Eastbound

It's mid March and our stay on Estero Island is at an end.  While we were on the west coast we took a few days and went north to Cayo Costa Island and Pelican Bay.  We spent a couple of days walking the beaches and nights stargazing.  We saw our first alligator swimming across Pelican Bay.  We also saw two other Camano Trawlers...We Are Blessed and Movin On.  We talked with Barney and Rachel from Movin On.  They were from Port Charlotte and plan on coming to the rendezvous in May in Palm Coast.

Pelican Bay

 

Nao Victoria, the replica of Magellan's only ship to survive of the original five he started with in his voyage around the world. The ship was in Fort Myers beach during March.

We headed back on March 15.  We made it from Ft. Myers Beach to Franklin Lock where we stayed at the Federal Campground and docks.  We went further east on March 16 stopping in Moorhaven at the City Dock.  The winds have been really high over the last few days so we may be waiting a day or so to cross Lake Okeechobee.
 

Goodbye Fort Myers Beach.   We had a great two months exploring!

 TIKA docked at the Franklin Lock Docks on our first night of travel back to the east coast

 The Caloosahatchee Canal from Ft. Myers to Lake Okeechobee is a wide deep man made canal connecting the east and west coast of Florida.

 A very large alligator sunning himself along the banks of the waterway.  Going west we didn't see any alligators, but we saw several in the water on the trip back east.  Two months warmer weather has brought them out.