if diving for food together, they are called a fleet. So there you go, you're welcome. ;) We got a kick out of an osprey carrying an enormous stick to his nest above a channel marker. Best of all, we saw four dolphins putting on a show. We passed a double-decker tour boat and the dolphins were playing in front of the bow of the boat. They were so graceful and seemed to really be enjoying themselves! I got a couple of photos. A little fuzzy but still able to see the beauty of the dolphins. We continued to see dolphins on our five-hour trip but nothing quite as impressive as the show for the tour boat!

When we arrived at Ft. Myers Beach, we were assigned mooring ball #6. Wow! We couldn't believe our luck to be up front so close to the dinghy dock and amenities. Picking up the mooring ball was very smooth this time. Wind and current were in sync as were Mark and I. He scoops up the pennant for the mooring ball with me driving the boat. We prefer to use hand signals instead of attempting to communicate by yelling. I'm sure our neighbors in the mooring field appreciate this. Although on second thought, some people enjoy watching an uncomfortable exchange. Yikes.
Next we put Delilah back in order and then took the dinghy in to take advantage of the showers. WooHoo! Dinner was lovely at Parrot Key (Salty Sam's Marina) and we splurged on dessert. Fried banana cheesecake with pelican poop ice cream was so delicious. We made a pact to only have dessert once a week. So far so good. Well, so far so depressing. ha ha

The next day (Thursday, January 7) Mark cleaned up our folding bikes and took them ashore. We rode bikes to Bowditch Point and checked out the beach. Didn't do much walking as Mark is struggling with a sore right knee. Hopped back on the bikes and went a couple miles south for lunch at The Charros Brothers. Then we walked on the boardwalk trails at Matanzas Pass Preserve. Last time we were here, the Preserve was closed. Apparently they were improving the trails because this boardwalk looked very new. When we returned to the boat, we called the office and requested to move further out into the east mooring field. Crazy. But Mark was getting a very poor computer connection and at times would even lose connection altogether. We thought it might be because we were so close to the bridge and various other interferences. We've never had connection trouble in past years moored back in the east field. Moving was necessary as Mark had a project at work that was a priority.

Friday was fairly quiet for us. Dock-master was able to get Delilah's holding tank pumped out before the projected strong winds. Mark worked a full day at his computer job. I worked on our grocery list. Seems I'm constantly doing an inventory of our provisions. Some might say I've got a bit of OCD. We got off the boat for lunch and to stretch our legs. We were both dragging a bit. The night before was as much awake time as sleep time. Delilah was fighting a losing battle to keep away from our mooring ball. Instead of the wind keeping us a nice distance from the ball, the current was much stronger in the opposite direction. This caused the mooring ball to constantly bang along the sides of Delilah. Not being prejudiced, the ball would bang on one side and the other. Also the line from the ball to the cleats on the boat would rub along our front stays. Sometimes even the little mast on top of the mooring ball would get hooked up in the spinnaker track stays and make a strange clang when released. These noises aren't bothersome in the cockpit or on deck, but believe me, they sound pretty mean when trying to sleep inside the boat right near the entire mooring ball set up. Grrrrr. We played Scrabble (instead of Rummy). Mark had an excellent game. He had two bingos! Reminiscing I'm getting some nice feelings about his skill and luck with the tiles. That night while I was getting tromped, not so much.

The next day we went to shore again for lunch off the boat. Sat up on the top deck at The Whale. Very, very breezy but such a great view! Since it was so windy, we decided to stay on Delilah the rest of the day. Mark had gotten up really early to get in his work hours so he did some maintenance work around the boat. Then we sat together and looked over the charts. Talked about where we wanted to go and when. The weather looked to consistently be about 10 degrees warmer at night down in the Keys. No brainer. That evening we played 6-card Golf. We prepared for a really cold evening. Mark got out his sleeping bag and I doubled up on blankets!

On Sunday, we woke up to 53 degrees inside Delilah. Think the temp was about 46 outside. Pretty darn cold. We took the dinghy in fairly early so I could get started on laundry. Mark returned to the the boat and continued working his day job. I am always so happy to have the laundry done. Everything feels fresh again! We picked up our groceries in the early afternoon. Been using Instacart. Groceries get delivered to us in the parking lot of Matanzas Inn office and we dinghy them back to the boat. This system has worked really well for us. The absolute convenience of this costs a little bit more than if we took the shuttle bus to Publix. Thank goodness Mark is able to work part-time from wherever we are! Sunday night is pasta night at Island View Restaurant - top of Lani Kai hotel. We arrived a little early, so hungry. Our server had been so busy that day, she didn't even realize it was time for the special menu. I think we surprised her! We sat right by the window which afforded us a fantastic view of the sunset. We could see a large sand sculpture of a mermaid on the beach below. So many people were stopping to take photos with the mermaid. It was fun people watching! The evening would have been perfect, except two couples were yelling their conversation loud enough to be disturbing. We've done really well with staying outside to eat or being very far away other diners. In this case, they were in the booth behind us with the tall plastic partition above the booth backs. Too close for comfort in many ways.

Our last day ashore on Monday, we decided to lunch again at The Charros Bros. Their food is so fresh and delicious. Our new favorite is vegetarian tostados. Yum yum yummy! We walked again around Matanzas Pass Preserve. We spent most of the day preparing for travel. I cleaned the boat while Mark completed a long to do list getting Delilah ready. I rationalized that since we would be eating all meals on the boat for the next few days, we should also eat dinner out. Went to Original Shrimp Dock Bar & Grill at Salty Sam's. Food there has been hit or miss for us over the years. That night was a definite hit! We both ordered portobello mushroom tacos at the suggestion of our server. She was adorable and oh so right about the tacos! Played Rummy as we do most nights. Went to bed way early. Knew we wanted to get an early start heading south the next day.

So here we are. It's Tuesday and we dropped the mooring ball at 6:40 this morning. Dolphins were eating in groups of two all along our way out of the channel from Ft. Myers Beach out to the Gulf. We've been underway for a few hours. Very little wind so we are motoring. The weather continues to be a light drizzle. Hopefully we'll go all the way to Panther Key to anchor this evening. Then on to Little Shark River the next day and Boot Key Harbor the following day, Thursday, 14th.

Stay safe, friends!