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| Early morning in Moore Haven |
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| On Lake Okeechobee |
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| Port Mayaca Lock |
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| Jane working the lock |
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| Happy hour on Sun Cat |
The next day involved crossing Lake Okeechobee. We likened this 30+ mile leg to crossing Lake Pontchartrain, but where Pontchartrain has an average of 12-13 feet, Okeechobee, with the current drought conditions, runs about one-half that.
Odyssee, Cassandra Jade, and
Bavarian Cream left Moore Haven and locked through our third lock, the Moore Haven Lock. Since
Cassandra Jade was a 65 foot trawler with a deeper draft, we let her blaze the way across the lake. Her length also gave her a faster hull speed and the other two boats would periodically go up on plane to catch up to her. We hit the Port Mayaca Lock a little past noon and settled in for a leisurely cruise down the St. Lucie Canal to our last lock on this waterway, the St. Lucie Lock. The problem was the St. Lucie Lock was over two hours away and on the odd-hour locking schedule.
We were about 5 miles away with one-half hour to go for a 3:00 p.m. lock-through, and Capt. Larry was almost certain we were not going to make it. However, if the westbound side locked through first, we would be good. We were still about one-half mile away when we heard the lockmaster told a waiting eastbound boat to enter the lock. We radioed the lock and told the lockmaster that we were bringing up the rear and made our way in. Because we were last we had to go to the opposite side and Jane was beside herself that she had to move the fenders. We locked down about 12 feet and cruised on to Stuart. While we were in the lock we noted that the first boat in was
Abrejojos, a fellow looper that we had been told to be on the lookout for. We radioed them and introduced ourselves. They were going to stay at Sunset Marina in Stuart for about a week, so we figured that we would meet up with them again. We also went into Sunset Marina which turns out to be a really huge marina and mooring field. We had a little difficulty getting into our slip because of a really stiff wind, but finally made. Jane joked that the marina was so big the restrooms were in another zip code! We met another current looper,
Godspeed, from Slidell, LA on our way in.
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Having a great time!
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We were invited to join a group of former loopers aboard
Sun Cat for happy hour and met a lot of new couples. The whole group went to a really great Italian restaurant for dinner, then settled in for the night. Between walking to the restaurant, walking to the happy hour boat, and walking to the restrooms, Capt. Larry's knees were spent.
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| Some really BIG fish camps! |
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| Containing the fire |
The next morning we had coffee aboard
Odyssee. We received a lot of good tips and anchorages from Chuck and Claria and were invited to visit them at their home when we arrived in Beaufort, SC. We left the marina a lot later than we usually do, but only had a 25 mile run up to Fort Pierce. Leaving Stuart we passed some astoundingly large homes, and came across some really skinny water. We also got to see the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Lucie Inlet for the first time. We cruised slowly to Ft. Pierce through the Indian River on the Atlantic Intracoastal Water Way (AIWW) that would be our route for the next several weeks. On the way to Ft. Pierce we came across a large brush fire with a helicopter dumping water on the fire. This further emphasizes just how dry this area is. We arrived at Ft. Pierce City Marina and got tied up in our slip. Jane checked us in and lined up our social calendar for the weekend. We ate on the boat and turned in for the night. The next day we spent doing boat chores and riding our bikes to nearby stores to
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Dinner with Carlton & Becky
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re-provision. In the afternoon we noticed that a new boat was berthed behind us, and when we checked her out we found out that it was
Seamoore with Carlton & Becky from Decatur, AL. They also were doing the loop and came up from a wintering stay in the Florida Keys. We had met them at the first Port St. Joe mini-rendezvous, and after getting reacquainted, decided to have happy hour aboard their boat, then go out to dinner. When we returned to
Bavarian Cream for a nightcap then turned in.
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| At the farmer's market |
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| Jane and a sticky bun |
The next day we went to a farmer's market and craft show in a park just outside the marina. We had a delicious breakfast and bought some great vegetables and fruits to have during the coming week. Jane wandered the craft show and walked three blocks to the downtown area, while Capt. Larry found a hardware and auto parts store to pick up some things he needed for the boat. We refueled the boat because we felt the need to become about $800 poorer, and spent the rest of the afternoon napping and working on the blog.
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| Sunrise over the AIWW |
We were about 5 miles away with one-half hour to go for a 3:00 p.m. lock-through, and Capt. Larry was almost certain we were not going to make it. However, if the westbound side locked through first, we would be good. We were still about one-half mile away when we heard the lockmaster told a waiting eastbound boat to enter the lock. We radioed the lock and told the lockmaster that we were bringing up the rear and made our way in. Because we were last we had to go to the opposite side and Jane was beside herself that she had to move the fenders. We locked down about 12 feet and cruised on to Stuart. While we were in the lock we noted that the first boat in was Abrejojos, a fellow looper that we had been told to be on the lookout for. We radioed them and introduced ourselves. They were going to stay at Sunset Marina in Stuart for about a week, so we figured that we would meet up with them again. We also went into Sunset Marina which turns out to be a really huge marina and mooring field. We had a little difficulty getting into our slip because of a really stiff wind, but finally made. Jane joked that the marina was so big the restrooms were in another zip code! We met another current looper, Godspeed, from Slidell, LA on our way in.
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