Stuart, FL to Lake Okeechobee

1/19/2017

56 Statute Miles Traveled

1 Operating Lock (14' lift), 2 Pass-through Locks

7.5 Hours Travel Time

We got a late start today as Clark investigated the battery-charging issue. That, in addition to his walk over to see Skip from Easy Water before leaving, gave us a departure time of close to 11:00 a.m. While waiting for him to be ready to go, I moved some lines around for better positioning on the boat. The previous owners really liked red, white, and blue. I discovered through use that the lines are all marked – blue = longest, red = medium length, and white = shortest lines. I had short where I needed long and vice versa, so I shuffled them around.

Shortly after we left the marina and started heading towards the St. Lucie lock and Lake Okeechobee, we entered an area where the channel was not clearly marked, i.e. it was very confusing. As a result we found ourselves in low water, apparently outside the channel, and we grounded. Thankfully Clark had seen the depth decreasing rapidly, so he was traveling at idle speed. He said that if he had not had to dodge a crab pot, he would have been able to turn before we hit bottom. I was worried we might be in trouble, but with a little maneuvering, Clark was able to get us off the bottom and back on our way.

We locked through our first lock in this boat – the St. Lucie Lock – with no problems except that it took a long time to get through.  We had to wait while they filled the lock, locked through eastbound traffic, and then let us enter. All told it took almost two hours to complete this one lock.

Lock on the Okeechobee Canal through Florida

In this lock they provided nice, dry lines that they dropped down to us. Since they keep the lines at the top of the lock wall when not in use, they were not slimy and disgusting to hold. On Sea Moss, when we locked through, I took the bow and Clark the stern lines because it was easy for him to run up and down the steps to the flybridge from the stern. On Sunset Delight it is a long way from the stern to the flybridge, so I took the stern lines and he took the bow. That seemed to work well.

Everything seemed to be going quite well. I asked Clark if he was becoming more comfortable with the boat. He replied, “Ha! Not after running aground earlier!” Even so we sat back and relaxed a bit and took in the scenery. We did not see very many boats, but we did pass quite a few cows along the way!

Cows along the Okeechobee Canal

We continued on our way, and then suddenly, for no apparent reason, the starboard engine shut down. I was in the galley when it happened, and I thought Clark slowed the boat on purpose as he often does for a variety of reasons. When I poked my head up to the flybridge, he looked at me and said, “I don’t know what happened.”

We lost yet more time on our trip today while Clark played with controls and investigated the situation to try to determine what had occurred. Finally, after I made a comment about the engine shutting down, Clark looked into that. He thought that the starboard controls had stopped working. However, as it turned out, the engine had stopped running altogether. The engines are very quiet on this boat, so it is hard to know if they are, or in this case, are not, running. He started the engine back up and she continued to run, but now we have a new worry to add to the list. What made it fail at random!

We passed under multiple highway bridges ranging from 55 to 65 feet vertical clearance. One of the bridges that we had to pass through is a railroad bridge that is normally open – it only closes when a train needs to cross. As we approached the RR bridge, we could see that it was in the closed position, and as we watched and listened, we saw and heard a freight train coming.  Oh great! Yet another delay!

From our vantage point, mostly due to brush, trees, etc., it was impossible to see any of the train except where it crossed on the bridge in front of us. Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, we used to get stuck (in our car) at railroad crossings all the time. I would count the cars as they went by and frequently got up to as many as 100 railroad cars. I hoped the train crossing the bridge in front of us at a very slow speed did not fall into that 100-car category. Fortunately, it did not last all that long, and we found ourselves underway once the slowest ever bridge finally opened for us to pass.

Finally, we got the green light on the RR bridge

At 4:00, we arrived at the entrance to Lake Okeechobee and passed through the Mayaca lock that was in the continuously open position. Yay! As we approached the lock, we asked the lock master there about the lock we needed to get through in Clewiston to get to our marina for the night. We got a bit of a scare, when he said he did not know the operating hours for that lock but knew that the one in Moore Haven closes at 4:30. Yikes! We had 20 miles to go across the lake to get to Clewiston. We reckoned we were looking at an arrival at the lock there at 6:00 at best.

Clark decided to call that lock as soon as we passed through the Mayaca lock. He got no answer, so he called the marina to find out their hours. We breathed a sigh of relief when they told us the lock in Clewiston remained open, and better yet, the dock master at the marina said he would stay after normal business hours to greet us upon our arrival. That was the best news we had received all day.

I had not noticed, but Clark pointed out that as we crossed the lake, we picked up a following of sea gulls – just a few at first and then more and more as we progressed across the lake. By the time we approached Clewiston area we had way more than I could hope to count. Clearly they thought we were a fishing boat and that we would be throwing scraps as we cleaned out fish. Sorry!!!

Sea Gulls Looking for Dinner from Sunset Delight

As we approached Clewiston, we watched the sun set lower and lower in the sky. The colors played across the sky in varying shades of orange and red. Without the worry of arriving at a strange port on a strange boat in the dark, it would have been a pleasure to watch the show take place in front of us. Unfortunately, the sun getting lower and lower only reminded us of the time and that we would need to dock in the dark.

As the sun set on Lake Okeechobee

After sunset on Lake Okeechobee

We had told the dock master our best guess was 6:30. Just before then we heard someone calling “Delight” on the VHF radio. Clark took a chance they were calling us and responded. It turned out to be the dock master calling us to find out our progress. He gave us final approach instructions and helped us tie off for the night. We docked around 6:45 – fortunately with no additional hangups!

After securing the lines and getting the boat settled for the night, I was wiped out. I suggested we take advantage of the marina restaurant since I had no energy for making dinner after the stress of the day. Clark ordered a Bubba Burger which turned out to be three cheeseburgers on a single bun. I ordered something I almost never order – fried fish. Lightly battered, it was delectable!

After stuffing ourselves at the restaurant, we came back to check out the travel plan for tomorrow. Today we traveled 56 statute miles – tomorrow requires about 70 miles of travel plus more locking. We better get a much earlier start! Who knows what adventures tomorrow will bring?!