Piece of Cake

Crossing Okeechobee ended up being a piece of cake.  Noaa's weather forecast turned out to be a total bomb, thunderstorms that were supposed to start late am never appeared at all.  The lake was a sea of glass.  We left the lock at 6:50 and had crossed and were in Clewiston by 1:30.  We were prepared to run on 2 engines (OMG) if need be to skedaddle across, but we did just fine on one. We passed to East bound sailboats today and a bunch of little bass boats one we were in the west canal. (These long days are killing us unfortunately it is the early bird who gets through this waterway.  

By the way I had a question about the 7-1-7 at the lock.  To clarify, the 5 locks are all supposed to be operating on demand from 6am to 9:30 pm but the Franklin & Myakka locks (which are the entry locks) are only opening at 7am, 1pm, and 7pm.  We think it must be because of the very low water levels. We rose 8 feet at the Myakka Lock and rose 8feet last night at the Ortona Lock.  The other 2 we just drove through.....weird.

We travelled 10 hours yesterday and tied up to the dolphins at the Ortona Lock.  We were underway at 6:40 to make sure we make the Franklin lock 1pm opening.  The dolphins are a great way to spend the night.  Each lock has a campground by it and although they are pretty empty now it is cleared land and the dolphins adjacent to them are not too buggy.

The St Lucie River and Caloosahatchee, which with Okeechobee comprise the waterway are a hidden gem of Florida.  The waterway is very beautiful.  I am taking a lot of pictures and will post a slide show of the great scenery hopefully later today.

So, we are safe, tired and should be back in Charlotte Harbor on Wednesday.  To think, if we had a car we could drive home in 2 -1/2 hours  !!!   (This is way more fun)!!!!!!