After all of the time this past year "building" Endless Summer, it seemed our time to finally enjoy her on the water with family and friends would never come. But is has, and we are!
One of our first "trips" was a two day run up the Gulf coast (GICW) from Longboat Key to Clearwater. We had tickets to the Jim Brickman holiday concert at the Capitol Theatre in Clearwater and asked two good friends to be our guests. Since they were officially the first people to stay on board (other than us), we were both excited and nervous to have them join us.
We had a beautiful run up the GICW with an easy crossing of Tampa Bay. We spent the afternoon before the concert at the Clearwater Harbor Marina with Jim, his Mom, and soloist Anne Cochran. That evening we had dinner in town and enjoyed Jim's wonderful holiday "Comfort & Joy" concert. The following day was a leisurely morning followed by the return run south to Longboat Key. The boat ran great, we had excellent sea conditions, the concert put us all in the holiday mood, and our friends were great first guests on board!
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| Sally (Jim's Mom) Anne, Rachel, Jim, Me |
A few weeks later we decided to take a longer and leisurely cruise south along the Gulf coast for about a week. We started out from Longboat Key early in the morning and headed 85 miles to Ft. Myers Beach. The sea conditions were moderate but we ran inside until Venice before going out the inlet for the remainder of the trip. With winds coming from the SE, I thought we would be well protected staying close to the shore line. While that was mostly true, we had to go pretty far offshore around the Boca Grande inlet shoals which proved to be a rough ride. Upon arriving at Pink Shell Resort and Marina in Ft. Myers Beach, we easily docked Endless Summer and enjoyed a couple of days at the beach and a nice way for Rachel to enjoy her birthday!
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| Longboat Key to Fort Myers Beach |
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| Pink Shell -- Great place to spend a few days |
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| At dock and enjoying the view |
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| The birthday girl |
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| Fabulous sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico |
From Ft Myers Beach we headed back out into the Gulf for the short ride to the Gordon Inlet to downtown Naples. With winds and seas on our nose the entire way it was a rough and sloppy ride south. Once inside the Gordon River it was calm and most pleasant. We docked at the Naples Boat Club for the weekend where we got to spend time with dear friends. Other than some rain our last night, it was a great weekend.
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| Good friends -- Good times |
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| Bloody Marys to start the day |
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| Enjoying the aft deck (and the Bloody's!) |
After a fun weekend in Naples, we headed out to Captiva Island and one of our favorite spots, South Seas Resort and Marina. Unfortunately, the seas were not cooperative and while the boat handled the 4 foot beam seas without issue, we did take it a slower pace to help soften the ride. Once we came back inside into Pine Island Sound, the water calmed down considerably for the remainder of the trip.
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| At dock - South Seas Marina |
While we had planned to stay at South Seas for two days, we cut it short as the forecast was going from bad to worse with high winds expected. Even though we expected to stay inside the GICW the remainder of the way back to Longboat Key, I thought it best to get across Charlotte Harbor with a stop in Cape Haze. Not only was that a good decision (as the winds did get rather brisk later in the day), we had a very nice visit at Palm Island Marina, a great little spot we had not been to in a number of years.
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| Palm Island Marina |
The last leg of the trip from Cape Haze to Longboat Key was very pleasant as we traversed the remaining three and half hours on the inside GICW. It's always fun to see dolphins in your bow wake as the sun glistens off the water. Endless Summer performed admirably and is proving to be a very comfortable and worthy vessel.
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| The "Admiral" at the helm |
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| A perfect ending to a perfect day |
