Okeechobee to St. Petersburg

On Tuesday, November 23rd, we left our anchorage at 4 Rivers Loop, west of Stuart, and traveled as far as Moore Haven, covering 67 miles and going through two locks. The first lock, St. Lucie, was 15 feet, but the Port Mayaca lock was only one foot and I don’t think the water even moved! Seemed like a huge waste of time and manpower to me.

Approaching the St. Lucie Lock.

The other side of the lock, entering the canal.

We had a nice, uneventful trip going across Lake Okeechobee on a calm, beautiful day. There were a few other boats crossing the lake at the same time, but I doubt we saw more than six boats all day. We anchored in the old canal just past the Moore Haven Lock and saw a couple of rather large alligators trolling for dinner!

Sites along the way on the Okeechobee.

We were through the Moore Haven Lock by 9:00 a.m. Wednesday and continued 57 miles, through two more locks, to anchor in North Fort Myers in front of the Legacy Harbor Marina by 4:30 p.m.

The Captain thought this was too hilarious to bypass without taking a photo!

Exiting the Moore Haven Lock.

Our good friends Jack & Susan used to have a sailboat named “Freyja,” so this one’s for them!

Approaching the Ortona Lock.

A beautiful sunset in North Fort Myers.

That evening we dinghied over to Joe’s Crab Shack for a fun dinner.

Thanksgiving Day we were up early again and spent the next seven hours getting to Englewood Beach (58 miles), leaving the Okeechobee Waterway behind and entering the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

The porpoises were very active as we were leaving North Fort Myers Thanksgiving morning.

Approaching Mile 0 of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in San Carlos Bay.

White pelicans on their own private sandbar at low tide.

Once the anchor was dropped, we dinghied over to the Crawford Cove Marina to visit Wayne (a.k.a. Bones) & Lynn on “Skinwalker.” We last saw Wayne & Lynn at Henderson’s Wharf Marina in Baltimore and had hoped to be able to stop and see them on our way to St. Petersburg.

Lynn prepared a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, which we stuffed ourselves on, before walking over to the beach to look for shark’s teeth.

Thanks so much, guys! What an unexpected treat!!!

A couple at the marina tied the knot Thursday afternoon as we were on our way to the beach.

Bones and the Captain search diligently for shark’s teeth in the surf. And they found several small ones!

A picturesque sunset on Englewood Beach.

Friday started with rain at the anchorage and turned into another long day of about 67 miles. Originally we had planned to split that distance into two days of travel but decided to suck it up and cover the entire distance to St. Petersburg in one day.

There were a lot of boaters out enjoying the holiday weekend, even though conditions were less than perfect with a strong southwest wind. Then a line of storms passed through just as we entered Tampa Bay, temporarily blinding us, but it moved on quickly.

By 4:30 p.m. we were tied up at Cathy’s dock and the Captain was stretched out on the couch watching Alabama football on the big-screen television!

Hanging in St. Petersburg. It’s good to be “home” again!

The weekend was spent catching up with Cathy and enjoying being stationary for a change. Now it’s time to start on the Captain’s list of boat projects!

Today is Monday, November 29th, and at this point it appears that the Admiral won’t be flying to Missouri for another few weeks. In the interim, we will try to find time for some fun between boat projects!