SW Florida - Punta Gorda to Marco Island

After a month at home for the holidays, we were happy to be back in Florida even though the weather here was cold by Florida standards. However, after experiencing the below normal weather in NC while home, anything above freezing was an improvement.

We flew back to Sarasota on January 9th, was picked up by Ron and Marji at the airport, spent the next few days at their beautiful home in Punta Gorda and was joined by another Looper boat – Rick and Betsy aboard “Rick and Roll” – that we have traveled on and off with since Canada. We have really enjoyed Ron and Marji’s hospitality and friendship but we needed to continue our journey south. We departed Punta Gorda on January 13th and traveled a short distance to one of the most beautiful anchorages we have experienced in Pelican Bay. The weather finally warmed and we spent an enjoyable afternoon on the beach and was able to capture these pictures of the sunset.

From Pelican Bay, we traveled to Ft Myers Beach for the weekend, where we walked the beach, shops, and took in a Motorcycle fundraiser “Bikers for Babies”. On the 18th, we moved to Naples where we stayed on a mooring ball for 4 nights. We enjoyed the shopping in Naples, did a lot of walking, took in the boat show, and just relaxed! From Naples, we made the short trip to our current location on Marco Island. Here we took out our bikes, and traversed the island to the “lagoon”, the beach and shopping. The marina has wonderful facilities, including a pool, which we enjoyed on one of the hotter days.

We continue to be amazed by the playful dolphins as they "frolic" in our wake.

Tomorrow we will continue our travels south in search of warmer weather - we are only 80 miles from Key West and plan to make a few stops on the way at Everglades City, Little Shark River, and Marathon before arriving at Conch Marina next weekend. For the entire month of February, we will become honorary Conch Republic citizens before heading north closer back to reality.