Cape Coral

For the next six weeks or so we'll stay at dock in Cape Coral.  It's a convenient location, just an hour down river from all our buddies at Fort Myers, and a great place to get some maintenance work done on the boat.  Gran Vida, as much as we love her, is a little needy.  Like all boats, she needs constant maintenance and upgrades and especially in this harsher salt air and strong sun, you have to keep up on it.

The list of jobs to be completed include:

• firm up and tidy electrical contacts to the flybridge. 
• figure out if/where our water supply is slowly leaking and put a stop to that
• give a complete buff and wax to the topsides of the boat (we did the hull while on shore)
• fix the isinglass windows on the canvas, which have shrunk an no longer close
• make chaps to cover our pvc dinghy to protect it from the damaging uv rays
• complete some necessary repairs on the car while we're parked there.

On and on.  We've been working pretty hard in the heat to get it all done.  Not that I'm complaining.  We're also pretty careful to keep in mind that we're down here to cruise and have fun too, so we always make time to squeeze in a little golfing, pool time and socializing.  Balance.

Here's our view from the boat just after sunset.  
Just behind those palm threes is a small beach on the river and a great tiki bar.
The pool is just to the left.

 

GV in her slip all lit up for Christmas.  A little hard to see in the bright sun.
Unfortunately Jeff "inadvertently" knocked the solar charger for my brand new
solar Christmas lights into the water.  She looked good for a few days!

  

Beatles tribute band in downtown Fort Myers

We still visit our friends in Fort Myers regularly.  This weekend there was a Beetles tribute band.  Every weekend they close off the main street in Fort Myers for special events.  It's a pretty hopping town.  A quick scan of the crowd and one can see we fit the demographic.  It's almost entirely made up of white baby boomers.  A surprisingly homogeneous group.  Where are all the people of colour? Millennials? Families?  If we're the target market they had in mind for downtown, it's certainly working.

Lunch with Dan and Maggie 

We got in a few visits with Dan and Maggie on their way through town.  Dan is my daughter's father-in-law, so we share grandchildren. They are cruising on a remodeled downeast lobster boat that they've all been working on for the past several years.  It was great to see them finally on the go and having so much fun with it.

To celebrate Christmas we moseyed up the river to Fort Myers and took a dock for the night.  There, we enjoyed a pot luck dinner on the dock with fellow boaters.

Cooking Christmas dinner in the cockpit.

The feast

Blowing the Conch.  Time for docktails!!

We'll be here in Cape Coral until mid January.  I'll go home for a quick visit while Jeff stays and watches the boat.  Then we be cruising.  Where?  Well, we'll see which way the wind is blowing.