It's hard to believe a month has passed by already since my last post. Our month at Fort Myers had hopes of big projects accomplished and some business trips for Ed as well as some local sightseeing and bicycling, but all had to be pared down a bit. By the end of our first week, I was knocked back to reality by sudden onset of intense vertigo. For two days, I was a helpless spinning creature, throwing up the first 14 hours every time my head moved a fraction of an inch and cowered in my dark cave of a cabin. Thankfully, that passed, but the spinning continued, and continued and continued. Ed took me to an Urgent Care clinic, and after they ruled out all the most terrifying options, the doctor told me it was "probably" an inner ear viral infection, and I should be better in a week or so. But I wasn't. The world continued to spin, sometimes out of control so that I could not walk alone off the boat. Ed canceled his long business trip to stay in my whirlwind, bless his heart. He did have to make one overnight trip so he prepared everything on the boat for me so I wouldn't have to leave at all. I told him it was like preparing to leave a pet cat for an overnight trip. Litter box ready (holding tank empty); water bowl filled (water tank filled); food prepared (sandwiches made and snacks in fridge).

Now those of you who do not boat may wonder what it's like to have vertigo when you live on a boat. It was not a problem for me at all until we had a cold front come through with high winds causing the boat to bounce so much that even those without vertigo were hanging in the marina lounge for the afternoon. That is the first time in my life I've very said, "I have to get off this boat." I sat in the marina lounge all afternoon and stared at the wall. I helped a fellow cruiser figure out how to set up her new Garmin handheld GPS and then download some charting software so her iPad. And I heard some great stories from the liveaboards. Thankfully, once it settled down later that day, I was fine able to go back home. Actually, it was easier in the boat that on land. I had handholds to keep me steady, whereas, on land there are no handholds so I walked like a drunk unable to maintain a straight line.

We considered a trip back to the doctor, but after reading everything we could find on the Internet, we decided that since I was having more and more non-spinning episodes and since many folks said the time and money spent on many, many tests did not render much help, we would wait and see how it went. There are many causes of this crazy spinning sensation, and I was shocked at how many people said, "Oh, yea, I've had that before." By the second week, I was doing better so we began to get out some. I read that the brain sometimes needs to be retrained on how to perceive balance so I figured the best I could do was get as active as I could stand. We drove to Miami and visited the Miami Boat Show. I held Ed's arm the whole time and found I could not look up or sideways, but otherwise, I still enjoyed the overwhelming array of "stuff" one could purchase for boats.
Back in Fort Myers, I started tackling small projects, then bigger projects, but I would get exhausted from fighting the spinning sensation. As those who know me know well, I don't give up easily, so I kept at it and found that although there would be days with major setbacks, I was slowly getting better. EXCEPT, in the third week after nearly two days of little spinning, I decided to have my first glass of red wine with dinner since this all began. I woke up the next morning set back 10 days. When I got to where I could get back on the computer, I found that red wine has something called Tyramine, a chemical that can cause the onset of non-headache vestibular migraines, all the symptoms of which I had experienced in those first few days. Could it be that? I am avoiding all alcohol, and all the list of foods with tyramine now, and I'm getting better every day. I'll wait a while and start adding in the least likely culprits one at a time. And we revel in and enjoy life every day that we feel well, well aware that life has no future guaranteed for us.

So, this past Saturday was "D" Day. Our month was up at Fort Myers, a few projects were completed with the rest able to wait until our next long stop, and the weather was fantastic. Stay and wait out to see if I stay better or go for it? GO FOR IT! We headed out with all the possible stops we could make noted if I started feeling bad. We headed into the Gulf of Mexico and straight for Naples, our intended destination. I felt and still feel completely normal even with rocking and bumping over big boat wakes, unless I turn my head one certain way to the right. It's the strangest thing I could imagine--a rocking boat doesn't bring it on but turning my head in one direction, rocking or not, makes me spin. I've learned NOT TO DO THAT.

So here we are in beautiful Naples, the winter playground of the 1%, among all the ostentatious (add all the synonyms here, too) homes, boats, toys one could imagine. But I love the fact that the wonderful City Dock here has 6 moorings for $10.00 per night that the "regular folk" can use. Even the transient slips are very reasonably priced. We headed out yesterday for a long walk through town enjoying the greenery with flowers blooming everywhere and happened up on the Naples Concert Band about to perform in the city park. There were hundreds of people in their folding chairs under the shade trees ready to enjoy. They were fantastic and reminded me of my friends Wayne and Leslie who could whip up a comparable performance from middle schoolers in less than three years.

As I write this, the weather forecast north of us is quite bleak, but here we enjoy sunny skies, 80's in the day, 60's at night. The front will pass us, too, on Thursday, but other than a little wind and maybe a thunderstorm passing us quickly, it will soon return to this beautiful weather. Our plan is to leave here and settle into a safe anchorage in Marco Island to wait out Thursday's front, the position ourselves at the southernmost Marco Island anchorage and wait for a weather window to head out into the Gulf for the Keys. Hopefully, that will be Saturday or Sunday.

Oh, and Fort Myers, we did enjoy the Edison Museum, the small downtown area restaurants, the fabulous Lush French Bakery breads, the nearby Centennial Park, the weekly farmers market, the Edison Light Festival, and a visit with Pensacola native pals, Tom and Patsy, also staying for a while there, but unfortunately, we found that the small downtown area is surrounded by a very ugly and very sprawling suburban sprawl with a crime rate that included us as a statistic. My wonderful bicycle got stolen from the marina bike rack while I was sick, one of 10 bikes stolen in 10 days from the marina. Of course, it was locked, but the lock was cut. Some were stolen from on a boat deck, and two were stolen while locked on a rack while the owners were at a restaurant for dinner. There are no security cameras, and while the marina staff was sympathetic, they did not seem overly shocked that this was happening. For the price we paid, I felt the city should be providing more security, but an officer or two walking through during the day when none were stolen didn't cut it. We will likely not spend another long stay there although it is a great marina otherwise.

Fort Myers, Florida Photo Gallery

Naples, Florida Photo Gallery