Englewood, FL to Ft Myers, FL

Date             December 15, 2011
Day              170

Departure      Royal Palm Marina, Englewood, FL 7:30 am                              

Arrival           Legacy Harbour Marina, Ft. Myers, FL 4:35 pm
Miles                83.0  
Cumulative   4043.6

We left early today as we wanted to get to Ft. Myers, FL and it was a good distance away.  We had to wait 25 minutes for a bridge to open.  They only opened on the hour and half hour and we couldn't make it in time for the earlier opening.  We came upon a car ferry that was rather unique.  There were two ferries, one on each side of the waterway.  They would both leave at the same time and travel to the opposite side of the waterway.  Fortunately, they waited for us to go by, as there wasn't a lot of room for all of us to meet in the channel!

One of the car ferries getting passengers

The cruising guide indicated that the controlling depth for the upcoming channels was 5 feet.  We need 4 four or we are on the bottom.  We were close to a pass that led out into the Gulf of Mexico, so we decided to head out and go down the Gulf in open water, rather than stay in the intercoastal and worry about the water depths.  The only issue in the Gulf was crab pots!  Lucky for us, there weren't a lot, just enough to be bothersome and keep you on a constant lookout.  If you snag a crab pot, you can do major damage to the propeller and/or the shaft, not to mention possibly putting a hole in the bottom of the boat.  We were very diligent and wound our way through!  It was late in the day by the time we got to Ft. Myers, so I don't have any more pictures.  However, we will be here for at least the next month, so I'm sure I will have some soon.
Now that we will be staying put for awhile, I can finally put up the Christmas tree!!