Boating with Sunset Delight: 2018: Clewiston to WP Franklin Lock FL

11/19/2018

Depart: Clewiston Roland Martins Marina 7:30

Arrive: Park at W. P. Franklin Lock 1:45

Distance: 48 NM

Locks: 2 (Morehaven and Ortega Locks)

We rose at 6:30 this morning planning for a long day on the water. As per usual, our plans changed. Clark had hoped to get one of our display units worked on, but when he called to schedule the work, he discovered the shop closed for the next week. The repair will be delayed. On the bright side, our travel day shortened considerably.

I walked around the marina briefly before our departure and found some more novelties on the grounds.

Alligator Carved Bench

Content Totem Pole

Sign post to Key West and NYC

As we approached Morehaven Lock, we saw two boats tied to the dolphins before the lock.

Tied at dolphins at the Lock

We followed “Stephanie Marie”, a Fleming, all the way from the dock at Roland Martins Marina (they were docked behind us) all the way to the W.P. Franklin lock. We mostly kept pace with them and passed under bridges and through locks with them along the way.

“Stephanie Marie” up ahead

With the exception of the two locks, the trip along the waterway was tedious for most of the time. One of the most interesting things to photograph today was a bush. It is a dull day indeed when a bush is picture-worthy!

Lone bush in the waterway

In a particularly narrow section of water, the pilot of a vessel named “Vetted” decided that he absolutely had to pass right there right then. He was in a rush to move along with Sarasota as his day’s destination. Clark shifted to the port to give him some room to pass, and we felt and heard a heavy thud. Further along the waterway when we sped up, we could feel a vibration. Now we wonder what damage we may have incurred.

Scene at W. P. Franklin Park

The park at W.P. Franklin lock is an RV campsite with 8 slips for boats. Of the 8 slips, only 4 can be reserved - B1, B2, B7, and B8. For our size boat, we need either B1 or B8 because the other slips are too narrow. As we made our way into the slip, several people appeared from "nowhere" to help with our lines and then disappeared again.

We barely fit in the slip with a lot of our stern hanging out past the fixed dock. We have to go "bow in" with our nose in the weeds. As I continued to tell Clark to keep pulling up into the weeds, he kept telling me we had only 2 feet of water under the keel. "Keep coming", I yelled.

One of the guys who came out to help tied the bow line so tight to a pole that we could not move forward. That succor was tight! I asked him to give us slack so we could pull in further. He must have thought I was nuts to want to keep going deeper into the water lilies!

The park appeared to be less than half full of boats and campers.

Sunset at W. P. Franklin Campground

11/20/2018

No boat travel.

Clark had planned to move on to an anchorage for tonight, but I indicated a preference to stay put for another night. He paid the $15 fee at the park where we had electricity for the much-appreciated air conditioning.

Given we had no where to go today, we slept in to enjoy a leisurely start to the day. Clark said he heard tell of a bike trail along a creek nearby, so we pulled the bikes out to go exploring. We followed the road out of the park up to the main road and crossed the street to Telegraph Creek.

At entrance to campground

Road sign for Telegraph Creek

View from wooden bridge

Telegraph Creek

Wooden Bridge leading into housing development.

We understood from the directions given at the campground that we could follow a short trail along the creek. Unfortunately, at the end of the wooden bridge, someone had posted a big, ugly sign that read "No Trespassing". So much for that plan! We turned around, and with no other obvious destination, returned to the campground to bike around the site.

Views at campground ...