No Pot of Gold

We had a fun filled three days in Venice.  Lots of laughs with Jeff and Carolyn.  They were kind enough to take us to the grocery store, lunch, traveling around running errands with them, happy hours and dinners.  Of course we had to spend some time at Jeff's favorite, Snake Island, while Carolyn stayed back and made us a wonderful Prime Rib dinner on Thursday night.  We appreciate all of their kindness and hospitality.  We wanted them to follow us today, but the fretter was not convinced they were ready enough.  We hope they will be behind us shortly.
At 6:45 a.m. we untied from the free dock in Venice, where we had no problem staying for three nights despite the sign posted that stated no mooring between midnight and 6:00 a.m.  There were actually three boats there for last night.  I was not feeling well after one too many pumpkin beers yesterday evening, so I drove in the hopes that I would not have to move around much.  A couple of naps and I was feeling better by early afternoon.  I was glad to be back to "normal" for the short ride in the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico.  A storm was to our west building up the waves a little bit so they were mostly on our beam.

Picture does not do it justice, but we could actually see the
end of this rainbow on the water as we entered Ft. Myers Beach.

Once inside the protected harbor of Ft. Myers Beach everything was calm and we barely got a spit of rain on the boat despite seeing several areas of storm clouds around us.  We pulled into slip B6 at Moss Marina after 64 miles and almost ten hours of travel.  We usually grab a mooring ball here, but next week Ray has a boat delivery job from Ft. Lauderdale to Ft. Myers so I will be here alone for a few days.  Ray was more concerned than I, but then did make a good point ~ it has been record high temperatures down here since we crossed the Gulf last week.  Even while anchored and tied to the free dock we have had to run the generator and air conditioning during the night.  Ray estimated that cost to be about $12.00 per night.  With that on top of the $15.00 per night mooring ball fee, he decided it was not that much more money to dock and have electricity and water.  We will be here at least a week.  If next Saturday the weather is not good enough to continue south we will most likely wait on a mooring ball until it is.