Holy Tamoly, it’s the end of August!  Where has the summer gone?

One of the things we had scheduled when we got back was a bottom cleaning.  On the boat, not us!  We have to have someone come every month during the summer and every few months during the winter to clean off the scum and barnacles that grow on the bottom.  As the previous owner kept the boat on a lift for the past 10 years, the boat didn’t come with anti-fouling paint on it so the growth from the beasties builds up quicker than it did on the Navigator while it was up in Minnesota.

We were home about a week and a half when we left for another boat trip.  We were going with 3 other couples who belong to the boat club.  We went to the South Seas Island Resort which was located on Captiva Island.

We left early in the day.  We drove by Beartrax South

They still have those babes on the upper deck ;).

Of course is was hot out, even this early in the morning.  Look at this guy 

I think he is trying to air out his arm pits…..he must be hot too.

We passed this barge……

Propane truck, I wonder where he’s going???

Then as we were driving along, taking our time, as we were in no rush, we hear this loud horn behind us.  I turned around and there was this 75 foot cattle boat about 40 feet off our stern.  What the heck!  We were hugging the reds, plenty of room for him to pass, no one coming, what’s with the horn?  Gary, as cool as a cucumber, just held his course and kept on moving.  I on the other hand would have been giving it gas and getting out of his way.  He was a lot bigger than us!  I guess that’s why Gary is the Captain and I’m just the Admiral :). Here is a picture of that not so courteous boat pulling off to his destination.

I hope he runs aground….whoops…..did I say that out loud?

We finally arrive at our destination without further incident and no more honking horns.  A couple of guys meet us and helped us tie up.  Snug as a bug in a rug!  That is one thing about the marinas down here, there is always someone to help you tie up your lines.  I’m not used to that and it is more stressful for me.  Now I’m running from the front to the back to toss lines to the guys.  Before, I just jumped off and tied a center line and got the bow and stern line from the dock.  A lot easier for me.

Oh, BTW, notice the new Bimini?  We had that made for the boat while we were up north. We were hoping to get a little more shade out of it.

After we got tied up we went to the ships store and checked in.  This is a resort, so they gave us an arm band so we could use their pool and trolley.  Then they also gave us a plastic card. You know, like the ones you get in hotels to open your door.  The way the card works here is, you use this card to pay for everything and then when you leave, they charge everything to the credit card you leave on file.  So ok, I can handle that.

As a side note, I get notifications by Email if there is a charge over $10 on any of my credit cards.  By the time I make it back to the boat, I receive a notice that they have charged my credit card $610.00.  Holy Hoot!  I am not staying here if the dockage is $305 a night.  I march back up to the ships store, smoke coming out of my ears, Gary is there trying to calm me down and make sure I don’t hit anyone.  I tell them what happened.  They say that because we have never been there before they do a pending charge (I’m sure to make sure our credit is not denied) and then they run thru the real charge at the end of the visit.  Ok, I get it, but there is no way I am spending $610 in 3 days here, I hope.

The place was pretty though

Ships Store

Fishing Dock and Putting Green

Jet Ski’s you can rent

Kids Pool with 2 slides

Hot Tub

Pool Number two

Pool Number three

See those tents?  You can rent them with all the comforts of home, all for a nice price :).

Pool at the bar

It was pretty hot in afternoon on the first day, too hot for a Minnesotan who can’t stand the heat and humidity yet.  (I am told this will come with time but for now, I was melting.)  I spent the rest of the afternoon in the boat in the air conditioning.  I had my kindle though, so oh well…could be worse.  Gary stayed out squirting himself with a hose all afternoon and watched the comings and goings of the marina.  Happy as a pig in mud.

On the second day, it was cool enough for me to get out of the air conditioned comfort of the boat in the morning.  Gary found me a nice place under an umbrella by pool three. After sitting there a while, we decided to order a couple of strawberry daiquiris.  So $30 later, Gary brings me a solo cup with a cherry on top.  Yup, last ones we ordered.  They weren’t getting that $610 no matter now good those daiquiris were ;).

Both nights we took the free Trolley, that goes from one end of the resort to the other, and left the resort to have dinner on Captive.  The first night we went to Doc Fords.  They had a wide selection and the price was pretty typical.  On the way home, the trolley was full so 2 of us couples had to stand in the back of the trolley and hold on.  There were two younger people that stood up and offered us their seats.  Chivalry is not dead.

The next night we were going to RC Otter which was a small restaurant on the main drag of Captiva.  We had to hop on the trolley again.  As we neared the trolley stop, the seat in the Trolley stop was full of people, a few people jumped up and offered us seats.  Hey! Once is chivalry, twice mean we are a bunch of old people and the young people are giving us their seat cause we are too old to stand and wait for the trolley.  Well keep your seat bucko!  I’m not that old yet! 😉

We made it to RC Otter and didn’t even have to use our walker.  That place was pretty small but it also had good food.  I guess during “season”, people are lined up outside waiting to get in.  We all had a good time and enjoyed the short walk back to the trolley.  Thankfully it was pretty empty and we didn’t have any people offering up their seats again.

The marina had a lot of manatee and dolphins in it (although I didn’t see any).  The manatee munched the grass on the bottom of the maria  See the mess they made of the marina.  That is the grass they pulled but didn’t eat.

Later Thursday night, a big boat pulled into the marina  112 feet with lots of toys.  Didn’t see any people get off the boat, just the crew taking the toys off.  The boat was so big the marina didn’t have a power box big enough for them to plug into.  They had to run their generator all night.  I hope they didn’t get charged for their electric like we did, hee hee.

Early the third day we headed out.

When we left, we went out the Red Fish Pass to the Gulf.  

Here are some pictures of the resort from the gulf side

While we were driving we saw a group of dolphins so we slowed down

I saw one dolphin swim in our wake in the middle and another jump thru it.  You’ll have to use your imagination….I wasn’t quick enough with the camera.

We made it home with no further honking or fist shaking.  I decided, and Gary agreed, it was too hot!  We had a good time but I think I’ll pass on the next boat trip if the weather is going to be that hot again.