Ft. Myers

We took delivery of “Lone Duck” on May 31^st; this was a slightly strange affair. Everything, except for the sea trial, was completed over the phone or by e-mail. Actually taking possession of the boat was anticlimactic.

The boat was kept behind someones house on a private dock. We showed up to the boat in the early morning crept through the backyard and climbed on. No one was around and the keys were left for us in the deck box. We loaded our stuff, fired up the engine and pulled away thinking surely the cops would follow soon.

The first step was to move the boat to a safe marina to keep it while we prepare for the long journey up to Jacksonville. Our shakedown cruise was an almost 20 Nautical Mile journey to the Ft. Myers Yacht basin located on the shores of downtown Ft. Myers.

Along the way we encountered a relic of the 80’s. This is a house that was in a movie starring Hulk Hogan called “Thunder in Paradise”. The floating house, a prop from the movie, was moved just a week or so ago into a cove just off the main channel along the Caloosahatchee River; it has been converted into bait-and-tackle shop for boaters out on the water.

During the trip we had a Dolphin cruise with us for a little bit in Cape Coral.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mnh2Hvj5IFI&feature=player_detailpage

Once we made it to Ft. Myers it was time to pull into our assigned slip. After calling the Marina on the radio they instructed us to back into the slip, wonderful. This is by far the largest vessel we have operated, so backing into the slip in a tight marina was an enlightening experience to say the least. Eventually we got her tied up and surprisingly did not hit the other boats, dock piles or fall off. After the shore power was plugged in it was time to switch the A/C on and wipe the nervous sweat off. Here she is at her current home in Ft. Myers; we have a lot more to learn about maneuvering our tug.

The joys of boat ownership turned its ugly head the first night aboard. The following morning we noticed the shower was backing up. It turned out to be a bad float switch in the sump, thankfully the marina store had a replacement.  It took Ashley about an hour or so to get the old one out and replace it.