OKEECHOBEE ROUND 2 - FORT MYERS TO STUART

If you have been following our tracker, then you know we are back in Stuart, Florida again.  We were here in the early part of February having crossed the entire northern Gulf Region and then across the state of Florida via the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart.  We really like this town.  From here, we headed south all the way to Key West with many a cool stop in between.  From Key West, we headed north through the Gulf along the southern part of the West Coast of Florida.  There we found beautiful islands and white sandy beaches, amazing Gulf sunsets, and even met a bunch of new friends along the way.  We felt as though we had to rush it back this way however, because the draught conditions in Florida are causing the water levels in Lake Okeechobee to drop.  Every day the ACOE reports continuing dropping of the lake levels.  Thus, in order to make it back on this track, we had to move. 

As you know, we left Key West on a Tuesday morning and went to Little Shark River.  We spent two nights there and then moved further north to Panther Key.  We spent two nights there.  From there, we moved north to Marco Island.  We spent only one night there.  It was our intent to continue on to Fort Myers Beach and spend a night or two there.  We had not been there before and heard rumors that it was a very cruiser friendly place.  However, as we were getting close, we called the FMB Harbormaster for a mooring ball assignment (there is no anchoring allowed in FMB), and learned there were no mooring balls available for a bout our size.  So, we decided to bite the proverbial bullet and motor right on through, up to Fort Myers, a place we had been before and felt comfortable in.

It was a very long travel day, but we made it into the anchorage unscathed.  Travelling this route means you go back onto the ICW under the Sanibel Bridge.  This is a really hectic intersection.  There were hundreds of boats speeding as fast as possible in virtually every direction possible. 



This is Florida West Coast ICW Mile Marker 0.  We "crossed our wake"
here at least in terms of the circle we made around the southern half of Florida.

Wakes were coming from every direction and the water was quite disturbed.  There was plenty of law enforcement out, and few were doing anything to enforce the no wake zones.  However, the CG had someone pulled over, and the Department of Fish and Wildlife had a few words for some sail boat over the radio.  I guess this kind of traffic is normal on a weekend.  I don't really know what we were thinking - travelling on the weekend - but we were there and it was just a thing we had to do.  We travelled in this "bumper to bumper" traffic until it finally eased up about 3 miles from the anchorage at Fort Myers.

 Not long after we dropped the hook were we confronted by one of the local good-for-nothings who tried to tell us our anchor was skipping and we were getting uncomfortably close to his boat.  This guy was obviously drunk and being a pain in the ass.  Try reasoning with a guy like this.  I tried to tell him that in 8 knots of wind, in 9 feet of water, with 90 feet of chain out and a well stuck Bruce, we were not moving.  We had been sitting there for over an hour before we were accosted by this loser.  He would not listen and continued to be a pain in the ass.  As I was sharpening the hook end of my gaff, I decided the better course of action was to just take the few minutes it would take to move and get away from this guy.  By doing so, we guarantied he would not be spending the night in jail or in the hospital.    It’s a game the local drunks who live for nothing in the anchorage like to play with cruising boats.  We mentioned it to the harbormaster the following morning as we were pumping out and fueling in and he said to call him directly next time and he would remedy the problem.  The City of Fort Myers has a wonderful marina and the people who work there make it a great place to stop.  Unfortunately, however, conditions as exist in the anchorage they control support the argument for the placement of pay for mooring fields and the elimination of anchoring rights.  There are a lot of derelict boats in these parts that, in my opinion, should be hauled off to the dump.  However, many of these floating shanties constitute someone’s home.  Oh well.  I guess everyone has to have someplace to live.  Yet, these characters dump their heads in situ and do not respect the waterways.  I vote to get rid of them. 

From Fort Myers, we did a quick three day hop across the state via the Okeechobee Waterway.  It was even more beautiful than the first time.  We were familiar enough with the waterway that we were able to just relax and enjoy the ride.  We saw the camel again, but this time, we saw many many more alligator and turtles than the last time.  The weather was also quite arid and warm.

We stopped in the town of LaBelle.  We knew we could pick up some needed supplies.  After the derelict incident in Fort Myers, I determined that it was better to spend our money in LaBelle than in Fort Myers.  Perhaps, if enough of us make this choice, they will manage the trash in their anchorage.  On our way back from the USave, we discovered a true diamond in the rough.  It’s called “The Coffee Shop” and, as Brenda said, it is the kind of coffee shop we have been looking for all this time.  The outside would never make you think the inside was the way it was.  Inside, the place was like a cool coffee house, with big leather chairs, tables, and couches; a long list of items on their menu are prepared on site; nice bakery goods, and of course, excellent coffee.  Charley was working there and he treated us very well.  He noticed we were pulling our groceries along in a box with wheels and asked if we were travelling by boat.  So, we got into the long discussion of who, what, when, where, why and how.  He was very nice to us and offered us refills and took great pains to make sure we had the biggest and nicest chocolate chip cookie in the case.  We spent a nice evening on the boat, and got some rest.  The next day would be the long pull to Clewiston.

The weather was absolutely perfect when we pulled the hook and headed for Clewiston and Roland Martin’s Resort and Marina.  We stayed there before as well, because there is no other place, and no where to anchor.  We had the option of stopping in Moorhaven, but, again, passed it by in favor of Clewiston.  Between LaBelle and the Moorhaven Lock, we only saw a smattering of alligators.  However, once we popped out of the lock, they were thick all the way from there to Clewiston. 

The Caloosahatchee Canal which runs south down the west side of Lake Okeechobee from the Moorhaven Lock to the Clewiston Lock is purely man-made and has a rather disconcerting bathymetric profile.  As long as you stay far over

on the right (like arms length from the rocky canal edge, you are in double digit depths.  If you vary your heading as little as 2 degrees you will find out just how steep the bottom profile is.  The depth will go from a comfortable double digits down to 3-4 feet very quickly.  Needless to say, we made it without incident.  When we tied up to the dock at Roland Martin, we had 4.7 feet under the boat.  I guess it's a good thing we used up some water after filling the tanks in Fort Myers.  It is a very long run from LaBelle to Clewiston, so we scurried up to pay the man and then settled in at the coolest Tiki Bar on Lake Okeechobee for a libation and snacks before returning to the boat. The next day would be the day we cross the lake and we wanted to be well rested.  As it turned out, neither of us slept well that night.

The morning brought perfect weather;  sunny and about 83 degrees, with a light breeze from the south west.  We started up the engine and threw off the lines.  I didn't even bother checking the lake levels again.  There was probably no good news to be had and we really had no options at this point but to go for it.  Really the only option would have been to turn around and head all the way around the southern tip of Florida, not a very enticing option at this point.  When we last crossed Lake O, the navigational depths for route 1 according to the ACOE was almost 9 feet.  As of the day we arrived in LaBelle, it was 5.61 feet.  I talked with a westbound trawler and they said they had no issues - just stay between the squares and triangles.  So, this is what we determined to do.  As we got under way, we got rocked pretty hard by a couple small boats heading out to the lake for some bass fishing.  No problem - steady as she goes - staying between the marks - eyeballing the sounder from time to time, but not really wanting to see what it said. 

The entrance channel is where we heard about a couple bad stories, such as a sailboat with a 5 foot draft bumping the bottome and even a heritage trawler scaping the mud in less than 5.  I had to believe.  I had to have some faith.  So I decided to just go for it.  We have a full keel.  We were loaded with fuel and water and all of our "stuff".  Even the holding tank had 3 day's worth in it.  The mfg specs say we draw 4.  I think it's a little more than that.  Again, we were floating in 4.7 at the dock.  (I often wonder just what the hell the point is having a boat if you are going to spend all your time cruising in 4-6 feet of water).  So off we went.

Now that we are across, I am not sure what all the hullabaloo was about.  We actually never saw less than 6 feet in the entrance channel.  Then again, we never saw much more than that all the way across the lake.  We did have almost 7 feet when we got to the Port Mayaca Lock.  All said, we crossed the lake a second time without incident - "Cheated death again", as my friend Harry likes to say at the end of a race.  The lake crossing was glorious.  One could not have asked for better weather.  Visibility was good, the water was flat, and we had a gentle tail wind.  All good.

Just as we arrived at the Port Mayaca Lock, the gates had just opened releasing a westbound cruiser, so all we had to do was motor right on in and tie up.  Easy.  As we were approaching this westbound cruiser, he called us on the radio.  What he had to say was not good.  He was a cat-trawler drawing 3 feet and said he hit something really had about 5 miles back.  He said he looked for something.....anything to float to the surface but saw nothing.  So, I put a mark in the general area on the chart plotter, and vowed to keep an eye peeled when we got through this area.  Locking through was a breeze, as usual, and we started heading down to Stuart, another 30 miles or so to the east.

As we got closer and closer to this point the cruiser told us about where he hit something really solid right in the middle of the canal, I started moving over to the north side a little, finding deeper water there in any event.  I kept one eye on the depth sounder, and both eyes on the surface of the water ahead of me to see if I could read anything in the surface of the water that would tip me off to something going on just below the surface.  I didn't see a thing.  We did, however, go over a really high spot, however, approximately in the position we were supposed to be in to hit something.  We were quite a way over on the north side of the canal and the high spot came up to a little under 5 feet, but we certainly didn't bottom out.  I wonder if this was just a sand bar opposite a drainage canal that thus guy got lucky enough to hit on his way.  Apparently whatever he hit, we missed, and the remainder of our passage to Stuart in the St. Lucie Canal was uneventful, even if the water was a lot shallower this time than it was last time we went through here. 

We had a 12 foot drop at the St. Lucie Lock and from there it was only 9 more miles to Stuart.  It was getting near the end of the day.  We were tired, but happy to have crossed the Lake and made it back to the east coast.  We picked up a mooring ball and settled in.  It was another long, but very rewarding day.  We are going to hang around Stuart for a while.  We will head north from here to Cape Canaveral for the approaching space shuttle launch presently scheduled for April 19.  I hope it goes.  It should be quite a spectacle.  We have east coast friends now who have seen it several times and have described it quite vividly.  I really should be something to see from the back of the boat with a cocktail in one hand and my video camera in the other.

We'll be in touch.  In the meantime, be well.

By the way, as a post script to this post, I want to mention to you a phenomenon we have experienced more frequently now that the weather is warming up.  The phenomenon is known as a "Leon Moment."  First let me describe a common Leon Moment, hereafter referred to as a LM.  A LM occurs when a really ugly bug, typically one that is quite large and can cause you severe pain and harm, flies into the open window of the wheelhouse, or into the confines of our screened in back deck.  Generally, when the wheelhouse is involved, the LM happens at the most inopportune time, such as when the canal is extremely shallow or very narrow and shallow.  The LM always catches you off guard and instills instantaneous apprehension.  Why do we refer to this phenomenon as a Leon Moment?

This is "Leon":

Leon is a killer of all things winged.  He is powered by two D batteries and is comprised of a complex scientific polymer (plastic) with a space age designed webbing made of a a very sophisticated carbon fiber like mesh (metal) and functions like a cross between an electric fence and a tennis racquet.  Once Leon gets ahold of a winged invader, it's lights out, baby!  Sparks fly and smoke tendrils rise into the air.  Leon is truly our hero.

Leon was donated to our cause by our friend, Leon, whom we met in Lake Charles, Louisiana, hence the name.  The numer of 3" wasps/hornets, large bees, yellow jackets, biting horse flies, and other flying things that can hurt you that Leon has disposed of is unknown, but probably ranges in the hundreds.  So, when one of those flying nasty things enters our air space, the cry goes out, "Oh shit!  It's a Leon moment" and the battle begins.  First, Leon's electrical grid is activated by pushing the red button.  Leon emits a small but terrifying noise that can only be heard by insects and cats.  The sound flows out in waves and brings fear to the winged ones.  They seem paralyzed at the sound of Leon activation.  They try to escape, but it is always inevitable.  Fry you little bastard, fry!  With that, Leon goes into action, capturing the winged beasts in his terrible web.  Once in contact, it's all over but the crying - the bug crying that is - crying out like a convicted deathrow inmate the moment the switch is flipped.  A couple blue sparks, a sizzle sizzle, and then a small puff of smoke.  Silence.  Leon triumphs again, and we can safely return to life behind the wheel, or the evening cocktail in hand, certain that our friend Leon saw that one, and saved us from terrible pain and harm.

Thank you Leon.