Vero Beach thru Okeechobee to Fort Myers

I left Vero Beach and headed south down the ICW, passing Fort Pierce inlet about 0850, and arriving at the Saint Lucie River about 1125.  The turn into the St. Lucie River left me departing many good friends I'd made on my journey south, most of which had intentions on heading easterly towards the Bahamas, or at least staying on the east coast of Florida.

One of the items on a list I'd made around age 12 or 13 that I wanted to be sure and do in my life was to cross Florida thru the St. Lucie canal, Lake Okeechobee, and the Caloosahatchee River, and here was my chance!  Low lake levels the past few years, hurricanes, lock closures, and a couple of years boatless had kept me from this trip earlier.  Timing is everything!

The St. Lucie Locks had a 13' 6" rise, and the scramble of single-handing the locks with that much rise kept me from getting any pictures.  I was glad to get the hardest lock out of my way first, so I could enjoy the rest of my trip without any lock worries! 

Note to non-boaters:  Locks are not hard.  You enter an area, tie up next to a metal wall, and they close the gate behind you.  In the Okeechobee lock system, then they open the gate in front of you slowly, allowing the water to rush in, and all the boater has to do is keep the slack out of the lines as the vessel rises with the water level.  If you single-hand, instead of having a person on each line, you need to run both lines where you can pull the slack out of them from one place, which involves a little engineering.  Locking down is always easier, since gravity keeps tension on the lines, and you just have to ease the lines as you drop.

The landscape changed from city, to gorgeous suburbs to remote waterway.  I cooked a pork loin, baked potatoes, and baked onions on the grill as I headed west.  I had to wait 20 minutes for the railroad bridge at Indiantown, and I ate supper as I waited.

I stopped for the night just as it was getting dark, tying between some of the piling clusters on the east side of Port Mayaca Locks, just east of Lake Okeechobee. 26 59.174  080 36 913

In the morning, I locked through to Lake Okeechobee, which was almost no water  height increase, and after taking the lock master's recomendation, headed across Lake Okeechobee, to join the rim route further out, instead of following the rim route all the way around, where the channel had shoaled a little.  The Lake was pretty calm, and I gave the boat a fresh (raw) water rinse as I ran.

I joined the rim route thru the channel at Pelican Bay.  When I heard the term "rim route" in the past, I'd always pictured a canal dug around the outside of Lake Okeechobee, where you could see the lake.  Not so!  The rim route is cool!  On one side of you is the huge levee, that you can't see over, but the other side is marsh grass with creeks and inlets just waiting to be explored!  I found several really great anchorages in those creeks, where there are ponds surrounded by dredge spoil from years ago, now lush, low islands... not the kind you'd walk around on, but enough to give protection from wind and waves.  Fish were popping everywhere, birds were everywhere, and though I didn't see ANY, I'm sure there were lots of alligators!

At South Bay, there was a great public launch ramp, and enough dock space for us to tie up.  Mercy-dog and I walked to the top of the levee and looked around, stretched our legs, and Mercy enjoyed the grass and the opportunity to relieve herself somewhere other than her "litter box!"

Just above the Moorehaven Locks, (drop of 3') there were a couple of giant alligators, waiting on the bank directly across from Moorehaven's boat ramp.  I wondered how many fish scraps and bait they get from the boaters.

We continued through the locks, thru the town, and thru a lot of farming community.  Here the waterway is not a river or lake, but a canal.  It's still interesting, lots of birds, lots of cows, and some orange trees.

We stopped for the night on the pilings east of Ortona Locks.  26 47 485  81 17 976  An otter swam around the boat for a little while, and he was fun to watch, but impossible to photograph!

In the morning, we went thru the Ortona Locks, with a drop of 8 feet and continued west.  I spent a little time above the Franklin Locks, which is the furthest east I had been in the canal system before.  Cliff and I spent hurricane George there years ago, and it brought back a lot of memories.  Cliff would have liked this boat!  Things are really different now, lots more houses and development.  It didn't seem like the same place.

I locked thru the Franklin locks, drop 3' and continued down the Caloosahatchee River to where I anchored off Fort Myers.  26 29 889  82 01 253  in a deep little channel surrounded by a flat and some mangrove islands.  It was a gorgeous night!