The big thing for today is ——-  Karen got her long over-due hair cut.  When you travel by boat, it is not always convenient for routine personal maintenance.  We have been underway since October and it was time!  A 15 minute walk through downtown Ft. Myers found Karen at “Rumours” (a floating salon), where Cindy gave Karen a different look and was rejuvenating…….the long awaited pedicure will be next!  Can’t wait!

    

Being all gussied up, we joined John and Kay for our last dinner in Ft. Myers at Pinchers overlooking the river……

    

and we enjoyed our last night at Legacy Marina……in Ft. Myers…….

   

On Kay’s recommendation, we could not leave Ft. Myers without having experienced the bacon and maple donuts at Bennett’s (another local favorite)…….  Also the best coffee in town!  They actually put bacon on the donuts – stuck in a slather of maple icing……sounds crazy but yes, they were good!

    

and now on to Naples…….

We are now moving out of the protected Intracoastal waters……

We made a fast run from Ft. Myers to Naples…….30-40 mph across the Gulf of Mexico and through San Carlos Bay.  We were now outside the protected Intracoastal waterways.

We traveled outside of the “three nautical mile line”, with beautiful skys, open seas, no land in sight….

So – a little history about the “three nautical mile line”…..

The three-mile Limit refers to a traditional and now largely obsolete conception of the international law of the seas which defined a country’s territorial waters, for the purposes of trade regulation and exclusivity, and extending as far as the reach of cannons fired from land.  Improvements in cannons eventually allowed them to be able to fire a shell more than three miles, but Earth’s curvature made this moot. From a height of a few meters above sea level – say, atop the wall of a coastal fort – the horizon is only about 3 nautical miles – thus there was no need to be able to shoot farther, since more distant targets would not be visible.

TMI

In route to Naples we passed the beautiful beaches of Sanibel Island where there were 100+ foot yachts docked at the resort and jet skies and pleasure craft played in the crystal blue waters.

    

We finally pulled into the Gordon River at Old Naples Port and were greeted by cruise ships, water taxis, recreational boaters, fishing boats, charters – and everything in between!