Monthly Archives: June 2013

Across Florida – Day 2. #45

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Sunday, June 2

We left Indiantown Marina at 6 a.m. I regret that I did not get any photos because it was a very quaint marina. It was small but had all the amenities….fuel, electricity, water, showers, laundry. There were palm trees lining the cement docks and the garden beds were filled with plants that we would call house plants in Texas. Here they grew outdoors lush and large. There was a large shade tree covering a central area with several tables with chairs and two fire circles. The tree was lined with lights that glowed in the nighttime hours.

It was clear when we left but soon the fog rolled in. We felt like we were back in Maine. The fog cleared within the hour. We were still in the St. Lucie Canal headed for Lake Okeechobee.

 

Our first challenge of the day was fitting under a railroad lift bridge with a 49' clearance. We let our new friend David go first. We met David the night befor at Indiantown Marina. Our mast is 48' high and we needed to go very slowly and very carefully. We all sighed with relief when we made it with only inches to spare.

The day would be filled with many bridges and locks. The first lock was the Mayaka Lock. There we met up David once again. He is delivering a boat named Seal Boat to Buloxi, Mississippi, his home town. This lock would drop us 4″ after which we would be in Lake Okeechobee.

Lake Okeechobee is a very large natural lake in the south central part of Florida. It feeds the Everglades, the swampy lands in southern Florida. We were surprised not to see a lot of recreational boats on it, it being the weekend and all.

 

For breakfast we had pork chops and scrambled eggs with english muffins. Lucky us!

By 10:45 a.m. we were across the lake and entering a canal. It was surrounded by marshland. The grasses looked a little like cattails. There were lots of birds. We saw several bald eagles and lots of herrings. We saw several alligators.

This alligator was huge.

We passed the town of Clewiston which is behind a lock. Today the lock was open.

Late morning Stephen began his task of whipping the ends of all the lines on the boat. You may have already enjoyed his instructional video on this topic. This would go on throughout the day and continue into the next. He's very good at whipping lines now.

Shortly after noon we met up with our friend, David, from Seal Boat at the Morehaven Lock. This lock let us down about 1 1/2 feet. After that we passed through a RR swing bridge and under a fixed bridge.

By 1:30 we had entered the Caloosahatchee Canal and we began to see homes along the banks. They were very modest homes. We believe this to be farm area. If we could see over the high banks of the canal we might have seen orange groves and such. We did see a few cows so there was at least one ranch.

At 3 p.m. we arrived at the Ortona Lock. By this time we were communicating regularly with our friend David and made plans to stay at the same marina for the night and have dinner together.

Shortly after that it began raining. Down came the eisenglass. Within a hair hour it was over and the eisenglass went back up. Arlene applied Snap Stick to all the snaps to keep them in good working order. There's also a product called Zipper Ease which we will be obtaining to keep the zippers working properly.

As we reached. La Belle the houses became bigger. We saw lots of these modular screen porches. They are selling like hotcakes here in Florida. Very popular.

We went through another basculle bridge.

We went through the Fort Denaud swing bridge.

It was Sunday and we saw lots of small powerboats out having fun. Yahoos!

Finally we went through our last bridge for the day in Alva.

Soon we would arrive at our dock site in the WP Franklin Lock Campgrounds. It was a Corps of Engineers campground and had boat slips, RV sites and tent camping. It was next to the lock we would go through the following morning and suited our needs just perfect. They had electricity and water.

The Seal Boat was a few slips over.
 

We got to take a tour of our new friend David's boat, the Seal Boat. Very nice trawler that he was delivering to Buloxi, Mississippi, his home town, We enjoyed grilled salmon, salad, peas and rice and tortillini for dinner. Yum!

 

The photo is a little dark but this is David. We enjoyed having him as our buddy boat for the day. We hope to run into him again in our travels. He's on his way to Buloxi.

Life is good.

Fair winds.

Franci and Stephen

 

Across Florida #44

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Saturday, June 1

At 10:30 a.m. we left Harbortown Marina in Fort Pierce following a three night stay. We were headed for Indian Town Marina on the St. Lucie Canal.

We saw lots of houses along the ICW. This time the outstanding feature was palm trees and white sands.

It was the weekend and we saw lots of power boaters everywhere. Yahoos!

At 2 p.m. we turned into the St. Lucie Canal and began our western trek across Florida to the Gulf of Mexico. There were some pretty strong currents in the canal and some very narrow bridges.

At 4 p.m. we made it through the St. Lucie lock and dam. The water level in the lock changed 14 feet. After that we would be entirely in fresh water headed to Lake Okeechobeee.

 
 
 
 

We saw lots of these modular screen porch attachment on houses along the canal. They are selling like hotcakes here.

Onward through the Okeechobee Waterway.

We arrived at Indian Town Marina at 6 p.m.

 

After we arrived Ralph and Stephen worked with the air conditioning trying to figure out why we cannot make it work. Arlene cooked us a wonderful dinner of pork chops, broccoli and potatoes. Franci worked on getting out the blog chapter covering our visit in Fort Pierce.

Stephen checking the AC controls.

Ralph looks at the thru hull intake.

Stephen even got into the water to check the salt water intake thru hull under the water.

Arlene cooks.
The AC problem remains unsolved, but dinner was delicious.

Life is good.

Fair winds.

Franci and Stephen

 

On to Fort Pierce, Florida #43

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We were up before dawn ready to leave Cape Canaveral. There is a basculle bridge one must go through that only opens at 6 a.m. and then not again until 6 p.m. Similarly, there was a lock just past the bridge which would be open once in the early morning and then not again until the evening from 6:30 until 9 p.m. We think there is some sort of construction going on there on weekdays, On weekends they would return to a friendlier schedule. Needless to say, we had no problem being there for the 6 a.m. opening.

Unfortunately, just past that bridge and the lock was another bridge which would not open until 8:30 a.m. Hurry up and wait was the theme for the morning. At 8:30 we were finally out of Cape Canaveral headed across the Banana River, through a canal surrounded by mangroves and into the Indian River where we could turn south and head for Fort Pierce.

Everywhere were signs saying Look out for Manatees. This reminded us of when our daughter, Jenny, was in fourth or fifth grade and she adopted a manatee named Rosie. For a small price she was able to support the care and feeding of manatees and the organization would send her updates on the whereabouts and well-being of Rosie, her very own adoptive manatee. Manatees are actually mammals and look a lot like walruses. They come to the surface to breathe and their greatest enemy is power boats. Many manatees have been injured by the propellers of power boats. We once visited a manatee refuge in Western Florida where we went into a room underwater where you could observe and commune with the manatees. They are really very friendly creatures. Rosie was not there at that time although we secretly hoped she would be.

It was a peaceful trip down the ICW that day except for a few scattered thunderstorms. We put the eisenglass windows up and down several times as the storms came and went.

 

Stephen puts out the lightning strike protection.

We passed Coco Beach where we saw lots of hotels and an anchorage with many sailboats,

Franci was happy to be in smooth waters again and enjoyed doing time at the helm,

We passed many nice homes along the way. Many of them were “winter homes”.

We arrived at Fort Pierce at 6 p.m., a little earlier than anticipated. Docking the boat proved to be a little more challenging than usual because it was a fixed pier, not a floating pier as we are most accustomed to. That means only the boat goes up and down with the tides so it must be secured a little differently.

 

We used a ladder to get on and off the boat. It also varied as the boat went up and down with the tide. At high tide it was pretty easy, but at low tide it was a pretty good stretch for those with short legs or bad backs.

We enjoyed many meals at the local restaurant in the days to come.

Fort Pierce is where we met up with the parts to repair the potty. What we expected to be a two hour job turned into a two day project. A lot of time went into collecting parts. There were multiple trips to two different West Marine stores, Ace Hardware, Home Depot and even a large marine consignment store. The answer finally came from a place named The Plumbrey owned by a guy originally from Portugal. He shared a lot of his life history with Ralph and Arlene, but, most importantly, he had the parts they had been searching so hard to find. Despite the many challenges Ralph always had a smile for us every time we'd see him.

The table once again became a workshop.

Arlene was his assistant throughout the entire ordeal and she also cleaned the entire boat including the refrigerator and kitchen shelves in preparation for our provisioning trip for the last leg of the journey.

 

Stephen and Franci began to feel like Thurston and Lovie Howell on Gilligan's Island. While Ralph and Arlene worked hard they hung out at the very nice marina facilities enjoying lunch with piña coladas and cold beer and the very best blackened Mahi Mahi sandwiches ever, showers, laundry, dips in the pool and time in the air conditioned computer lounge.

This is without a doubt the BEST blackened Mahi Mahi sandwich EVER. It cost only $10.

Saturday morning we arose early as usual. We had breakfast at a local diner, went to the grocery store for three grocery carts worth of supplies, bought ice, turned in the rent car and left Harbortown Marina by 10:30 a.m. headed for the St. Lucie Canal and the Okeechobee Waterway. In a couple of days we'll be in the Gulf of Mexico headed for home.

Life is good,

Fair winds,

Franci and Stephen