Sunday November 29

Traveling through the the St. Lucie River to the Okeechobee Lake......

Left Longeron Marina in St. Lucie River to cross the Okeechobee Lake today. We wanted to get an early start so we could hopefully cross the lake before the winds kicked up. It was very confusing because we had to go under a bridge and then between the small opening of the bascule bridge and then through a very small opening in an old RR bridge, each with lights that merged with other lights when its that early.  One more complication was that the 3rd bridge need to open.   Leaving early has its advantages such as beautiful sunrises.  One thing we noticed was the amount of sunken boats"dead soldiers".  We probably have seen a dozen or so along the way.  Those were the boats that still  had something showing above water.  We wonder how many are below the water line.

Clearing 3 bridges in the dark of the morning

Still waiting for sunrise

The light of day!

Only 30 feet wide.

This Rail Road bridge is remotely operated and closes whenever a train comes by.  It supposed to give you warnings before it closes...you hope!  No trains when we moved through.  I will say, there were many  places along the route that when we stopped at night, you could hear trains in the not so far distance.  Guess they travel along the inter-coastal as well.

Another Dead Soldier

One of the more remarkable sights along the way were the thousand (probably millions) of birds that live along the shores.  This one was perched on top of his  cut off palm tree with wings spread proud. Kind of reminds me of an Indian totem pole.  We often see the birds in this position along the route.

Yet another set of birds below.  These are the loons that are also bobbing under the water in any given spot. Today, they were resting on the side of the lock.

This is the lock to enter Lake Okeechobee.   We belong to a group "American Great Loop Cruisers Association".  That is where we got a lot of information to make us confident we could do this trip. One of the members is based in Pasadena MD and  Mike wrote several e-mails to him asking for information concerning this trip.  As we were holding on to the ropes a boat pulled in behind us.  It had the name Sanctuary from Pasadena MD. Turns out we went 1200 miles and here we meet Jim Healy the Captain I was getting my information from.  What a small world.  We crossed the Lake together when Captain Jim helping me all the way.

We have now traveled through about half dozen locks and feeling like we are fairly competent lock cruisers. The way it works is,  you first radio the lock master and he will give you an idea of  how long you may or may not have to wait.   There is basically a traffic light and you must wait until the green light comes on, drive in and pick a side to hold on to unless the lock master instructs differently.    There are ropes (sometimes slimy) coming down every 6' or so. Carol usually  grabs one in the front and then as quickly as I can move to the back of the boat to hold on to the stern.  You then hold on tight (sometimes very tight) while the water rushes in or rushes out.  Sometimes it can get quite turbulent and you must feed the line up or down to keep tension so that the turbulent water doesn't push you around too much.  Most of the time it has been fairly easy to lock through.

It took us about 3 hours to cross  Lake  Okeechobee with a lot of rocking and rolling.  The winds were at our starboard quarter.  We get to Clewiston and then entered a closed canal  for about another 17 miles to get to the  Moore Haven lock which is where we spent the night. This picture above is where we left the open waters of the Lake Okeechobee and then through the marshlands.  It was a beautiful and peaceful area to cruise especially after the rocking and rolling on the Okeechobee!