Day 83, "on the loop", 12/30/2022

boisselle13
Dec 30, 2022
8 min read

Updated: Mar 2

We had a great week and are enjoying our visit with Jonathan. Jonathan met our looper friends, Alain & Danielle (Breakaway).

We arrived at Boca Grande Marina on 12/22 and spent Christmas there. It was low key and a very relaxed celebration. This blog is not in any particular order since the days all seem to blend together. It was like a ghost town when we arrived in Boca as we were 1 of 2 boats at the marina. The other boat was a 100 ft boat, it looks bigger than our dirt house :-).

It was so cold the 24 and 25th that we stayed in the boat most of the time watching football and Christmas movies.

We plan to leave Boca Grande between 12/27 - 12/29, all depending on weather of course!

Sunday, 12/25 - Christmas Day

First, Happy Birthday, Jesus!

"And the angel said to them, 'fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:10 -11) #ChristmasEve

Our Christmas gift this year was the gift of experience. Most of you know, Jonathan joined us on this leg of our Great loop trip, starting in Dunedin, FL - to St. Pete - To Sarasota - to Boca Grande (this leg will end in the Florida Keys). We worked in some of our Christmas traditions by joining our church service virtually on Christmas Eve before having dinner out (Eagles Nest).

We enjoyed cinnamon buns Christmas morning, video chatted with Grampy and Evelyn. We opened our stockings filled with some silly items and chocolates! We did find one gift for Jonathan to open (themed Corn hole bags: 4 - Razorbacks & 4 - New Orlean Saints). For those that don't know, Jonathan loves to play corn hole and although he may not say it, he is pretty good at it.

Over the course of this week, we walked around the town, window shopped, and had lunch at the Pink Elephant. Boca Grande was impacted by the recent hurricane, Ian. Several properties in the area had roof and property damage.

Pictures of Christmas Eve & Christmas Day (no particular order)

Here are pictures we took while on the island:

As previously mentioned, we were one of two boats here for the Christmas holiday, the dock master told us it will be full by New Year's
You can see the damage caused by the recent hurricane (Ian) in some of these pics
Picture #2: Banyan Tree - these trees are plentiful in India and Pakistan, where they are national trees. However, some can also be found in Florida (this picture was taken at Boca Grande)
Picture #5: The Boca Grande Golf Club house. The course was closed due to hurricane damage and is under construction.

Gasparilla Inn - Old Floridian themed, each room was decorated differently.

Kids play area, Gingerbread house for Christmas

The picture shows a large room, it's divided into 6 sections, broken up into 3 groups of 2. The section across from each other are decorated with the same theme / pattern.

This appeared to be a sitting area; perhaps for folks waiting for dinner.

The fireplace was filled with LARGE sea shells

The 2 pictures below show high and low tides. In the first picture, you see the fuel dock and in the 2nd picture, the fuel dock is not shown; however, it would be to the right. First picture was taken at "HIGH TIDE," the 2nd one was taken during low tide (you can see how easy it would be to run into sand bars).

The fuel dock is to the right of the picture below, tried to show the markers in this picture to help show the tide changes

On 12/26, Breakaway join us at Boca Grande, we had dinner at Mimi's on 3rd. I had this incredible Coconut Chicken made with banana and banana rum, it was delicious!

On 12/27, we rented a golf cart for the island and went from one side of the island to the other. We saw the damage from hurricane, Ian. We walked along the beach, looked around the Gasparilla Inn and wrapped the day up with Pizza from Sister's. Due to high tides and weather, the boat rocked more than usual which meant we didn't get too much sleep.

The golf cart broke down, we had to push it back :-)

Gasparilla Lighthouse (locally known as the range light), has 134 steps with 12 ladder steps at the very end.

12/28, we left for Ft. Meyer's and stayed at the Moss Marina. The originally plan was to stay in Ft. Meyers (The Pink Shell) for 30 days; however, everything changed once Hurricane Ian hit; hence, why we stayed in Dunedin. Moss Marina was just opening and literarily putting the dock back together as we pulled in. We didn't have power, water or any other amenities; but, needed a place to stay as we make the pass to Stock Island (in the keys). We paid $4 per boat foot with no amenities; however, we were happy to do so as these folks are all trying to build back their businesses. The damage is bad, it's hard to understand how much damage there is until you see it. Keep Ft. Meyers and those impacted by the hurricane in your prayers!

Map of Trip: Boca Grande, FL (Boca Grande Marina) to Ft. Meyer, FL (Moss Marina)

The pink building below is the Pink Shell in Ft. Meyers, FL. This is where we were scheduled to stay the month of December. See the wood pilings in the picture, that WAS the docks, destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

Damage caused by Hurricane Ian. These pictures do not reflect the true damage, it is unbelievable how much damage there was. Buildings totally demolished and flattened.

Picture #5 is a picture of the marina we stayed at called "Moss Marina". They are not fully operational, yet (no water or power). They allowed us to stay one night. Moss Marina has/had floating docks, they were able to save most of their docks; however, the cleats and other parts of these docks were/are missing.

Boaters, Chris and Dan (Boat name: Long Gone 2), Danielle and Alain (Boat name: Breakaway) and us (Boat name: Summer Place) met for dinner at Wahoo Willy's in Ft Meyer's. It was only 1 of 2 places open for in-door dining. There were several food trucks available for those interested. Side note: Jonathan was also with us.

The morning of 12/29, we left for Goodland and stayed overnight at Safe Harbor marina. While traveling to this location, we had to be mindful of the shallow areas and watch for crab pots. Once we arrived at Safe Harbor and settled, we washed the boat and then took a short walk to a local dive for a beer and appetizers. This place was great, they had a one-man band that was extremely entertaining. He had all types of props; wigs, various head pieces, jackets, etc. He sung "Pretty Women" and put on a head piece that looked like Roy Orbison's hair. He also sung "Red Solo Cup" by Toby Keith, his hat had several red solo cups attached to it.

Map of Trip: Ft. Meyer, FL (Moss Marina) to Goodland, FL (Safe Harbor Marina)

Today, 12/30, we made the 108 mile ride to the Florida Keys. We started this morning at 7:30am, ET and arrived at Stock Island, Perry Marina at 3pm, ET. We had to be on high alert for crab pots, they were everywhere! Boaters do not to want to catch them in their props. This leg of our trip reminded us of when we crossed the gulf; but, we had much better seas (less than 1 ft waves). We were able to make this trip during the day and traveled at approx. 16 mph most of the trip.

It felt like we were dodging crab pots the full ride. They were laid out in strings, some having as many as 20+ on a string and some with as few as 3 - 5. We were traveling with Breakaway.

Jonathan was our crab pot spotter. Jonathan would call (on the radio) to Breakaway with information about the crab pots, whether they were on our Port (left) or Starboard (right) side. He did a fantastic job!

We checked in at the marina office, walked around to look at all of the amenities, made a grocery store run (Thank you Allison & Adam, friends of Breakaway for driving us to Publix).

We had dinner at Hogfish Grill. We walked from the Marina to the restaurant, it was extremely dark and most of the walk was like walking in a dark alleyway. The music was a one-man band, he was pretty good. He sung "Kong fu Fighting," which reminds us of our friend, Brian Boeglin, every time we hear it. He also sung "Scooby Doo," an odd song to perform; but, he did a great job! We ubered back to the marina.

Going to wrap up this blog to watch the Tennessee / Clemson game!

Map of Trip: Goodland, FL (Safe Harbor Marina) to Stock Island (Perry Marina)

Happy New Years! We will be here at Stock Island until February 2nd.

Random Information:

Due to Barnacle build up, we had the boat bottom scraped. Like servicing your car, this is a common practice for boats in salt water environments. This practice is done about every 30+ days for boats that sit in salt water for long periods of time. Our boat was scrapped during our Orlando / Cape Coral trip and we will have it scrapped again before leaving the keys.

The pictures below show the barnacles, they are the small white circular spots on the pilings (poles).

Barnacles:

In the pictures above, see the lower area of the wood pilings? Barnacles, they build up on the bottom of boats, wood pilings and other areas that are exposed to salt water for long periods of time.

A barnacle is a type of arthropod. Arthropods are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages.

For non boaters or perhaps people that may plan to do the loop one day, similar to RV. Boats can anchor out in coves, canals or dock at marinas. Anchoring out means you find a spot in open water near a bank or within a channel to anchor and in most cases, you run the generator for heating, air and power (to cook). Docking at a marina, you pay a fee and can use their amenities (ie: pools, bath houses, courtesy cars and laundry service).

Side note: Not all marina's are the same, amenities are more than likely different at each one. Some of the amenities that marina's offer are: Power, laundry machines, bath houses, courtesy cars, pools, spas and more. Marina's that don't have many amenities, unique set ups for docking or perhaps dining situations and are favored by fellow loopers we call those " Marina's with character" :-).

Bridges (non boaters may find this interesting, boaters will more than likely already know this and wish to skip over):

During the Florida leg of our travels, we passed under several bridges, each a little different from the other.

In the first 2 pictures below, you will see something that looks like a ruler in the picture. This indicates the distance between the water and the top of the bridge. We need 17'2" for our boat to pass under a bridge. Note: There is 18' available for passing (in the first picture) and 64 inches available for passing (in the second picture), so we were good to pass under. If more room was needed; we would contact the bridge master and ask for the gate to be lifted. There is a $25,000 fine for lifting the gate when it is not needed.