St. Charles Yacht Club

We decided to anchor at Ding Darling, recommended by our friends Nina and Rod Glover of Thistle and then move to St. Charles Yacht Club on Monday morning. The weather man said the rain would arrive Monday afternoon – he was wrong.  After tying up at our favorite spot in front of the clubhouse at St. Charles and listening to the upcoming weather we decided we would stay the week and get some much needed work done on MS.  

We were docked at Snell Isle Marina where a 9 story Condo called Water Club is being built –and collected a lot of DIRT. MS needed a good cleaning including fenders, life lines, life jackets, seat cushions, dingy, dingy cover, seven outside lockers and the deck, we also replaced the joker valve on the head, new water filter in the galley and installed an aft deck light. Oooof ! Glad it's all done.

Mike the dock master loaned us his car and we found West Marine, organic grocery store Ada’s, Target and of course Publix.  As we worked our way through the day, cooking dinner was not high on our list, Wednesday we decided to dine at the club, on our way to the showers we met and chatted with Mike and Paige Caldwell, owners of sister ship  PDQ 34 - Golden -.  

Thursday evening found us at the club participating in the Coast Guard Foundation honoring Brosius and Dede D’Arcy.  Brosius is a former stockbroker with Merrill Lynch in Chicago, moved to Ft. Myers in 1991 and became involved in boating.  His involvement with the Coast Guard began after he heard of a crew make a night rescue in the Gulf of Mexico and has been raising money for them ever since.  Friday arrived, Moonstruck was clean top to bottom, more projects were checked off the list, another run to West Marine and it was time for dinner and there we were sitting in the club having a delicious prime rib dinner, maybe it is time to start cooking again?  Saturday we woke to rain, wind, more rain, lightening and thunder.  It was a Lazy Lizard day, we read, planned and relaxed.  Sunday we got ready for Monday’s departure – stuff had to be put back in its proper place.  Time to get back on the water.