On the West Coast of Florida

Saturday we left Stuart and traveled the St. Lucie Canal to Lake Okeechobee.  There were 2 locks and a couple of draw bridges, all drama-free.  It was a long day and we spent the night in Moore Haven - population, ummm, maybe 30 people.  Distance covered: 62 nautical miles in 10 hours.

 

We crossed the lake at the south end and it is so big, we couldn't see the north shore.  I took some pics of Lake O, but they aren't very interesting.

 

Here is the beginning of the Caloosahatchee River on the west side of the lake. There were lots of herons, cormorants, egrets, and hawks, but no gators :-( 

 

We left Moore Haven early the next morning and this is what it looked like....

 

for 2 HOURS! We could see both sides of the bank but had to go slowly. It was so cold and damp we had to put on socks and coats.  I know, poor us.

 

 

Once the fog burned off it was beautiful.  This part of the Caloosahatchee River is very rural and we loved it. The town of LaBelle was lush with beautiful homes, orange groves, cows, and horses.  We only saw one gator though, and it was swimming so we didn't get a good view or pic.

 

 

There were 2 more locks before we reached Fort Myers. 

 

The Sheriff boat got to leave the lock first, then us...

then this tugboat that was headed to New Orleans. 

 

This leg of the trip we covered 50 nautical miles in 7 1/2 hours.  1.15 statute miles = 1 nautical mile (John likes to share the stats).

 



When we arrived at the Fort Myers Yacht Basin, we saw that the couple who created and runs Active Captain was also there on their boat.  If you are a boater, you understand that Karen and Jeffery Siegal are rock stars in the boating world.  If you're not a boater, just Google Active Captain and you'll see what it's about. John got so excited he was nearly jumping up and down in fanboy glee.  He made me take this picture of their boat. 

We went over to see if we could meet them but they weren't hanging out, and we didn't want to intrude.  I hope they didn't see us being super nerds outside their boat....

We are now at Mile Marker 135 on the Lake Okeechobee waterway.  Downtown Fort Myers is really nice.  We took a free trolley ride around the River District. The library was very impressive - looked like new construction. 

 

 

Tomorrow we leave for Fort Myers Beach which is west of here. 

 

 



Beautiful Day In Stuart

We rode our bikes into town this morning for breakfast.  Stuart is a nice little town filled, at the moment, with people from New Jersey.  It's a nice day, but quite windy. We'll head through Lake Okeechobee tomorrow. 

Memorial Park

It was hard to leave Miami, but we did

From Captain John (posted by Karen): 

We left Miami on Tuesday and headed north to Lake Worth inlet on the outside (the Atlantic Ocean for you non-boaters).

 

 

 

We made good time with a knot of following current so we pushed on from there on the ICW (Intra Coastal Waterway) to Mile 1000 in Hobe Sound where we anchored (100 mile day). This avoided 13 bridge openings and innumerable slow wake zones.

 

The next day we took it slow to Stuart.

 

 

 

Floating Tiki Barge

 (John says the following Dredge photos are for his Sediment Homies)

 

 

 

Where the ICW meets the St Lucie River on the Lake Okeechobee Waterway (known as the Cross Roads), we went aground near marker 6A on the St. Lucie River (marker 5 is apparently missing).  The track on the chart plotter showed there was 7 feet of water there and our track on Navimatics shows the area as 9 feet! 

 

There was a Tow Boat US anchored on a nearby sandbar so we were quickly pulled off (we have insurance for this).  He said this is a notorious stretch where shoals change rapidly - probably why he was hanging around.

 

The dog was just along for the ride.

 

 

 I tried to dive on the boat but visibility was very bad due to a high silt content (St. Lucie channel churns up the bottom) so we continued on.  We did not feel any vibrations but I was worried about the propeller, so I found a diver who checked out the bottom today.  (Karen: I wish I'd taken his picture - he was bald, had lots of tattoos, and had a silver ring in each nipple!!!!!)

 

He said there was no damage to prop or rudder. He could see that the paint had been rubbed off of part of the keel. He also commented that our bottom paint seemed to be generally losing its biocide properties as there was a lot of signs of growth despite regular cleaning.

 

So all is well that ends well. We are waiting out this front in Stuart and will head for Lake Okeechobee on Saturday. Made up these lyrics to mark the occasion to the tune of “Crossroads" by Clapton and CREAM.
 

I went down to the Crossroads, and I ran our boat aground.

I went down to the Crossroads, and I ran our boat aground.

Did not do any damage, so we are back to cruising around

 

 

Bill Baggs State Park

We needed to make sure the boat was running OK before we take off next week, so yesterday we went to Bill Baggs State Park on Key Biscayne, about 45 minutes away. http://www.floridastateparks.org/capeflorida/

The beaches there are long and wide and the water was refreshing. It was a pretty hot day, so it was great to swim at the beach. We loaded the bikes on the boat, docked in No Name Harbor and rode to the beach.  The boat is running fine.

 

John went to CVS today to buy a beach chair. He purchased the last chair they had and asked a clerk if more were expected. 

The clerk said, "No, because it's winter". 

 

It's 84 degrees.  That, by everyone's definition, is summer!     

Week 3 in Miami

The fun thing we did this week was go to the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden.
http://www.fairchildgarden.org/

Maynard and Jane, our boat neighbors, invited us and we had so much fun!

In the Butterfly House

Karen, Maynard, and Jane

 

 

This is such a beautiful place. If you are in Miami, we highly recommend it.  John said he enjoyed it more than Buchart Gardens.

 

 
This is called an Allee.

 

 

This chair was more clever than comfortable.

A Chihuly sculpture with coordinating Koi fish in the pond.

 

The butterfly house was a big surprise for us. We hadn't been in one before and it's kind of crazy. 

A morpho butterfly landed on John. The outside of its wings are brown and the inside is a beautiful delphinium blue.  This one had a torn left wing, that's why you can see the blue on the right wing. 

 

 

Morpho with its wings closed.

 

 



 

I told John we need a pergola like this at our house. He said he'd add it to his "to do" list.