Monday, 2/14
Well, we got spanked today as we crossed Lake Okeechobee.
More on that in a minute!
The morning started out quite chilly and clear!
We had tied up next to the first lock so we could lock into
the lake first thing in the morning.
“Locking through” requires one of us to manage lines on the bow
and the other one to manage the lines on the stern. With a boat the size of Samba,
it can get pretty dicey when the turbulence in the lock starts kicking the boat
around.
Lake “O”, here we come!
The winds were forecast to be 10 to 15 knots with choppy
water on the lake. Instead, the winds were 20 to 25 knots gusting to 30 - - the
whole 20 some miles! Also, instead of choppy water, we had 3 to 4 foot waves
and to make matters worse, our stabilizers quit working so we were rockin’
& rollin’ – all morning. It was not pleasant!!!!
Due to all of the wave action, the lake mud was really roiled
up so the water looked like we were boating in a mud puddle.
The last section of the lake is a narrow, dredged waterway
through some 1 foot deep grass beds so that called for some intense diligence.
Ahhh, finally we reached the peripheral canal that took us
to the outbound lock.
As we left the lock, we immediately encountered a closed
railroad bridge. After repeated trying to raise the bridge tender on the radio,
we started blowing our horn.
We think he was asleep in his truck. He finally roused and
opened the gate verrrrry sloooowly.
We decided to spend the night at a sister boatyard to the one we keep our boat in. We wanted to see what it looked like and we wanted to be in a place that could help us if Jim couldn’t fix the stabilizers.
The entrance was down a narrow little canal but the facility was quite nice.
Our shore power cable winder quit working so Jim worked on it and the stabilizers and a couple of other projects. Fortunately, he was able to get everything running OK. Phew!
Carol fixed us a beautiful filet mignon Valentine’s dinner, complete with a candle and Sambananas for desert. If you’ve never had them, just know they are to die for!
We were up early on Tuesday to catch the next lock.
This guy didn’t fare so well!
This was a fun railroad bridge that the tender has to ride as it swivels open and closed. You can see her in the middle of the bridge to the left if you zoom in.
We shared our final lock with a catamaran. This is one of the very few boats we saw the whole day.
Up ahead is the Fort Myers cityscape and its spaghetti bowl
of bridges.
We even had our own private dolphin welcoming party as we
passed the city.
We anchored behind an uninhabited cay to get out of the wind
and current and catch our breath before heading into the ocean on Wednesday.
Once the anchor is set, Jim attaches a bridle that takes the
load off of the windlass and allows the boat to freely swing.
Wednesday morning, we were up at first light.
While Jim managed the boat, Carol retracted the anchor and washed the mud and weeds off the chain as it came in.
Our last bridge caught us by surprise as it didn’t appear on
our charts. Though we could squeak under it, Jim had to drop our tall antennae
quickly so they wouldn’t catch on the way through.
Our destination for today was Marco Island. We tried
valiantly to anchor in the basin at Marco – 4 times. The anchor kept dragging.
Fortunately, an angel came by and suggested we move to the other end of the
basin and squeeze in among some sail boats and it worked well. PTL!
The full moon tonight is stunning!
Tomorrow, we have a 60-mile jaunt to the Little Shark River
in the middle of the Everglades. It is quite remote and quite off the grid. Wish
us luck because the wind will be stronger than we prefer. Except for a 10 mile
detour around some heavy shoaling areas, we plan to stick close to the mangrove
shore to avoid as much wind as possible.
We’ll see you in a few days!
