MEETING MRS. NOONAN'S CLASS AT LAST!

One final note...I promise!

Mrs. Noonan's (our niece) 4th grade class had been following our blog since we left and it was fun to communicate with them throughout our trip. They researched and guessed about birds and animals we were posting, the places we were traveling by; they even went to their school gymnasium and laid out a tape measure the length of 42 feet (same as Free Bird) to get an idea how big she really is.  And they made us super cool Christmas cards!  We were so delighted to have them virtually on board during our entire journey!

We had always hoped we would make it back to Dubuque in time and be able to meet them face to face before the school year ended.  Friday, May 8th we made that happen and were so glad we did as it was so fun to meet them!  They had a lot of great questions for us.  They were very disappointed that we were not able to bring boat cat Molly along but we all made the best of it.  Molly was having so much fun just being home we couldn't bear to take her away.

Thanks to them for being a part of it all and especially to Mrs. Noonan.  You'll never know how much this meant to us.  Hope we all have the funnest Summer ever!

THE FINALE - LAST SAILING TRIP OF THE SEASON

We wanted to get out sailing one last time and hit some "new water" too.  

DAY ONE - to Cayo Costa we go once again.  This has just been our "go to" place ever since we arrived here.  It has such great protection and always offers a ton of wildlife above and below the sea.  It is just a nice distance from the marina and is a great hopping off point whether heading north or south as it is basically where Charlotte Harbor meets the ICW.  This time we will head south!

DAY TWO - on to anchor just off York Island, next to Pine Island.  York is uninhabited and just serene.  Nice to get away from the crowds and just kick back and enjoy a phenomenal sunset!  

DAY THREE and FOUR - heading towards Cape Coral.  We found an anchorage on Active Captian called Glover's Bight.  But first we had to go through the "Miserable Mile".  This portion of the ICW is know as such as you are following an east/west course here and the prevailing wind and currents set north to south.  That accompanied by a narrow waterway and LOTS of boat traffic can make this part of the passage challenging.  Beyond this point, the western Florida ICW ends.   We are going to turn up the Caloosahatchie River and head to our anchorage.  Passed a cool little floating outpost called Jasper's.  

It is open 24/7 and supplies not only all types of bait, but boat parts, natuical items and even ice cream!  Will have to stop there some time.  Continued on to our anchorage for the evening which is adjacent to the Cape Coral Westin hotel. They also have a nice marina that lets transient anchored boaters come in to shower - perfect!  

Made this place our home for 2 nights.  Went in and had a nice dinner and marveled at all the manta rays swimming and jumping around.  Molly the dolly has been loving being out to sea.  She just loves getting out of the marina and is such a joy to have with us.  We are blessed to have such a good kitty!

DAY FIVE and SIX - Fort Myers Beach here we come!  We had considered actually moving Free Bird down to FMB for the month of May but thought better of it when we realized it would be Spring Break time.  We were also just getting to know our Fishville dockmates and with my PT being done in Punta Gorda it just made sense to stay put.  But, we were anixous to come down and grab a mooring ball and hang out for a few days.  This was the view as we came in...

Then under the bridge and "grab a can".  This mooring facility has a dinghy dock, showers, laundry and other amenties geared specifically towards the boating community.  The price was right at just $15 a night and we got a great view to boot!

We walked all around town and soaked up the scenery.  Lots of people!!  

Our friends Rick & Sherrie that we met on the Loop were staying at Moss Marina nearby.  We got together with them for an early dinner.  When we came back to the boat we had a visitor - a freeloader on Free Bird!!!

The nerve of that bird!  Enjoyed a nice sunset joined by Rick & Sherrie.  They scooted back home via flashlight...

The next day we ran into another couple we met Looping Bob & Cami on Eclipse. They were out in the mooring field with us and came on board to visit as well. So cool to see folks that we know!  Time to start heading back "home" to Fishville.

DAY SEVEN - Got a call from Gary & Judy on S/V Cool Runnings.  They wanted to go out for a couple nights and asked if we wanted to meet up and anchor. We chose a spot just off of the Ding Darling Wildlife Sanctuary on Sanibel Island.  It was pretty shallow but we found a great spot and they joined us soon after.  We tried to dinghy around but it was too shallow to get in to most places.  

DAY EIGHT - Back to Cayo Costa, our home away from home.  Always something to see.  One more night on the hook here with friends and back to Fishville we go.  What a great way to end our trip and our first season South!

FULL CIRCLE - FIELD TRIPS

Our adventures extended beyond Punta Gorda and we found ourselves taking a couple of side trips via car.  

The first trip was up near St. Petersburg, FL to visit a couple we met on the Loop, John & Karen Bell (M/V Sundowner).  You might remember previous blogs which included them and their awesome boat cat, Captain Jack.

They completed the Loop in 8 months and invited us to come up and spend a few days at their lovely home just off the ICW in Seminole.  We just kind of bonded with these 2 folks and Jack during our days enroute to Florida and were excited to see them again.  

Quite the view from their house,
and Sundowner is moored right in their front yard!

 When we got to their house a couple of other Loopers, Cassie & Tom from Utah were also there.  It was kind of like a mini-reunion.  

John W, John B, Capt. Jack, Sara, Karen, Tom & Cassie

Spent 2 full days there taking in the sights, meeting 2 of their daughters and just spending some friend time together.  

Sunset view from their back deck

St. Pete Harbor on a calm afternoon

On the Sun Dial plaza

Getting some excercise on one stop during the Brewery portion of the tour

John W. & Karen out paddling around

Can you say D-I-V-E bar??  Oh yeah!!!

Not sure what he is hoping to find???

Our second excursion was across to the other side of Florida to Cocoa Beach.  The goal was to catch an Atlas IV rocket launch and visit the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral.  John's 60th birthday was approaching and he has always wanted to go there.  Thought this would be the perfect early birthday present.  We even got to take Molly along!

Taking a dip in the Atlantic

Cool sand sculpture named Alfred

View from the restaurant at our hotel

The night launch, very cool!

The rocket "garden"

Assembly building

Saturn V rocket, simply amazing.

Space shuttle

Would have been so cool to one of these take off

The "crawler" that delivers rockets to the launch pad

My little space fan!

We saw and accomplished all we had hoped for and more.  We even got to see where John's dad used to be stationed at the the Banana River Naval Base.  It is now known as Patrick Air Force Base and it was kind of special for John to even go by it.  

As we left to head back "home", we took a drive down the barrier island chain that lines the Atlantic side of Florida to Fort Pierce before scooting back across the state.  A fine finish to a wonderful trip!

Stay tuned for the next blog post where we will be back on Free Bird on the waters of Charlotte Harbor and down the ICW to Fort Myers Beach.

FULL CIRCLE - CRITTERS OF LAND, SEA AND SKY

The 2nd installment of our 2014/5 season wrap-up we will dedicate to the wondrous birds and animals of land, sea and sky!  We have seen sooo many neat things since our arrival in Florida.  Unfortunatley many of our sightings are just great memories we carry with us as we were were unable to snap a picture in time.  

LAND - We still saw even more alligators and we think a crocodile too, both on and off land!  We saw them walking and swimming while taking walks near our marina, from our dinghy when we were out and from our kayaks, wow!

Baby alligators, aren't they cute!

Taken at Charlotte Harbor Environmental Center

Snapped this one from my kayak yikes!

This guy was lurking in a backwater area of Cayo Costa.

Saw many tortoises on Cabbage Key.
This one is heading down into his house!

They were so big and prehistoric-looking!

This little family was hanging out in Shell Creek.

What a balancing act - I think this is one of my favortite pics!!

SEA - If John said it once, he said it 20 times, "this water is just teeming with life".  We saw creatures we had never seen before.  Every day was a new adventure, literally.  Many of them were hard to capture on "film" so don't have as many sea pictures as we would like.

Our Manatee encounter was amazing!  We were in Marley in a small bay in Cayo Costa State Park and we spotted a few.  John turned off the motor and we were just drifting.  Next thing we know there are 4 of them rolling around and bumping into us.  We think they were mating - whoops!  Apparently we got a little too close and SPLASH, we got really wet.  It was so cool!

And then there were the less common animals we came upon...

Portguese Man-O-War jellyfish - very venemous!

Morning Snook feeding frenzy.  
A view over the side of the boat.  Above is late Febraury.  
Below is 3 weeks later in March.  They grew fast!

Never tired of the constant companionship of our dolphin friends!.  

Manta rays were everywhere south of Pine Island.  
John even saw them jumping through the air out of the water!

SKY - We enjoyed seeing the birds that we normally see in Wisconsin wintering down South (just like us) such as the Sandhill Cranes, Loons, Mergansers, Egrets, Herons and Wood Ducks. But what was really cool for us was being able to see other birds that we have never seen before in such a variety of settings.  

A heron making his home on the North
 end of Gasparilla Island.

Sandpipers are everywhere.
I never tire of the way they run along the water's edge.

A Limpkin we saw while kayaking on Shell Creek.

Pink Spoonbills near our friend's home in St. Petersburg

Way cool Ibis on Cayo Costa.
Have never seen one with feet and a bill this red!!!

While this is just a lowly Kormorant,
it was really interesting to watch him take "down" this snake!

Thought he was having a problem, but then...

down she goes!

Again, there was so much more that we saw but aren't able to show you.  

Every day was a learning expereince.  I think that is one of the things we love about being in Southern Florida.  

More to follow...stay tuned!