Okeedokee! (or… Okeechobee)

We woke up early Tuesday morning, and the boat was not sitting on the bottom. YAY! Captain measured the depth at the stern, and we had over 4’. Good to go!

We pulled out of Ft Myers and headed east. The wind was pretty calm so far. We saw this paddlewheel river boat coming down the river.

Most railroad bridges on the Okeechobee Waterway are open to facilitate marine traffic. They only close if/when a train is coming. This one was pretty unusual to see, just hangin’ there open for us!

About 14 miles up the Caloosahatchee River, we arrived at the first lock, the Franklin lock.  There was already 2 eastbound boats in position on the starboard side. We received clearance from the lockmaster to idle in and grab on to the dangling ropes on our port side.

First Mate Karen quickly set up the bumpers on the port side, and Captain set us at the lock wall perfectly. Karen held the bow rope, and Kenny came down from the fly bridge and held the stern rope.

The gates closed behind us, and the locks started filling. The dockmaster likes to keep boats toward the entry (behind us) end of the lock because the water flooding in from the exit end (ahead of us) does create some current. This was only about a 1.5’ lift, so not a huge amount of current to deal with on our first learning experience, thank goodness! Less than 20 minutes, and we were on our way.

There were some beautiful estates along the river.

Which gave way to farmland….

And then some not so stately abodes that really needed some work. We were in rural Florida!

And we saw a lot of miles like this. We were definitely going upstream against noticable current. And the eastern wind had returned and was really blowing in our face. Captain wasn’t excited about how slow we were moving for the amount of rpm we were running.

Here we were… the blue dot in the middle of the state, headed east.

The second lock, the Ortana lock, was an 8 foot lift. Here is Captain Kenny at the stern holding his rope.

And here is Karen’s view from her rope position on the bow, watching the flood waters come in to raise us up. This lock had a little more current to keep us alert!

The third lock at Moore Haven looks very impressive, but it was really only about a 1’ lift. You can see a green light on the left by the chimney of the house. That tells us that we are cleared to proceed into the lock chamber. (Confirmed by conversation with the lockmaster on the VHF radio.)

After this lock, we were at the west rim of Lake Okeechobee. As we cruised the canal we finally saw Wally Gator. It was pretty cloudy, so I think most of his buddies were staying in the water.  But this guy was big!

And some of his big bird friends.

We were originally just going to stay at a little town dock right on the waterway before the third lock in Moore Haven. But our new friends on One Eye Dog asked us to continue on a couple of hours further and stay at the same marina with them in Clewiston at the edge of Lake Okeechobee near the channel into the lake. This would make traveling across the lake together easier in the morning. Since we made good time and arrived at the third lock before it was closed for the day, we kept moving. This would work out great, because it moved us a couple hours closer to the East coast.

This was the Roland Martin marina in Clewiston. I describe it as ‘old Florida’. Very rustic, but they had a tiki hut! There was something that very noticeably thump-bumped our hull near the bow late at night, and again early in the morning. It was either a giant gator or a manatee. It was definitely something UNDER the boat! I voted manatee, but we saw no evidence of either critter in the canal, so we don’t know what it was.

This is the hurricane gate at the entrance to Clewiston. This is the view as we left in the morning, looking out at Lake Okeechobee.  The grassy area gave way to endless smooth water.  Apparently Lake Okeechobee is the second largest fresh water lake (by area, not depth!) completely in the continental U.S., only behind Lake Michigan.

The lake was so very calm! It was a perfect day to cross it!! This is us! Photos courtesy of One Eye Dog.  We slowed down to let them pass us.

And this is us following in their wake.

The Port Mayaca lock at the east side of Lake Okeechobee was open. When it is locking, it is only about a 1.5 drop, but the water level was such that locking was not necessary today. There goes One Eye Dog ahead of us.

This is another railroad bridge that is open for marine traffic unless a train is coming. We just made it under just as it started beeping and lowering for a train. It was VERY slow, so I’m glad we made it and didn’t have to wait!

The fifth and last lock on the waterway was at Port St Lucie. This was a 13.5 foot drop. There were 3 boats in the lock – we were in the middle. Here is Captain Kenny with his stern rope.

And here are the ladies, Ellen and April, on One Eye Dog in front of us.

On a lock drop, there is really no turbulence or current, which was nice. It’ll be different on our way back through when we go home, when it is a 13.5 foot lift, where they have to flood the lock!

We ended the day at Loggerhead Marina in Stuart. We’ve traveled 220  miles from home so far.