Messin' Around in Boats

Since my last post we've just been enjoying the Punta Gorda area and all it has to offer, especially the fabulous sailing. We invited our neighbor, Chuck, to sail with us down to Cabbage Key for lunch at the famous (Cheeseburger in Paradise) restaurant and a walking tour around the island. We anchored on the other side of the ICWW off of Useppa Island and dinghied over to Cabbage Key to the restaurant and inn's small marina. The cheeseburger was indeed delicious and the island, if not truly Paradise, a close approximation. We took the short walking tour on their nature trail and climbed the water tower for a very nice view of the area.
The following Monday Diane and I sailed back to the same anchorage for an overnight and then on to Captiva Island to explore Tarpon Bay and the wildlife preserve located there. We were under the belief that we could rent bikes and explore the island there, but never found the park HQ. (It may have been the building at the far end of the bay but that was just too far to dinghy --at idle speed because of the manatees--and we had already dinghied about a mile and 1/2 from where we had anchored the boat. After a cold beer and a short nap we weighed anchor and moved to the other side of the channel off of St James City on the very south end of Pine island where we dropped the anchor for the night. The next day we motored al the way back to the marina as the wind was very light and what there was was directly on the nose.
After a day of reprovisioning on Wed. and relaxation we prepared for the visit from my cousin Marsha and her family.
Thursday at around 12:30 Marsha, her husband Jim, their daughter Emily and her husband John and their 4 children, Cade, Gracie, Brooke and 4 month old Ashley, arrived for an afternoon sail. (They are all from the Holland, Mich. area and staying for a while at Siesta Key, south of Sarasota) The day could not have been more perfect for a boat full of "rookies". The wind was around 13, the temp at 82 and the sea was almost flat---It was definitely a "10". It was great to see the cousins and enjoy this beautiful family (pictured above). But to top it off, tomoroow Marsha and Jim return along with my other cousin, Jane, from Ft Lauderdale. We'll either sail down to Boca Grande or to Cabbage Key for lunch and back that evening. This should be an entertaining get-together and we have been looking forward to it for a couple of weeks--ever since we learned that Jim and Marsha were in the area.
This is truly a marvelous area for what we like to do. I played golf again today with the group that I played with last week. This will be my last golf game for a while as we leave next week--Diane to Colorado and I to Kingwood to take care of a little business. When we return on the 28th we plan to take off on the final legs of our journey to the Bahamas--back on track. We will miss this beautiful and friendly community and the many new friends that we have made here--but it's time to move on. We wil probably be back on the return trip and may end up leaving the boat here for the purpose of future exploration and cruises.
I probably won't post again (except for some random photos) until we return and get underway to the islands. See ya later. Life is indeed good.