When we arrived at South Seas Resort Marina the 10th, I noticed Proud Mary, a 55 Fleming on the next dock. I was introduced to Barry and Mary Ann Ricketts in September at the Chicago Yacht Club by Pam Rose, our friend and slip neighbor at Belmont Harbor. Barry and Mary were scheduled to depart the next day for a cruise to Florida via the northern route (North Channel, Georgian Bay, Hudson River, etc). We toured their beautiful boat, had cocktails and compared notes on our upcoming voyages.
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| Proud Mary sitting proudly at South Seas Resort Marina |
When we arrived at 5:30, we were greeted (actually surprised) by George and Susan Stephen. We had first met George and Susan at Jim and Susan's beach home on Anna Maria on Christmas Day when we connected with Brittany, Jim's Daughter and her husband Scott for our planned reunion. We saw them again when we joined the Stephen family to welcome in 2011 on New Years Eve.
Notes:
- Brittany and Scott are the newly weds on a three year world cruise of their 35 Hallberg Rassy sloop. They departed on September 28th for Florida on the northeast route (i.e., the Erie Canal and the Hudson River. We have spent many an evening with them discussing the Great Loop and world cruising. Their blog is http://www.windtraveler.blogspot.com/. Brittany is a brilliant writer and the blog of their journey is a must read.
- Jim and Susan Stephen are our slip neighbors and friends at Belmont Harbor. They have a 50 foot Kanter custom built cutter rigged sloop. It was sitting down the street at the Galatti's Marina on Anna Maria Island having been trucked to Florida.
George and Susan had cruised to Captiva from the Fort Myers area with their friends, Bob and Donna, on their newly acquired 55 Fleming, Escapades, and it too was sitting on the dock at South Seas Marina. They had connected with Barry and Susan as a result of owning a Fleming Yacht. Fleming being a limited production yacht has a very strong owners association and Barry is the unofficial Chicago Commodore.
Barry and Mary Ann and George and Susan together on Captiva on the day we got there. What a wonderful coincidence. Note: The "window" for this event was very narrow as George and Susan departed the next morning.
Cocktails, with great Margaritas, lasted until 7:30 and then we adjourned to the the restaurant at the marina for a delicious dinner with great conversation.
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| Barry sitting at Proud Mary's helm |
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| Mary Ann and Diana |
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| Susan and Donna |
After saying good night, we took Kodi for a walk and thanks to our furry ambassador, made two new friends; Brenda and Marshall Weiss, a couple who have a time share at South Seas. We got to talking and invited them for cocktails on the boat. We gave them our boat card and they promised to call.
Next morning while walking the furry kid we ran into Marshall and Brenda and firmed up a date for Wednesday evening.
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| Diana with Marshall and Brenda and a slightly distracted Kodi |
Two reasons for our visit to Captiva was to connect with Jerry and Cathy Swerdlick, who winter here and the Betts family, Steve, Becky, Dakota and Nathaniel, who we consider family.
Jerry Swerdlick is my oldest friend. We met in 1967 when I moved to Westerly, Rhode Island to manage an office for a now defunct consumer finance company called Liberty Loan. We connected with Jerry and Cathy on Tuesday afternoon after 12 years of not meeting face to face.
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| Jerry, me and Cathy |
We visited their home, had cocktails and then went to dinner at the Green Flash. We had a great time and managed to catch up.
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| Maragaritavilla |
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| Diana, Les, Jerry and Cathy |
My friend Jerry, who is legally blind, is a classic rag to riches story. Jerry took a disability and together with Cathy converted into a viable business, EVAS, providing computerized aids for people with vision problems. Talk about turning lemons into lemonade. Check out his website.
Meanwhile, we got a call from Bob and Karen Schoen, who were neighbors of our close friend Sophocles and Elena Karapas. Bob and Karen had joined us in Chicago for a cruise of Guided Discovery. Here they were in Captiva and having learned we were here from Elena, called us up.
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| Karen, me and Bob hugging Kodi. They too are dog lovers |
They connected with us on Wednesday and we had lunch at the Mucky Duck, which is right on the beach. Neat place. We got a lesson on short sales as we learned how they successfully bid on a home on Sanibel (another very neat place)
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| Diana with Karen and Bob |
Wednesday evening was spent with Brenda and Marshall Weiss. They live in New York. We started with cocktails on the boat and then had dinner where at the restaurant next to the marina. Fascinating people who share our views on many issues. We had a great conversation.
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| Diana, Brenda and Marshall |
Thursday, we had lunch with Jerry and Cathy at Over Easy on Sanibel. Following lunch we toured Sanibel arriving at the Dairy Queen on the south end of the island at 3:00 to meet the Enterprise driver. The plan came together and we drove to Enterprise's Fort Meyers office which is just off the island.
At Enterprise we picked up a minivan that will enable us to get around with the Betts family this weekend.
Then we called Pat and David Wrecke, snowbirds from Wisconsin who live in Fort Myers. David and Pat are special people who took care of Diana's mom who also lived in Wisconsin. They have become our good friends. Luckily they were home and were only 5 minutes from the Enterprise office.
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| Diana and David Wrecke |
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| Diana, Pat and David |
We spent two hours with Pat and David and would have stayed longer had it not been for the fact that the furry kid had been on the boat since 12:30. We arrived back at the marina at 7:00 PM.
Stay tuned for our next article which will deal with our adventures with Steve, Becky, Dakota and Nathanial as we explore Captiva from a kids view.
Written by Les.
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