In the past couple of weeks I’ve had a few folks reach out to us asking for an example of what they should expect to pay for slip rental in marinas in the Southwest Florida area. This post is intended to be a guide on how marinas charge for live aboards and what to look …
Blue Turtle Trawler
Looking for Blue Turtle Trawler content? In 2021, we sold our trawler and purchased a 44′ sailboat. All of the trawler content is still available on this blog. All posts prior to June 2021 are below (and following pages).
TrawlerFest is PassageMaker’s stand-alone series of boat shows designed for cruising enthusiasts that feature an in-water selection of new and pre-owned cruising powerboats, the latest in marine gear and services, and first-class education & demonstrations. Last year, we were invited to give a seminar about our experience cruising to the Dry Tortugas at their show …
We recently received an email message from a reader asking us the following question: I’m rather new to Fort Myers and we are pursuing boat living! Our only issue is we are complete novices and have never owned nor driven a boat! Where do we begin?? We don’t know anyone here with a boat yet …
Happy belated New Year! Hope everyone’s holidays were fantastic! Blue Turtle and crew had a short post-Christmas cruise like always, however, this year it was plagued with the flu/cold/crud. Our original cruising plan was to leave Fort Myers Beach the day after Christmas and head north to Cayo Costa and a new destination we’ve been …
Last weekend marked our third attendance at the annual Fort Myers Beach Boat Parade organized by the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce and hosted by Salty Sam’s Marina. Last year, we cruised from Snookbight Marina to Salty Sam’s to the stay the weekend and enjoy the parade which was being staged there. This year …
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our Disclosure for more info. Holiday shopping can be a stressful thing sometimes when you’re searching for that perfect gift for someone. It can be even more taxing trying to find gift ideas for folks who live aboard full or part time. With limited space on a boat, we have …
Since we had an extra day with the Thanksgiving holiday, we decided to cruise out to Franklin Lock and Dam this past weekend. We’ve made this trip several times in the past and usually it’s once cooler weather arrives. We love visiting here because it is a different landscape from the beaches we frequent all …
After 3 sweltering summer months (Aug.—Oct.) we finally made it off the dock last weekend. Enjoying some wonderful cool “Fall” weather, we cruised out to New Pass, a favorite anchoring spot, where we would meet up with Corey’s friend, Sam who was being dropped off by car by his parents. We navigated the pass only …
A reader emailed us the other day asking how we were since there hasn’t been a blog post since September. We certainly appreciate the checking in, but I told him quite frankly that we really haven’t been up to much. This blog tends to go quiet in the hot months of summer, from July-October down …
By now, Irma has passed through Florida, Georgia and Alabama and made its way through Tennessee where it downgraded to a tropical storm. While Irma was less severe and devastating for some in Florida, it caused catastrophic damage to the Caribbean islands as a category 5 hurricane. Major damage and flooding was suffered by the …
As everyone has heard by now, Hurricane Irma has been wreaking havoc on the Caribbean islands, the Bahamas and Cuba with its path set on making landfall in Florida on Sunday. Earlier in the week we watched as Irma gained mass and power and started heading in our direction. By Wednesday, most of the state …
I know it’s been a while since the last update. Things slow down a bit on the blog in the summertime since we tend to cruise a little less due to the heat and humidity. Truth be told, we pretty much hibernate since one step outside the door of our trawler means you are either …