Cruisers Appreciation Day celebrates mooring field boaters
Jeff and Barby Greene are one of the fortunate ones who sold their home of 15 years on Fort Myers Beach not long before Hurricane Ian.
This was their first season back to Fort Myers Beach, with a different vantage point of their island from their new boat. They used to spend November to May at their home on Fort Myers Beach. This was their first season visiting Fort Myers Beach on their new boat. They spend most of the year in Maryland.
“We love it,” Mr. Greene said of being back on Fort Myers Beach. “It’s fantastic. We were surprised. We knew it wasn’t put back completely. It was fun. It felt fairly normal.” Greene said the town feels “not quite as crowded” as before Hurricane Ian hit four years ago.
At Cruisers Appreciation Day this past week, Barby was enjoying a cheeseburger and Jeff was digging into some fresh pink Gulf shrimp at Snug Harbor Waterfront Restaurant as part of a complimentary meal organized by the Fort Myers Beach Anchorage Advisory Committee. The committee raised funds from a host of local businesses to support the event, as a way to give back to boaters like the Greenes who stay at the town’s mooring field.
“It’s good to see the restaurants,” Mr. Greene said.
Their friend Richard Fieldhouse, who captains a sailboat and is anchored at the mooring field, made quick friends with Mr. and Mrs. Greene. Fieldhouse, who was also attending the Cruisers Appreciation Day, said he has stayed at the mooring field around a half dozen times. “It’s a convenient place for a couple weeks on my way to the Bahamas,” the Maryland native said.
Anchorage Advisory Committee board members visited and reached out to local businesses to ask them to donate for the event, and some committeemembers even made donations out of their own pockets.
One of the main sponsors of the event was Fly Heli Tours, whose owner Steve Overy donated $2,000. While Overy was not in attendance, Fort Myers Beach Public Information Officer Abigail Eberhart said Fort Myers Beach Harbormaster Curtis Ludwig reached out to Overy to secure the donation for the event. Eberhart said Overy was tasked with finding donors for the event by the Anchorage Advisory Committee during meetings in January and February.
“Curtis was tasked by the Anchorage Advisory Committee with identifying potential donors and sponsors for the event. This direction was discussed during the committee meetings in January and again in February,” Eberhart said.
Also joining the afternoon was a buffet of local nonprofits, who helped spread the message of their groups to local boaters and other interested members of the public. Among the nonprofits attending were the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Fort Myers Beach Art Association, Friends of the Mound House, Keep Lee County Beautiful, San Carlos Bay Power Squadron, Turtle Time and the Women’s Club. Fort Myers Beach Marine and Environmental Resources Task Force members Dave Nusbaum and Todd Zaccanelli brought laminated maps showing the manatee speed zones around the bay in the waters off Fort Myers Beach.
Anchorage Advisory Chair Chris King, who oversaw and coordinated the donations and the organizing of the event, said more than 22 prize donations were given from local businesses for the participants.
King said the event was a “thank you to the boaters” as well as a way for local nonprofits to get some attention “and showcase what our island has to offer.”
King said the nonprofits also get a chance to communicate with each other at the event.
“To me, it’s wonderful to just see these people standing around, having conversations, learning about the nonprofits, finding ways they can get involved or just get education,” King said.
Over the past year, the town raised its mooring field rates, with the monthly rate increasing from $436.46 to $532.84 and the daily rate going up from $30 to $35 for boaters to anchor in the town’s mooring field. That was the second straight year the town increased its daily rate, after raising it from $25 to $30 the year before as the town has faced budgetary woes. The daily mooring field rate has more than doubled since 2016, when it was $16 a day. The monthly rate has gone up at a lower rate since then, when it was $276.
The mooring field has 89 mooring field balls and stretches across Matanzas Pass from near Nervous Nellies past the Matanzas Pass Bridge. Boaters who use the town’s mooring field have access to the town’s pump out boat, and showers and restrooms provided at the Matanzas Inn.