The Okeechobee Waterway

Normally when we cross the state of Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway, we can make the trip in a day. While it involves going through 5 locks over the 130 mile run, it can be done under good conditions and good timing. That is unless one of the locks is being repaired and under restricted openings. As a result, there was no way to make it the trip in the day.

That meant spending the night somewhere among the "swamp" where there are more snakes, alligators and mosquitoes than most people see in a lifetime. Needless to say, the Admiral did not even get off the boat that day!

My only hope was that the engine issues we discovered in Stuart didn't manifest themselves in more problems "in the middle of nowhere". I continued to check on things in the engine room throughout the day and was pleased to see it wasn't getting any worse.

Docking through - Port Mayaca Lock

Looking back on the Moore Haven Lock

We docked around 300pm at the Moore Haven City docks (without any help I might add), paid our dockage fee across the street at City Hall and enjoyed yet another frozen / microwave dinner on board! Windows closed and lights down low to minimize the bugs!

The next day, we departed at a leisurely 930 am as we only had 16 miles to go get to the Ortonna Lock and it's restricted 1130 am opening. While we had plenty of time, I suspected it might get a bit crowded at the lock as other transient boaters had to do the same thing. So we cruised along at just 8 mph and quickly came to the conclusion that we weren't ready for sailboat or trawler speeds quite yet!

Almost 7 hours later, we finally made it South Seas on Captiva Island at 4pm. A well deserved cocktail or two, a delightful dinner off the boat (yeah) and a long walk on the beach helped keep things in perspective.

South Seas Yacht Harbor - Captiva Island