We had to exit the ICW, head under the Sanibel brige and then out into the Gulf for a bit - before making the turn into Ft. Myers Beach. The entrance channel was nearly on the beach. Coleen was pretty worried that we were so were so close to shore.
Just past the Ft. Myers Beach bridge is a huge mooring field. This was our first time staying on a mooring and I was a little nervous about how hard it would be to pick it up. It actually only took 2 tries :-) Was I ever surprised by how dirty that pennant line turned out to be. I snagged it with the boat hook and quickly grabbed it covering myself and the deck with yucky mucky slime! Coleen grabbed a bucket and washed it down before I even asked - great first mate that she is!
After settling in - we climbed in the dinghy and made our way into the dinghy dock, tied up and checked in at the office. It's $13 day - includes showers, free pumpout (a pumpout boat actually comes right out to the mooring), laundry, water, and internet wi-fi. It's only one block to the beach too and a few little shops.
Coleen was so excited to take what she called a "royalty shower"! We then headed over to the restaraunt and had a late dinner before going back to the boat. Coleen sat on the cabin top looking out over the mooring field for a long time. She thought it was very beautiful and was very excited to be here.
We have some fun things planned for the weekend - museums, shopping, etc. I've actually rented a car for the weekend and we're planning to do a major reprovisioning trip before heading to the expensive Florida Keys.
On another note....it's been two weeks since we filled with water at St. Petersburg and we're still not empty - and I didn't even dig into that 6 gallons of rainwater I gathered..... This will be our first time ferrying water in the dinghy in jerry cans.