Greetings dear friends, family, and followers!
I type this from Moore Haven City Docks in Florida. Paul and I left Stuart this morning to head on our most excellent Christmas adventure vacation!
Let me back up - we continue to enjoy Stuart - such a great place - and here are a few photos from the last few weeks.
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| A few weekends ago we had 4 straight days of rain! So - when there's rain, there's a rainbow - taken from our bow at the marina. |
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| Since it was a rainy weekend, it was a great opportunity to get to the Navy Seal Museum in Fort Pierce - which is about 30-40 minutes from Stuart. Since we have the van, we are very mobile. What a cool place and one of the exhibits featured the actual lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama where the 3 Navy Seals simultaneously shot the 3 hijackers, setting free Captain Richard Phillips on Easter Sunday in 2009. What an amazing story and the museum is a great tribute to the incredibly talented and brave men who have served their country so dutifully since World War II. |
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| A picture of the inside of the lifeboat - it reminded me of a small commuter plane - there are 22 seats - oh yea, but with 3 bullet holes! |
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| We met a great cruising couple - Renee & Mike - who stayed in Stuart for a few weeks - along with their sweet Golden Retriever Luka. Mike is a navy veteran (graduated from the Academy in Annapolis) and they joined us when we went to the Navy Seal museum. They have a beautiful boat - Blue Grotto - and I took a photo as they departed last Friday. They will spend the winter in the Keys. We definitely hope to run into them again soon - great people! |
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Paul was in Ft. Lauderdale all of last week taking a safety certification class so he can upgrade his Captain's license. He returned on Friday evening and we spent the weekend preparing for our journey - we "fed the bitch," "pumped the bitch," and bought lots of groceries (cuz ya know we don't miss a meal). It has been pretty up in the air as to where we would go - and our plan is still pretty open - but we did decide to head West and cross the Okeechobee Waterway and spend time on Florida's beautiful West coast. The Okeechobee Waterway runs between Stuart and Ft. Myers - 144 miles - and there are 5 locks, 3 of which we went through today. Our marina - Sunset Bay - is 8 miles from the InterCoastal - so we just kept heading west. We had gone a few miles west last winter on our dinghy, but this time, we're going much farther!
So - we departed at about 8am this morning and in less than 10 miles was our first lock - St. Lucie Lock. Paul glides the boat in and the lock tender throws us the lines and we hold on to them - Paul at the bow and me at the stern - careful not to tie them down (but still hanging on tight) since the boat is always moving. In this lock we rose about 8 feet. Then, we headed about 25 miles to Port Mayaca lock. This lock was much more uneventful - we rose less than a foot. Paul took a video - please click here:
When you leave this lock, you cruise right into Lake Okeechobee. It is HUGE and pretty shallow - we were on it for about 25 miles.
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| Heading into Lake Okeechobee from the lock. The lake is pretty brown and not terribly exciting . . . which is fine when you're on a boat - you don't want a lot of excitement. Because the water is shallow and there was some wind today, it was a little choppy, but very bearable. Lake Okeechobee is the largest fresh water lake in Florida and the 7th largest fresh water lake in the USA! |
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| A look back at the Port Mayaca lock. |
So - we went 25 miles across the southern part of the lake and the next town is Clewiston.
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| The lake is behind us and we hit the shore on the other side - it reminded me a lot of the Everglades. |
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| If you want to go into Clewiston, you go straight through this lock. However, since we wanted to continue on the waterway, we took a right here to continue West. |
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| Heading to Moore Haven from Clewiston - a long canal - very flat. A nice ride - wide, deep, and uncomplicated! |
So - we reached the third lock - Moore Haven Lock - in about 10 miles. One of the gates wasn't working, so Paul masterfully guided Master Plan through a 25' opening - Master Plan is 15' wide, so when you factor current and wind, there is not a ton of wiggle room - he did an excellent job!!
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| Moore Haven Lock - Paul navigated Master Plan beautifully through this narrow opening! |
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| In the lock - Paul on the bow and me on the stern. In this lock, we were lowered 3 feet. |
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| Gives you an idea of where we are and how far we are from everything. |
We arrived to Moore Haven City Docks at about 4pm. It's a small town and sadly adversely affected by the rough economy. We were really surprised not to see any alligators today, but maybe tomorrow! This area is well known for them. A nice couple from our marina are docked here as well - they made the trip yesterday and saw a ton of alligators, so we hope we'll see them (from a safe distance of course!) tomorrow.
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| He's a great captain, and great husband AND he does windows! :-) |
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| Master Plan at the Moore Haven City Dock settling in for the evening. |
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| Pictured here is City Hall (across the street from the picnic table) - where we pay for the slip. This is pretty much the extent of the town - there is a library next door and a playground behind City Hall. |
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| Our new purchase - two used bikes - we bought them to use this winter and thought it would be a good idea to bring them on this trip. We took a little ride around town once we got settled. |
So - our plan for tomorrow is to head to Sanibel Island - about 80 miles - and then we'll take it from there depending on weather and what we feel like doing next!
Thanks for following along and for your love and support - we'll be blogging again soon! Love, Jen & Paul
Today's Quote:
When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life. |
~ Jean Shinoda Bolen |
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