“Home” for the past several weeks has been F66.
Wednesday, 4 March 29.6 SM
It’s inevitable. At some point, Steadfast will move on. No matter how much fun, how enjoyable a given port may be, there is a time limit to this expedition. Time keeps moving even on those nights and days when Steadfast has remained at rest in Fort Myers.
This is a terrific harbor, smack dab in the middle of downtown. And Leif and the crew at the City Yacht Basin are just about the best, could not be more helpful and accommodating.
Steadfast put the staff to the test!
The price is right, too, thanks to their re-working the dockage contract from daily to weekly to monthly-rate. The lease is a full of strike-throughs and notes in the margin, none of which gives a hint of how great an experience this has been. But, it is time to move on.
The sweet smell of citrus blooms fills the air.
Making the move somewhat easier is the fact that the forecast favors a northbound crossing of Lake Okeechobee tomorrow, Thursday, before the wind shifts to the north for the better part of a week. In other words, it’s go now or hang for another seven days.
So after exchanging farewells with the office crew—Rod, Ron, Denise and Brian—Steadfast is underway shortly before 1300 hours, under the Edison Bridges and east bound up the Caloosahatchee. This is a much later start than preferred but sunset’s not ‘til 1830 so there’s time to make the town dock at LaBelle.
Nothing says “Welcome” like a free dock!
That is, assuming Little Red can generate an average speed of something close to six-miles-an-hour. No small task, given that between here and LaBelle, Steadfast will be slowed or stopped at the Pigott Bridge, Franklin Lock, Alva Bridge and Ortona Lock.
As it turns out, each of those is transited with remarkable ease. Timing is everything, they say, and Steadfast has great timing today. She barely slows before one bridge lifts, another swings open. Likewise the locks, each taking Steadfast up several feet to another level before sending her farther eastward.
Sunset on the Caloosahatchee.
A couple of years ago, the Town of LaBelle invested in a new pier offering six slips at every sailor’s favorite price: free! Again, the timing is right and Steadfast arrives just in time to slip into the last vacant spot on the pier.
“Welcome,” indeed. And, so far, at least, all has “fared” well fro Fort Myers.
Steadfast out.
At Sea with Steadfast 
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