January 15, Day 204 – Boca Grande to Punta Gorda

When we woke up this morning it was warm; first time in several days that we didn’t mind getting out from underneath the warmth of the covers. We had initially planned on going to Pelican Bay in Cayo Costa to anchor today, but the weather forecast was for some wind and rain the next couple of days, so instead we decided to go to a marina in Punta Gorda. However, we were unable to leave until 10:45 when the tide came in and gave us enough depth to exit our anchorage. We had a nice ride over to Charlotte Harbor. While it wasn’t very sunny, the seas were flat, depth was good and it was warm. We arrived at Fishermen’s Village Yacht Basin around 2:30. It is a very nice facility with a pool, tennis courts and, of course, shopping. There are several other Loopers here as well as 2 other Monks.

After getting settled in, we took a walk through the shopping center that is part of the marina complex. There were lots of interesting shops that we browsed through, but the only thing we bought were a few books from the used book store. We stopped at one of the bar/restaurants and had a drink with Michael and Jana in a booth overlooking the harbor. It was a very pleasant afternoon.

Back at the dock we found a bunch of loopers and other boaters gathered on the dock for happy hour. We joined them for awhile and then after went back to the boat for dinner. Went to bed early as we were tired.

View to the right from our dock at the marina

.... and view to the left. This is the indoor/outdoor shopping center located with the marina

Here's Monk's Vineyard at her dock. If you look 2 boats down, you'll see another Monk and then down 2 boats from that (blue hull) is another Monk. An interesting point about all 3 Monks is that they all name cities in Maryland as their home port.

That's all the pictures for today as I forgot to take my camera when we went for a walk. Hopefully, more pictures of this area tomorrow.