Sailing to the Florida Keys VIII ~ New Horizons

December 7, 2011

Leaving Matanza Inn Mooring Field
Destination: Moss Marina

Today we got up early, well, not that early..! LOL! But, it was before 10 am so that was early for us! J We got up early because we wanted to get into Moss Marina, docked and plugged into their electrical tower to get these batteries charged up!!

Like I said in the previous post we were going to take this day to do some laundry, clean up the boat, get some grocery shopping done AND go to the beach!

Once we were docked at the slip and plugged in we got our grocery list done…took out Maxi’s stroller and headed to the trollee station which was about .75 miles. Not too far but it was a super warm day!! We had called ahead to the Trollee offices and asked if we could go on the trollee with our pet…they said that if he was in a carrier it would be fine. So we were feeling pretty good about going the 2.9 miles to the Publix grocery store…until the trollee pulled up and the driver told us that we would have to fold up the stroller…but oh boy! There was a pet in it…!! He went ahead and bended the rules for us and allowed us to carry Maximus in the stroller onto the trollee…phewww!! Being driven to Publix we got there in a flash…not even a 10 minute drive! When we go to the grocery store, Keith usually stays outside walking Maxi while I go in and do the shopping. That done we headed back to the trollee stop. It was 1:10 pm and I decided to call the trollee station to see when the next trollee came by our stop…they said not till 1:47 pm. Jeezzz..!! The stop had a bench but no shade and the sun was fierce…so what do we decide to do? LOL….well, since there was no shade at the trollee stop…we decided to start walking back!! Does that make sense?? We did not even get half way ….more like .25 miles when we decided to stop at the next trollee stop that had a bench…and of course, it would have to be in the SUN!! ppfftttt…so we sat and waited for the next trollee. This driver didn’t give us any hassle at all about having Maxi in the stroller so that was a relief!! Although we did have the stroller with us, this one time Maxi did a lot of walking, poor puppy! His poor little tongue was red and he was huffing and puffing!! We got back to the boat and put the groceries away…got into our bathing suits and headed for the beach! Since poor Maxi had had quite a long hot walk, we decided to go ahead and leave him in the boat in the cool AC. (I know most of you might think that I am spelling Trollee wrong and that it should be spelled Trolley...but, that is how they spell it here in Fort Myers Beach!)

When we got to the beach there were a lot of people out there…we chose a spot and tried to go in the water…it was COLD!! Keith got his feet wet and went right back to our towel to lie down…I was a bit more bold, not much but more then Keith! I went out into the water and dunked myself…LOL! It wasn’t so cold after that!

We didn’t stay on the beach too long since the sun was beginning to set (it sets at 5:30 pm) and the winds were picking up. As we were walking back through “Times Square” we decided to stop at a Greek Restaurant and have some dinner. It was…different. We both had a shrimp scampi over a bed of rise. Not bad and like I said, it was different. That is what this adventure is about, right? Seeing new things and eating different foods!

We are always keeping an eye on the weather on TV and on my IPHONE and we’d found out that there was a pretty good sized storm rolling in. So we hurried back to the boat. As we were walking back we could see the black clouds and the wind was picking up pretty good.

Once back on the boat I got all the laundry I needed to get washed and my shower bag too, since I was going to use their showers while the washing machines were doing our laundry! J

I found out that the laundry room consisted of two washers and two dryers…ok, not bad since I only had three loads to do. I thought, I’ll start two loads and wait till they are done, put them in the dryers, put the last load in and go take a shower. It shouldn’t take me too long to get this done! Well, that was a good plan…BUT, I did not count on some MORON leaving his/her clothes in one of the washing machines!! Ggrrrrrrrrr…why do people not watch their laundry and take care of it?? That really upsets me..! So now I only had ONE washing machine and three loads to get done! Paaahhhhh….Not much else to do but to go ahead and get it started! I know that many of you are asking, why did I not just take out their clothes and set it on a table? Well, I would NOT like anyone else handling MY clothes…so I won’t touch anyone else’s either. Not much else to do but begin…

After awhile of being in the laundry room I decided to step out and have a smoke…as I stepped out I noticed that the storm had finally arrived! It really wasn’t raining..it was kind of misting but the wind was fierce!! I looked down the dock to where our boat was and noticed Keith struggling with the lines! I ran over to see what was going on. Found out that the wind was coming in from behind the boat and was pushing the bow of the boat into the dock and slamming it against the finger dock. Keith was struggling with the lines trying to get the bow off the dock and way from the finger dock. I was glad that I’d stepped outside and saw what was happening and was able to lend him a hand to secure the lines. The storm was pretty bad and it scared me a bit. It almost felt as if the wind could just pick us up and tear us away from the dock…I was afraid we’d all end up in Kansas!! LOL!!