Sun, Dec 27, 2009 - Ft Myers Beach, FL

Even before breakfast, Gale rigged his poles and set out in the dinghy to try to retrieve the errant fishing pole from last night’s encounter. Success! After about 45 minutes of “fishing,” Gale was able to snag and reel in the pole -- and it was indeed worth about $150. Gale brought it back to the boat to show Maureen his find and then decided to return to the pier to see if he could fish any other poles out from under the bridge. While he was back at the fishing pier, a large 4-wheel drive truck pulled up. The driver was none other than the fisherman from last night. His attitude was much different from last evening – in fact, he introduced himself as ‘Ryan’ and apologized to Gale at least five times for his poor behavior. Gale gave Ryan his pole and offered him some money to replace the fishing line. Ryan refused to take any money – he was just glad to have his pole. We didn’t have the same good luck in locating John’s sunglasses. They were not on either the big boat or the dinghy – we even inquired at the restaurant we had dinner in last night, but no one had turned in any sunglasses.

During the afternoon, we took the “Island Trollee” to West Marine to pick up some containers for transporting water. In the mooring field, there is water available at the dinghy dock so it is necessary to haul it back and fill the fresh water tanks 5 gallons at a time. We also needed a bolt for tomorrow’s repair project and a few other small items. After completing our shopping at West Marine, we met the trolley and headed back towards the mooring field. We had thought we might take the round trip to see where else the route would take us, but the traffic was becoming bumper to bumper and we decided to try that on a day when it wasn’t so busy in town.

We were back on board Blue Heron before sunset. We boiled the shrimp we had purchased on Christmas Eve and had some of the key lime pie for dessert. A great way to end the day!