We had hoped to be on the waterway in a couple of weeks after our arrival, heading for new adventures. Alas, we are still here at Gasparilla Marina a month later. Don’t get me wrong—Gasparilla Marina is a wonderful place with lots of friendly, helpful folks. It is just that we arrived here on the 12th and moved onto the boat the next day and we had hoped to be on our way within two weeks.  Sigh…

We had prearranged to have some work done on the boat as soon as we arrived down here.  We were told that the work would take a week and then they would have us back in the water. We opted to stay onboard even though the boat was “on the hard” (boat speak for out of the water and on the ground). We were about twelve feet in the air and our ”amenities” were few (i.e. no running water, a long walk to bathrooms and shower) but we figured we could rough it for a week. The plus side is that we had a birds-eye view of the marina.  The not so good side is that  the week was closer to two weeks and the work ethics of the folks doing the work left a LOT to be desired, but we won’t even  go there.  Ugh!! Suffice to say, we would NEVER have any boat work done at Gasparilla Marine Services again (they are NOT (and I repeat NOT)  a part of the marina even though they share similar names).  The manager is one of the most rude and arrogant people that we have EVER met. My hubby said that he was treated better in basic training ( a very LONG time ago—but he still remembers ).

Enough of that. The good news is that we are ready to start our trip back. We will leave tomorrow (weather permitting). We will leave here early tomorrow morning and head for the city of Fort Myers where we will start to cross Florida via the Okeechobee Waterway.

Tomorrow night at this time (if the good Lord is willing), we will have passed the first lock on the waterway from this direction (W. P. Franklin Lock). We will stay at Rialto Harbor docks. Hopefully, I will have good wi-fi connection and I will be able to write about our first day on the water.

I will try to write more regularly. The wi-fi here at Gasparilla was my only complaint with the marina. I was only able to get a wi-fi signal sometimes and it never was a very strong signal even though we have spent the last couple of weeks quite close to the building that the wi-fi is in. I understand that it is something that they are going to work to improve.

If ever you are in this area and looking for a marina, give this one a try. There are ospreys all over (we have counted four pairs from one viewing spot, pelicans, gulls and other birds. We have seen porpoises swimming right behind the boat and also we have seen manatee’s a couple of times. It is near the Boca Grande beach area and the area is delightful. While we didn’t plan to spend so much time here, it is a very nice marina and area.