We checked the winds and the tides for our last leg of this long journey. We had sixty miles to travel from Punta Gorda, Fl to Cape Coral, FL. The tide needed to be at least a half foot over low tide to get into the canal behind Lee Scheele’s house (our final destination) which was 4:00 PM. The day before the trip, our plan was to leave at 10:00 AM and travel our usual ten miles an hour to arrive around 4:00 PM. We woke up to an extremely low tide as the north winds seemed to have pulled a lot of water out of the marina and we were almost sitting on the bottom. We decided we needed to wait a while longer to safely get out of our slip (plan change #1). We only had 1 ½ feet under our boat! We enjoyed a lovely morning with Mike and Kelly drinking coffee on the tiny man-made beach at Fishermen’s Village and warming our feet by the firepit. We were starting to get anxious but continued to wait until 11:00 AM. Two morning doves landed on the bow of the boat, stood there for a couple of minutes, and flew off. We decided that was a sign it was time to go.
We slowly crept out of our slip leaving a muddy swirl of silt behind. We followed the red markers out of the marina to Charlotte Harbor. Deven brought the boat up to 1650 RPM’s which would typically make our boat run around 10 miles an hour. Peace of Chill was doing about 8 miles an hour. There was a strong current into us that we had not accounted for, so Deven decided to run at 2500 RPMs to travel at 15 miles an hour (plan change #2)! The winds were behind us, and the ride was very enjoyable. We were driving from the lower helm station and singing songs while the boat basically drove herself through the bay. The day was warming up, so we moved to the flybridge after two hours. The second leg of the trip had more markers, turns, crab pots, and other boaters, and we have better visibility from the upper helm. The second leg of the journey was pleasant, and we even spotted dolphins jumping in the air. We made it through the shallow narrow section named the Miserable Mile without any trouble. The trip was going so well, and we were starting to get anxiously giddy.
The last leg of the trip was directly into the wind on the Caloosahatchee River. The Windy App had predicted lower winds for this time and area, but it was wrong! We talked about moving back downstairs but decided against it. The wind was beating us up at this point, but we were so close to our goal. We diligently called out the markers and other boaters until we finally got to the turn into Lee’s neighborhood. The Fort Myers/Cape Coral area was directly hit by Category 5 Hurricane Ian in September 2022. Peace of Chill was up in Rhode Island on the loop during the storm, but Lee reported the hurricane caused “biblical destruction”. We were concerned about the possibility of downed trees or other objects that could be in the water after the hurricane. As we turned into the channel, the wind and waves were now on our starboard side. Deven was following the line carefully when a larger wave hit the boat. He quickly slowed to idle as the sound of the wave startled him. I thought we had hit something initially! OMG, we are almost there! We were a little jittery. Deven informed me that he had slowed the boat intentionally and assured me we did not hit anything. We made it to the canal section and the water was smooth. We slowly made the turns we knew well from training until we saw Lee’s house. Mike and Kelly had driven 40 minutes from Punta Gorda to celebrate our wake crossing. Our day on the water was six hours long by boat and that tells the story of the Great Loop. We were greeted with cheers, hugs, pictures, and champagne. The moment was pure relief and joy. WE MADE IT!!!
