GLORY DAYS ON THE GREAT LOOP: SANIBEL TO NAPLES

DAYS 214-217 FRI. FEB 17 - MON. FEB 20, 2012
DEP SANIBEL 09:10 ARR NAPLES 3:00
D. 36 sm / 3561
We left Sanibel in fair weather and took a detour to Ballards Oil in Ft Meyers Beach for a good price on diesel fuel. We paid $3.81 a gal. tax incl, which was about $0.75 a gal. cheaper than elsewhere. When you take a hundred gal. that's a good savings. We left Ballards at 10:30, and for the first time since we crossed the Gulf in Dec, we had to run outside as there is no inside route between Sanibel and Naples. The weather was excellent and the seas were less than a foot. We entered Gordon Pass, which is the entrance channel to Naples, turned north and were immediately welcomed by not one, but two bald eagles. As we prodeeded up the channel we were astounded by the beautiful homes on the western shore of Naples Bay. Naples truly is high end. These homes were magnificent and worth severals of millions of dollars each. We pulled into the Naples City Marina and requested a mooring ball for our stay, and in spite of the fact that there were only six moorings in the harbor, four of them were available. After a mandatory pump out and a topping off of the water tanks we settled in on our mooring and took the dinghy ashore. As we were walking the docks checking out the catch of the charter fleet, we literally ran into Chuck Vining, a friend and fishing buddy who summers in Falmouth. Unfortunately Chuck was in Naples alone as his wife was ill, but fortunately, for us, he offered to show us around. He took us to West Marine, shopping, sightseeing, and to dinner. We enjoyed his company as much as we hope he enjoyed ours. We also ran into Rusty and Bette Hughs, fellow Loopers on their 36' Monk, The Cooper. Naples is their home and they were getting their boat ready for another trip up the east coast. On Sat we got together with Peggy Morse, my former bookeeper, for cocktails aboard and dinner with Chuck at a restaurant called Boston. On Sun. we met friends from Falmouth, Mary Ann and Joe Lucas, who took us to their beautiful Assoc. beach and Condo, and then out for dinner. We had a great time getting together with friends, and spent a very busy four days in Naples.