You guys. You’ll never guess what happened today. Go ahead – try.
Nope. Guess again.
Nope – but you’re getting closer. I’ll tell you in a minute.
We knew it would be a long, kinda boring day, so we got underway right about 8:00 this morning. The good thing about this stretch is that about every fourteen miles, there’s something to do to wake us up: The Franklin Lock, the Fort Denaud Swing Bridge, the Ortana Lock, and then the dock at Moore Haven for a total of 55 miles. Captain has been keeping the rpm down just a bit, so our average speed is just a little under 9mph. Trying to save some $$ on fuel!
And then there was the highlight of the day. 🥳 We had just settled in on our way and at about 8:30, I noticed that I missed a call. It was from a Fort Lauderdale number, so I thought it might be the Dania Beach Marina calling me back about my request to stay there for 2-3 weeks. (The unsecure transient dock marina that we’ve been considering, but I thought maybe if we were staying awhile, maybe we’d get to be on one of the long term secure docks.) It wasn’t the same number that I had called, but I called the number back. The man on the other end said he was looking for Paul Stark, so I told him who I am. He said he got our name and number from a neighbor-friend who we had sent a Snag-a-Slip request to. He asked me what we were looking for, because he didn’t get all the details from the other guy. I told him our situation, and he asked when we’d be in Fort Lauderdale. Then I had to ask where HE was because I had sent three requests to places within about six miles of Port Everglades, and three to places that were about fifteen miles north. He was responding to one of the close ones! He explained his place and the docking situation: he has pilings, but no dock or gangway, but said he could fashion a gangway from a ladder and lumber. I said that would be fine since we plan to go home to wait for our ship, then we’d be back, so we wouldn’t be getting off and on the boat much. So I asked the price. He said since he doesn’t have a dock, and that’s why he doesn’t advertise on Snag-a-Slip… $500. WHAT!?🤭 I toldja you’d never guess!! I did not see that coming! I had to contain myself, and tried to stay calm, and replied that that sounded good, but I needed to check with the Captain and get back to him. So he sent pictures to help us see. It’ll totally work!! I asked about security, and he said this is an upscale neighborhood with large yachts, it’s very safe. Sweet!
So I texted the guy back and told him we’d take it. WOWZA what an answer to prayer!
At this point, I still had a reservation request in at Boynton Beach Marina for Tuesday, but hadn’t heard back from them yet. So, if we didn’t stop there (and spend over $100 for one night), we would need to travel 42 miles and transit 7 bridge openings to get to our new spot . We can do that, so I requested that our Boynton reservation be cancelled. It took awhile, but I finally got a response that we would not be charged since it had not yet been confirmed. Whew! Now I’ll just keep praying that this actually works out!! 🤩
And now – back to regular scheduled programming: We were lucky on our approach to the Franklin lock. There were two boats entering the lock when we finally got around a corner and could see it, so the lock master held it for us, and then two more boats came in behind us. That was nice timing that we didn’t have to wait. It was a short, 1.5’ lift, and then we were on our way. It was so fast that I didn’t even take a picture!
This was different. Neither of us remember seeing airplanes along the way! This guy had a least five airplanes hiding in the trees. And that big long green lawn on the left was his runway!
Our next fourteen mile wake-up was for the Fort Denaud swing bridge. The bridge operator was a delightfully cheerful lady. She had to walk out to the pivot point to open the bridge, and she was so nice and friendly.
Our next item of interest was the Ortana Lock. This one lifted us at least six feet. Once again, we were super lucky, and followed a couple of other boats in without having to wait. Since we were the followers, we had to go to the port/north side of the lock. That doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it turned out to be! My weenie arms cried! Since the Okeechobee waterway locks are fairly shallow lifts, they just have ropes hanging down about every twenty feet that we grab onto to hold our boat to the wall. The way they raise the water level in these locks is by cracking open the upstream doors. In this lock, the water swirls around in a counter-clockwise current, and let me tell you what…. it was white water rapids on our side of the lock! I was in my normal position at the bow, and Kenny was at his normal spot in the stern. The current kicked out the bow away from the wall, and I couldn’t fight the current! As we went up and the line would get some slack, we’d drift out further because I could not pull in the slack! YIKES! The boat on the opposite side of the lock was just sitting there having lunch like no big deal, not moving an inch, but man, our side was NUTS! Kenny realized that I was dealing with forces beyond my control, so he tied his line off and came to help. It was all he could do with his guns to pull us in closer to the wall. Once we were there, I could move farther forward on the bow to really help keep the bow close to the wall. By doing that, it kicked the stern out a bit, but it was the only way we could keep the Girl from getting out of control! Whew! I was super glad when that was over! Out of over 200 locks that we’ve done all around the eastern U.S., this one today was probably about the worst experience we’ve had. We looked like a couple of amateurs. Oh well. No insurance claims. 🤷♀️
THIS was unusual! We saw a few gators in the river. I mean – it isn’t unusual to see gators in fresh water in Florida, but this is the first time we’ve ever actually seen gators in the Caloosahatchee River! This one was just tootling across the river, and yep – there are houses right here!
Another 14 miles, and we arrived at the River House Marina in Moore Haven. We’ve stayed here before, and it is a convenient stop right before the Moore Haven Lock. We pulled right in and the dockmaster gave us a hand. There was another boat that we’d followed all the way here from the last lock, and they pulled in as well. Kenny got to be in his element of chatting with other boaters on the dock and sharing information about marinas and such. We do miss that, and it is fun to share knowledge with others!
This is the third time we’ve stayed here, and I finally used the swimming pool! It was really nice and refreshing, but late in the afternoon, there were lots of bugs, so we didn’t stay too long
We got out the BBQ to grill up a couple of steaks that we bought the other day in Fort Myers. But WAIT! NO! WE HAVE NO LAWREY’S!! In fact, the only seasonings we have on board are salt and pepper, which I just bought two days ago in Ft Myers too. Hmmmmmmmm. Well – there was a Family Dollar store about a mile away, so we got out Speedy (the electric bike) and I took him for a spin. That worked out really good. It was pretty toasty outside, so it was a lot easier to bring a few groceries back to the boat in his saddle bags rather than walking and carrying stuff.
Kenny grilled up our steaks, and I fixed some taters and salad. Yum. It was a good dinner.
Tomorrow we’ll head across Lake Okeedokee and get to the east side of the state.
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Sunday – We had such a nice peaceful night, and slept well. I was awake early, and we were both up and pulling away from the dock by 8:00. First order of business was the Moore Haven lock. Thankfully, the railroad bridge between here and there was open. We had several trains go by last night, and I’d read reviews that sometimes the bridge doesn’t get opened for marine traffic after the trains are done. Whew! No problem this morning. We timed this just right, as there were two boats just coming out of the lock toward us as we approached, so we got to go right in. YAY!
Once through the lock, we turned right and followed the Lake Okeechobee rim canal for about fourteen miles. (Of course 14!) We saw so many gators that we lost count. Allie, Walley, Alice, Al E. Gator, and all of their extended family were greeting us with their beedy eyeballs. We’ve never seen so many, but then we remembered that this is May. The other times we’ve been through here, it was March and cooler.
We saw an entire “road crew” on standby. That what we call the vultures, because they clean-up the roadkill, right? Clean-up on aisle 3!
This whole Okeechobee flood control system is amazing. Someday I need to learn all about what, when, why and how this was all done.
The water seemed low, so I checked the USACE website for the current lake level. Yep – it is a bit lower than we’ve seen before. It seems like it was over 13’ last year in March. Not that 12.71 is a lot lower, but the scenery sure seemed different.
We got to the Clewiston intersection, and took a left turn out to the lake.
Once out here, we didn’t see any more gators. The lake was splat flat today! We had to go several miles to get past the grassy parts, and then it was just a great big shallow lake. And we actually stay in a channel on the chart plotter the entire way.
After about 25 miles across the lake, we arrived at the Port Mayaca Lock. This is the first time that we haven’t gone fast across this lake, but it was so calm, and we are trying to conserve fuel money, so we just meandered across. This lock is often open, so we were kind of surprised to see that the doors were closed. Kenny called, and the lock master said to keep coming, the doors would be open when we got there, and to just idle through. We didn’t fully understand what he meant, but then we saw the doors opening and could see that the far end doors were already open. OH!
OK – We’ll just idle through. Got it!
Our next possible obstacle was another railroad bridge. One time, we just skated under this one as it started to lower, and another time we just had to wait. Today it was open and stayed open. YAY! We must be living right!
Another what, fourteen miles? (of course!) down the way, there was another railroad bridge, but this one was holding up traffic. We slowed down and idled our approach, and low & behold, it was opening! We didn’t have to wait long, although there must have been a tiny gerbil inside running as fast as he could on teeny tiny gears because it was soooo slow. No worries. It actually felt good to stop for a bit, because a little bit of breeze had come up that was following us. The only way we could get any air movement was to stop and then we could feel it. I actually had taken an electric fan up to the fly bridge to try to get some air to move! It was hot.
We made it to our dock and had zero issues getting in here. We’ve stayed here before, so we knew what to expect. A short finger pier that we have to go bow into. Tie off to the pier piling and the aft piling, and we’re good! And there is power… all for $15/night! TOTAL! It’s normally $30 but we get half price because we have the Lifetime Senior America the Beautiful National Park Pass. Gotta love docking in a park!
I always think these slips are super skinny, and was thankful nobody was in slip #4 next to us. But, I think we’re actually completely in our own side. However, if somebody our size came in, we’d barely have room for a fender between us.
The boat in Slip 3 is a beautiful Pilgrim. The only other one of these we’ve ever seen was some nice people we met on our loop in 2018. We know they sold the HMS Vagabond, and we’re wondering if this is it, renamed Dancing Bears, because it looks just like it.
I got off the boat for just a few minutes to take pictures. We pre-paid for this slip through Recreation.gov, which makes things way easy. While I was taking pics, I saw this weird iguana. He had a red head! I had to look it up. “Peter’s rock agama lizard, also known as the red-headed lizard, is an invasive species that scientists say originated from Africa.” There you go. Another reptilian lesson. Another invasive species to go along with our pythons, lionfish, and ferrel hogs. 🤷♀️
We were both pretty toasty, so we just hung out in the A/C and enjoyed the coolness. We are only two days away from Port Everglades, so that is a good thing. Tomorrow we’ll head south into the crowded crazy waters of South Eastern Florida. Not our favorite place to boat, and day after tomorrow we’ll be venturing into territory that we’ve never been in – at least not in our own boat anyway. 😬