As the temperature gets cooler in Southwest Florida, our dock gets more social. Last Saturday evening, we had a dock party but before the dock party, we carved some pumpkins to get ready for Halloween. After the pumpkin carving, we got social with appetizers and oysters.
October has been a crazy busy month so far. Two weekends ago, I went to Louisville, KY to visit friends and participate in our annual Phoenix Hill Tavern Chili Cookoff. I’ve been participating in this tradition now for over 10 years. I love that I get to catch up with my friends, see the leaves …
Merwin Key is a favorite local anchorage that we like to frequent. It’s right next to Picnic Island and is less than 2 hours to get there on Blue Turtle. Because of it’s close proximity, it has become our favorite place to anchor when we only have 1 or 2 days to spend. This weekend, …
This post is categorized as “Cruising”, and while we weren’t aboard the Blue Turtle for this trip, we were indeed on a ship. It’s been about 3 years since Randy, Corey and I last went to the Keys to dive and snorkel aboard my parent’s boat, Island Time. We were hoping to make it to …
Labor Day weekend wouldn’t be the same without spending time with my parents ands friends at Cayo Costa State Park. Traditionally, we’re usually at Cayo Costa for Memorial Day and Labor Day. We were missing Nick and Holly this time since they were in the Keys fishing and lobstering. Our typically rainy weather actually held …
This weekend, Randy and I had my nephews stay overnight so we had 3 boys to keep busy this Sunday. Thankfully, we have a lot of options here on the beach. This morning, Corey and Jack had the opportunity to sail a sunfish. Our friend Dave has a small sunfish sailboat that he let us …
Last weekend, on our way home from Tween Waters, we stopped at Ballards on Fort Myers Beach to fill up with diesel fuel. Blue Turtle can hold 500 gallons of fuel (two 250 gallon tanks) and because we have only one engine and because she’s slow, she sips fuel. The last time (and first time …
Last weekend we headed to Tween Waters Inn on Captiva Island. We had been wanting to take Blue Turtle there and stay at their marina, so we had planned to meet my parents and friends, Mike and Sally, there for a fun-filled weekend. It also happened to fall right between my parents’ birthdays, so we …
The past 2 weekends were spent renovating our main salon, so needless to say, we were ready for some R & R this weekend. Finally, we had a weekend without any plans and so Randy and I decided that whatever we would do, it would be aquatic. Saturday, we loaded up the car and headed …
When we bought the DeFever, one of the things we weren’t crazy about was the fact that the main salon had built-in bench seating and bolted down table. When looking at different boats, we noticed that built-in seating is quite common in trawlers. We decided that if we found a boat with the built-in furniture, …
For the past couple of years, we’ve celebrated 4th of July at the Cape Coral Yacht Club with my family and friends. This year, since we are now on the beach, Randy wanted to check out the fireworks they set off from the Fort Myers Beach pier. His father, John, and friend April came down …
Randy and I had a day without the boy, so we decided to head to New Pass beach, just the two of us. New Pass is generally too far for us when we have Corey since our dinghy can’t get on plane with all 3 of us. With 2 people it can plane perfectly and …