Sometimes Nomads Need to Grow Some Barnacles (Two Months in Fort Myers)

We generally keep a fairly hyper-mobile lifestyle – changing locations every few days to every few weeks. But every so often, we feel the call – to slow the heck down for a bit.

By the time we were ramping up our boat hunt last fall, it was shouting loudly in our ears.

But stopping would have meant putting the boat hunt on hold, which was an option we considered. Instead, we continued the hunt – moving to where the boats were and pushing against our road exhaustion.

The vision that kept us going was moving aboard our new floating condo, hopefully docked in a cool area, where we could get both our sea legs and our much overdue still time.

We cruised into Fort Myers in early May with a spot reserved – and quickly realized a month wasn’t going to be enough. Especially not with a cross state RV trip planned too.

Quick Video Recap of the Past Two Months:

So, what continues to keep us here beyond just the general desire to grow some barnacles?

1 – Awesome Marina

We selected Legacy Harbour Marina as our second marina, right in the heart of downtown Fort Myers. It’s a block from a major grocery store and walking distance to dozens of dining options.

A huge contrast to our first stay, Burnt Store Marina – which was 10 miles from anywhere.

The marina is incredibly well maintained with floating docks, a shaded pool, onsite gym, self service pump out and super helpful staff. Our boating neighbors are the best too.

To top it off, we have a killer slip. Now that it’s solidly the off season, many boats have moved on or are in summer storage further inland. And those that haven’t, have relocated to more protected “summer” slips shadowed by the condo buildings behind us.

Since we’re month-to-month and the peak of hurricane season isn’t here yet – we’ve been allowed to keep our slip further out in the river (with an inner slip available should the need arise.  More on our Hurricane “Plans”)

This has granted us wide open panoramic water views.

With all this – plus privacy, electric hook-ups to run the air conditioners, fresh water for bubble baths (did I mention we have a bath tub on board?) and sunset views like these:

 

Would you leave if you didn’t have to?

Especially with what we consider very affordable monthly off-season rates of $14/foot (47 * $14 = $658) plus a live-aboard fee of $130/month for use of the amenities (remember, marinas are also storage lots for non live-aboards) and metered electric. Heck, RV parks in the area go for more than that.

2 – Urban Living

Fort Myers isn’t a huge city, but it’s just big enough to have everything we might need. And most of it in walking distance of the marina (or a short Lyft ride away).

There’s a revitalized downtown with several dining options (not one, but TWO sushi bars!), bars, shops, cafes, live music, art festivals and deserts.  There’s also local stage theatre, and we’ve been loving attending every show we can.

This is precisely the lifestyle we were craving. Docked downtown and enjoying a more urban setting.

The options for this indulgence in RVing are rather limited.

3 – Boat Projects

Oh yeah, right, we do live on a boat now – this isn’t all fun and games. Being still for a bit has given us time to find the right contractors for the right job, and tackle more major projects.

While here, so far, we have:

 

• 

  Hired a mechanic for a full engine maintenance (all fluids, filters, impellers, zincs, and belts changed) on our two Cummins 370s and genset, but also teach us how to do it ourselves. (Cost: ~ $1000 in parts and $880 in labor.)  Our engines are now starting at a baseline maintenance level that we know, and we have spare parts onboard.

• Serviced one of our Vacuflush toilets (again, hired the professionals, and had them teach us so we can handle the second – total: $870 to replace a failing switch, perform full service on one head and parts for the second)
• Replaced on our own: a bilge pump, our shower sump, fresh water leveling valve, fresh water pump (Cost: few hundred in parts and a couple beers to keep the plumber happy.)
• Had privacy day screens made for our pilothouse (they’re AWESOME – opening up the view upstairs while keeping the heat of the sun out!)

• 

  Swapped out our mattress

• Replaced our microwave with a convection/microwave combo
• Repaired a bimini after a wind storm tore it
• Got rid of our way too big, noisy and power hungry Frigibar flybridge freezer and replaced it with with a much more suitable & efficient Dometic portable (they hooked us up with their just released Wi-Fi controlled CFX 100W portable fridge/freezer)
• Started putting together our dinghy setup (we’ll fill you in later on the details, that’s still in progress)

And of course, there’s been an endless stream of boxes from Amazon (so thankful to have a shipping address!) as we setup our home.

4 – Visitors

In our travels, meeting up with people is one of our greatest joys. We have been able to reconnect with so many across the country, and make new friends too.

Being still means the awesome has a chance to catch up with us. And this stop, despite being in south Florida for summer, has enabled some fantastic meet-ups.

And because we have a guest cabin, we can even host overnight guests!  My mom drove us back to Fort Myers after our bus trip and stayed aboard with us for a week (including some lovely cruising to Sanibel Island!). Which is just not something we could have comfortably done in the bus.

What’s Up Next?

Whew, no wonder two months has flown by so quickly – and we haven’t even mentioned that we manage to work full time too.

Quite honestly, we’re just not quite ready to move yet – so we’ll use the excuse (not that we need one) that we’re still awaiting parts for our davit setup for the dinghy to arrive. We also have some family stuff up this month where being close to an airport would be handy.

Our marina lets us extend by the day at the pro-rated monthly rate – giving us no pressure to make decisions until we’re ready.

When the time comes to move, we still haven’t decided if we’ll head across the Okeechobee Waterway (the lake is up to 6.30 feet, enough depth for us now, but more would be better) or south via the Keys. We’ll just see how it all shapes up!

For now, we’ll leave you one last reminder why we’re not itching to leave: