The Last Blasts of the Season

Pam & I completed our whirlwind trip home by arriving back in Ft. Myers to 80 degree temps. Nice.....! We had been gone long enough for the spiders to take over the dinghy and some of the crevices around Tourist. Pam wasted no time in sending them to Davy Jone's Locker!

Just one of the webs on the dinghy.

My first order of business was to fix the water leak with the tubing I had brought from home. Nice to finally have that job accomplished. Now on to the rest of the never ending list.

While we were rummaging around we found a new compartment that we didn't remember ever seeing before. This one is under the front of our mattress. Not the most convenient spot but none the less Pam found some blankets to put in it.

I hope we remember where we put them next fall when it turns colder once again!

Since we have been back it's been a non stop feeding frenzy. The weather has finally gained some consistency and presented us with several beautiful evenings for docktails. A couple of those evenings turned into full fledged buffet's.

 Shade provided by Private Affair.

Of course I didn't eat a thing!

Another great sunset over the Caloosahatchie.

The good weather prompted us to drop the dinghy in the water and go for a ride. After our last outing I wanted to see if I could figure out why it was bogging down when I firewalled the throttle.
Off we went with the motor running rough but able to get us up on plane. It ran along just fine until I gave it more gas. Same as in the past, it began choking itself out until I slowed down. Not wanting to subject Pam to the profanity that would certainly spew from my mouth once I began to actually try to fix the problem we continued on at the slower pace. We did manage to cruise past the Edison/Ford winter homes and view them from the water. The homes sit on shore behind several trees making it hard to see them from the main channel.

  Tom's Place.

Pilings of their long gone dock.

We made it back to Legacy without needing to row the dinghy. A good day!

With the season coming to a close and many of our dockmates moving on Pam decided we should have a biscuits and gravy breakfast for those remaining. Of course the shindig started with Mimosa's & Bloody Mary's being served! The weather co-operated during the feed and only began to rain once the party had wound down. At one point I counted 20 people on Tourist feasting on B & G, grits, muffins, and other assorted goodies. I think the day was a success.

No names given to protect those who may be in witness protection.

B&G day led to a pot luck hosted by Gene & Kathy on Front Page the next evening.

 Dinner on the dock.

Kathy trying to capture the moment.

Bill trying to eat the staircase!

By now I weigh about 300 pounds which made my next job somewhat challenging. I had to change the diaphragm in the pump for the guest head. Not a pleasant job on it's own but made worse because I have to wedge myself into a space just slightly narrower than my body.