M/V Nearly Perfect: January 2018

After a great New Year's Eve anchored with Summertime and Linda Jean, we untied Summertime early on January 1 and they headed for Ft. Myers. Linda Jean just moved a little deeper into our anchorage. They were going to ride out some weather and then travel a bit before heading back to Ft. Myers. We then left and had a beautiful ride to Ft. Myers. The weather was great and we saw many happy dolphins along the way. Right before we entered the marina, the winds picked up and we had a hard time docking to get Mr. Scooter off. After we got the scooter off, we docked at our usual spot (the one we have had the last two years). Summertime was already in. Ft. Myers is a Looper's paradise. We spent a lot of time revisiting with old friends and throughout the month met many new Loopers. It was pretty cold the first week, but eventually the weather warmed up and everyone came out to socialize.

Barb and Ross took us to Walmart our second day here (they are always happy to run us around). Over the month we had many docktails and dinners on the back deck. Linda Jean didn't like the weather, so they ended up coming back a few days later. Larry and Jan (Panacea) and Don and Anita (Limelight) came into town one weekend. Our friends from Houston, Mark and Beth drove down from St. Petersburg for a visit. Brian and Janice (Fugitive) were at their condo in Naples and drove up one day for a visit. We also had a visit from Danny and June who were in their RV heading to Key West (where it was warm). We spent a very fun day touring the Edison-Ford museum and winter houses. We spent several evenings with Jim and Mandy (Shell Belle). David and Linda (Cooyon) came into town. We had not seen them since we stayed with them in Newport News. We met Jeanine and Richard (Almost Perfect) and Lynn and Ken (Rise and Shine - a 43' Hatteras). We met two brand new Loopers -- Mark and Lezlie (Antonia) and Steve and Jane (Sabbatical). We spent an evening with them (and about 10 others) answering their questions.

Besides all the social events, we had TJ (the young man who does work around the marina) varnish all our rails. They look really good. While TJ was working, his dog Ivy would come on the boat and spend time with us. We also had our friend Mike, make some new curtains for the bridge and a cover to keep our newly varnished rails looking nice. Wally and Darcy did some painting and put a new "Summertime" on their boat. Rob had a new refrigerator to install which meant bringing his boat over by us, taking a window out, and having about 8 people move the new refrigerator onto the boat. It was a busy month.