Okeechobee Waterway

Thursday, November 17, 2016

We are finally on the move again!  Here we leave Fort Myers in the distance, moving east on the Caloosahatchee River.

Lots of homes along the waterfront for miles after leaving the main part of the city.

Finally the development gives way to lush vegetation.  The Caloosahatchee River coincides with the western part of the Okeechobee Waterway, which connects the east and west coasts of Florida via natural rivers, dredged canals and a large lake.

The Ortona Lock is our second of the day.   It is undergoing maintenance work and is opened only 3 times per day.  We arrived early for the last opening and must wait 2 1/2 hours to lock through.  We locked through our first lock today with a manatee, our first sighting.

While waiting for the lock to open, I finally recognized the shrubs that are growing along the waterway.  Brazilian peppertree, the same invasive species we battled to eradicate from Port Aransas, is everywhere here.

We will anchor tonight at the "Lollipop" anchorage.  The name comes from the shape with this long narrow entrance which opens into a circular 37' deep pool.  We learned this was once a sand mine. 


Friday, November 18, 2016

We enjoyed a lovely sunrise and a leisurely morning before leaving Lollipop for our short cruise today.  We saw lots of birds, including an osprey, a bald eagle, an owl and a cormorant, all sitting atop dead trees nearby. 

We are now in the Caloosahatchee Canal, a dredged part of the Okeechobee Waterway.  A fire in the distance was soon put out.

Sugarcane fields can be seen near the town of Moore Haven.  Moore Haven Lock is our only lock today.  The three locks on this side of the lake lift us from sea level to the lake level, about 13 feet.

We stop for the night at Roland Martin's Marina.  Robert tells me Roland Martin is a big-name bass fishing tournament competitor.  We are told they are expecting 70 boats for a tournament the next day - a good reason to move on.

Across the canal from our slip we watch this guy putting on a show.  I estimate he is about 4 feet long.  Pet iguanas have escaped into the wild and are breeding very successfully in south Florida.  Several other smaller green iguanas were running around chasing squirrels in the same area.

Saturday, November 19, 2016

We get an early start for our last leg on the Okeechobee Waterway, crossing the lake.  This channel leads to the open waters of the lake.

It will take us three hours to cross Lake Okeechobee.  Palms line the distant shoreline.

Laughing gulls were our companions for the entire crossing.  Apparently our prop wash was stirring up something tasty to eat.

Once across the lake, we lock through the Port Mayaca Lock into the St. Lucie Canal.  We pass a few waterfront homes and lots of lovely scenery.

The St. Lucie Lock is our second lock of the day.  We wait for a boat to exit the lock before we can enter.  We will be lowered 14' here, after dropping only 2' at the previous lock.

A boat yard in the outskirts of Stuart has lots of large yachts tied up.

We see some homes along the canal, but not as many as we expected.

We are now docked at Loggerhead Marina, across the St. Lucie River from downtown Stuart.  We have made it to the east coast, a milestone!

Fort Myers & Vicinity

Friday, November 4 - Wednesday, November 16, 2016

We've enjoyed our 2-week stay in Fort Myers.  Engine parts were ordered and installed and we had plenty of time to explore downtown Fort Myers from our slip at the municipal marina.

Lots of liveaboards in this marina; we have met some interesting people and shared our dock with a variety of unusual boats.  This former passenger ferry has been renovated as an efficiency apartment and is for sale.

Fellow cruisers arrived in this Great Harbour trawler.

This houseboat is also a hair salon!  Carolyn immediately booked an appointment.  Getting haircuts while cruising is hit or miss, so finding a salon just steps from our boat was a plus.

Fort Myers has revitalized their waterfront with lovely parks and water features. This retention pond filters runoff from downtown streets before it is released into the adjacent river.

Known as the City of Palms, this Fort Myers city park showcases specimen palms from all over the world.

The downtown area is thriving with lots of cute shops and restaurants.  We walked over for Art Walk one evening and enjoyed several meals on street-side patios. 

For a change of pace, we drove to Sanibel Island for lunch and sightseeing.  The lighthouse on the eastern end of the island dates to 1884.

The beach on Sanibel was lovely but quite busy on this warm weekend day.









Next, we crossed the Caloosahatchee River, through Cape Coral to Matlacha and Pine Island.  Matlacha was a funky waterfront town with lots of colorful shops and restaurants.  We stopped at this nature preserve on Pine Island to stretch our legs.





Time for a cool drink and some R&R at this lovely bed and breakfast, The Tarpon Lodge.  This area is known for good bay fishing.

After one week at the city marina, we had to move to make room for an upcoming boat show.  We are now 1 mile down river at the Marina at Edison Ford. 





We were surprised to discover that Fort Myers was the winter home of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, who were good friends. Our new marina is next door to the Edison and Ford winter estates, which are open for tours.  This is the view of the adjoining estates from our slip.








Thomas Edison and his wife, Mina, bought the property and built their home in 1886.  The extensive grounds were landscaped with an astonishing variety of plants, mostly tropicals, including these Royal palms.








Edison designed unique light fixtures for his entire estate, which were powered by on-site generators, also his design.














In addition to Mina's ornamental gardens, Edison planted stands of many bamboo varieties.  He used bamboo strands as filaments in some early light bulb designs.

This bougainvillea was planted by Mina in about 1927.  Looks like it hasn't been pruned in a while!














Edison maintained this separate study for his work while in Florida. 

Henry Ford worked as an engineer at Thomas Edison's factory prior to establishing the Ford Motor Company.  After starting Ford, Edison befriended the founder and the two became good friends and collaborators on many projects.  Ford purchased this house next door to Edison in 1916.





Ford's home was called "The Mangoes" due to the row of mango trees lining the street.  The gardens also include a variety of tropical fruit and spice trees, such as cinnamon and allspice.








Several vintage Ford vehicles were on display, including this early truck.  Edison, Ford and Harvey Firestone collaborated on an attempt to find a domestic source of natural rubber for  tires.

Edison had a large plant processing lab at his winter estate where he could experiment with various plant sources, many grown in his gardens.  He tested many varieties of ficus and banyon, in addition to shrubs, vines and perennials.  Surprisingly the plant with the highest latex rubber content was goldenrod.

We had an unexpected visit from Kemah neighbors, Chip and Patty Claiborne, who were boat shopping in town.  What a treat to see familiar faces and catch up on news from home!




We leave on the 17th, heading east on the Okeechobee Waterway to the east coast of Florida.

Clearwater to Fort Myers

Monday, October 31, 2016

We are rested and ready to head south today.  Our run to the Bradenton area will be 48 miles, taking about 6 hours.  This area is characterized by mostly shallow bays protected by barrier islands.  Here you can see the mid-rise condos in the background that front on the beach.

Lots of high dollar real estate along this coast. 

These older homes are typical of "Old Florida".  Most have given way to newer and grander construction where land costs are high.

The ICW along the west Florida coast is mostly shallow, heavily developed, and littered with bridges connecting the mainland with the barrier islands.  We will pass under 16 bascule and 2 swing bridges as we cruise south, in addition to very tall major highway bridges.

In preparation for the 18 low-clearance bridges we must pass, we have lowered our antennas and light mast.  We will be able to clear most, but not all, of the bridges without waiting for them to open.  Here we squeeze under with about 2 feet to spare.  Yikes!  May ask the next one to open for us.

Extensive canal systems have been dredged into the barrier islands and the inland areas, connecting to the bays.  All are lined with homes and boat docks.

As we cruise into the very large Tampa Bay, we see downtown St. Petersburg in the distance.

Downtown Tampa is barely visible on the horizon.

We pass under the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, part of I-275.  I remember driving on the original bridge in the 1950s on a summer vacation with my parents.  Dad was very impressed that this new bridge, at 4+ miles long, was (one of?) the longest in the world.  Funny what sticks in the mind.

Finally we stop for the night at the Seafood Shack Marina in Cortez.  This stop is nothing special, but it is convenient and has dock space for us.  We are right beside our next bascule bridge and can time leaving tomorrow when it opens (every 20 minutes).

 




Tuesday, November 1, 2016

We get a late morning start for our 30 mile run to Venice.  We wait for the tide to rise to insure we have ample water depth.  But higher tide also means less clearance under the bridge.  The bridge operator told us we wouldn't have made it under the bridge if we had tried to go with it closed!

As we move south, we start to see lots more mangrove swamps along the shores. 
 







Pricey real estate is everywhere.  We enjoyed our stop in Venice, even though I didn't take any photos.  Met several other boaters, some local and some passing through.  We could walk to the beach at Venice Pass, but we could not take Boka.  We are finding very few dog-friendly beaches in Florida.



  Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Another late start to wait for higher tide this morning.  We will cruise only 20 miles to our next stop in Cape Haze.  Along the way, vegetation is becoming much more lush.

Tied up at Palm Island Marina, we can see the barrier island looking west toward the Gulf.

This is a pretty spot but was a very tight space to maneuver to our dock.  In addition, today Robert noticed a slight fuel leak on one of the engines, so he spent considerable time making sure we can proceed to Fort Myers without causing damage.





Thursday, November 3, 2016

Finally, our last leg to Fort Myers.  We will cruise 53 miles today, crossing a couple of open bays and into the Caloosahatchee River.  We pass more houses, more mangrove swamps, boats everywhere.


Marker 101 in this photo is at Mile 0 of the Gulf ICW and marks the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway mileage numbering system.  The skyline is Cape Coral and the bridge goes to Sanibel Island.  We have now completed the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway!

This is the "Miserable Mile", so named because it is a very narrow channel with strong cross current and lots of boat traffic.  Everyone must go slowly here, so we slogged along with a variety of craft in close quarters for the mile stretch.  Did I mention it was very windy and choppy, too?

 Some nice real estate lies along the shore in Fort Myers.  We are pummeled by headwinds as we move upriver, under 3 tall bridges, and into our slip at the City of Fort Myers Yacht Basin.  We will stay at least a week here.  Will need to hire a mechanic to replace 1 fuel pump and may do some other preventive maintenance while here.