November 4th thru 6th:
The weekend turned out to be beautiful. Friday was a bit breezy, which created a bit of a challenge picking up a mooring at the Matanzas Pass mooring field. But, once secured, the three boats which arrived this day had a comfortable evening. The crew from Miller Time and Windswept joined together on Freestyle for cocktails and appetizers.
2011 Matanzas Pass Cruise
Saturday morning we all headed in to the floating dinghy dock located under the Southern end of the 65′ Fort Myers Beach bridge. The plan was to watch the Festival of the Islands race and for a while, and then catch the trolly down to the Holiday Inn to take in the international sand castle contest. The racers were having a busy time of it in the brisk Northerly breeze. But, unfortunately for us, there was a very very large contingent of tourists with the same plan to use the trolly. It was immediately apparent that a “Plan-B” was necessary. That plan was to walk over to Nervous Nelly’s in search of the perfect Cuban Sandwich. The Cubans were indeed excellent, and everything was – as Deedee Cheek put it “Perfect” sitting out on Nervous Nelly’s back porch. Unfortunately – the day was not quite “Perfect” for Trust Me, who we watched coming in through the pass. As we found out, their center board cable parted soon after they departed their slip in South Fort Myers.
Saturday evening we must have had about fifty CMCS’ers as the racers joined the cruisers and the racer / cruisers for Happy Hour at Bonita Bill’s. How can you not have an excellent time with such great company and when the club is buying the appetizers. THANK YOU CMCS!!!
Sunday morning Bare Feet – a racer / cruiser – joined our contingency as Trust Me headed back home to attempt getting into their slip at high tide. The day’s itinerary was slightly modified. Rather than simply cruising around the back bay on Freestyle, we cruised on down to the Fish House restaurant (next to Dolphin Marina), and tied Freestyle up at their floating dock. We then walked across the street to the Holiday Inn, and spent a couple hours taking in the spectacular sand castles. These were definitely works of art by artist from all over the world. Then our group wondered back to the Fish House for a delightful lunch.
Submitted by:
Glen & Paula Vetter
