When we left Keewaydin on Dec. 29th, we headed north to the Naples City Dock. We figured it would be nice to plug in and fill up our water tank and stay one night before heading back north to Fort Myers Beach. The Naples City Dock is a bustling marina for live aboards, transients and charter boats. It’s not quite as fancy or amenity-rich as the marina we come from, but it is situated in a great area in Naples, near the 5th Ave and 3rd Street South restaurant and shopping districts and the Naples Pier. It was very windy the day we came in and our slip was quite small, but we managed to get in and tied up without any issues.

Once we checked in at the marina, we took Sophie for a walk and headed back to the boat where Randy’s Dad (Johnny) and his girlfriend (April) came to meet us.  We all piled into April’s car and parked near the Naples Pier so Corey could check out the wave action for surfing. After that, we headed to Third Street South for a belated Christmas dinner at Handsome Harry’s. The food and company were wonderful.  We only stayed one night at the Naples City Dock, but had a great time. The next morning, we left the marina and headed north for a 5.5 hour cruise to Fort Myers Beach. Our cruise along the Gulf wasn’t quite as smooth as our trip down there. We had some 3-foot swells that rocked Blue Turtle and rearranged the items in our main salon. Luckily, as we headed north the seas calmed. We really hadn’t come across too rocky of seas until this and it was good to know which items needed to be better secured.

Later that day, we received this message on our Facebook page:

“I think ya’ll are/were our neighbors at the Naples City Dock! :)) We are in slip #64 (s/v LAHO), the maroon Endeavour. We are getting ready to live aboard full time as well and cruise the Bahamas + Caribbean… Lahowind”

What a bummer we didn’t get to meet these guys! Anyway, we’ll be following LAHO and crew on their adventures to the Bahamas and Caribbean. We hope to be able to make that trip sometime soon.