PELICAN BAY TO PUNTA GORDA

Feb 3- The wind is up a little this morning as we leave Pelican Bay at 9:00 am. We have 20 miles to go to get to Fisherman's Village Marina in Punta Gorda. A milestone for Manana after 11 years and 3 months later she is back in her old stomping grounds so to speak. There is a big shopping area right here and of course Bonnie and I have to check it out. There is a couple on a sailboat down the dock that are from Ottawa and on the boat next to us a couple from Lindsay. After the shopping mall we decided to take the loaner bikes and ride to the downtown area. We had just gotten on the bike path when we heard a bell sounding from the approaching bikes, it was Dave and Charlie coming back from getting hair cuts and visiting West Marine. The guys headed back to the boats and Bonnie and I had only a half hour to do some exploring as we had planned to go to the restaurant at the end of Fisherman's Village tonight and we needed time to get ready. We had inside seating overlooking the ICW and we watched a spectacular sunset as we ate our salad.

Welcome to Fisherman's Village Marina

The building at the end is the restaurant we visited

Feb 4- It is a beautiful warm day and it is a busy one as well. I am catching up on laundry and giving Manana a good cleaning. Dave spoke to Mrs. Dion (the couple who owned Manana in 2004) and she advised us that Mr. Dion was presently in the hospital. We pray for his speedy recovery and are truly sorry that we will not meet with him this trip. On the way to see her husband Mrs. Dion took the time to stop by for a short visit. It was truly great to see her again and she expressed how disappointed Ray was that he was going to miss us. Charlie and Bonnie are leaving to visit a family member, so Dave, Koby and I are walking to the Publix which is about a mile and a half away. The sky looks threatening but we managed to get there and back before it started to get nasty. We had a visit from a friend of the Dion's who just happens to write for the Charlotte Sun a local paper here in Punta Gorda. He interviewed us about our history with Manana up to this point. He is an interesting, charming gentleman with a few stories of his own. We may see our story written in this local paper thanks to the prompting of Ray Dion I'm sure. We would like to thank Mr. Bill Jones in advance for taking an interest in our story and we are humbled by this gester on his part. After Mr. Jones left we had dinner and Dave was about to take Koby out when the weather turned nasty with high winds (20 mph) and raining cats and dogs. It turned out to be a noisy, rocky night at the dock last night.

We are about 3 slips for the end of this dock

Office and laundry facilities to the left 

The sailboat from Ottawa

This is Fisherman's Village

Apparently this is a heated pool

This is the mooring ball area

This is the bike path

Feb 5- The wind is still high and the bay out in front of the marina is just hopping. Charlie called us at 8:30 am and said he was leaving at 9:00 am but unfortunately the tide was down and they couldn't leave until about 10;00 am. We have told them we are staying for another day and will head out tomorrow morning if the wind subsides by then. We have called Bev and Rudy to tell them we will be there tomorrow instead. It has gotten very cool with this wind that is blowing today. Dave and I took Koby for a walk through Fisherman's Village as Dave had not been through it. I have been catching up the blog today as you may see and Dave is doing some engine maintenance. It has been a kind of laid back sort of day for us.