Stuart to Fort Myers

Thursday, December 1 & Friday, December 2 

After a month of rest, relaxation and some work, we left Sunset Bay to start our trek to our next longterm destination, Longboat Key in Sarasota.  The month of November went past very quickly and we will be sorry to leave Stuart behind.  In particular, we really enjoyed walking along the boardwalk that went from the marina into town.

Tunnel under train tracks on boardwalk - we weren't brave enough to walk through while a train was overhead

Train that goes through middle of Stuart and blows its whistle a lot

Bagged oyster shells

Participating local restaurants collect the shells which are then quarantined and, after the required isolation period, bagged and returned to the St. Lucie River Estuary to restore the important oyster habitat.  A single oyster can filter between 20 and 50 gallons of water per day!

Curly Tailed lizard

Look out for the Dockhands as they whiz past!

We also loved watching the curlytail lizards that were plentiful at the marina and the three wheel electric scooters that the dockhands used to move around.

Wouldn't you like to be doing his job, Carter?

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Boats decorated at night

Marina Office at night

The marina was very friendly and a lot of the boats were live-aboard.  For Thanksgiving, they hosted a dinner buffet and it was a huge spread.  Way too much food … but tasty!  They have now decorated for Christmas and I wonder if there will be another meal?

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We left early Thursday morning to cover the distance to our planned overnight stop without arriving too late in the day.  Much of the distance was traveled in canals making the navigation very easy.

Easy travelling with lots of depth

Depths were also better than what we had experienced on the last legs of our journey into Stuart.   We had to transit through locks to move up to Lake Okeechobee and were very lucky with our timing.  The first lock we came to was just about to close the doors as we arrived but waited for us so that we could pass through as well.  These locks are unique.  The doors are semi circular and the way they adjust the water level is by just opening the doors a foot and thus allowing the water to flow in or out as needed. 

Note water entering lock though door

There were two locks to go up before entering the Lake, which is the highest level. 

Wreck on Lake Okeechobee

Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake located entirely in the US and has been described as a large saucer of water.  Average depth is only 9 feet though it covers 730 square miles!  It is surrounded by a levee system, officialy know as the Hoover dike.  

Can you find the Admiral?

It was built after 2 disastorous hurricanes when the lake was literally  blown out of its banks.  After the lake we went through one more lock before spending the night at River Forest.  This facility specializes in storing boats during the summer in large buildings.

Cows getting a drink of water

Much of the canal is through farming country.  We did see citrus orchards and lots of livestock.

After two more Locks we arrived in Fort Myers.  We were lucky as they had been working on the locks last week and they are going to be working on them again next week too which would have considerably slowed our passage across. Lucky timing for our trip ... or good planning by the Captain?