Stuart, Florida

We left Moore Haven early in fog this morning. I was having déjà vu. 😬 

We called the lock just down river from us before we left and the lock master said “Come on down!  I’ll have the doors open for you.”  Yay!  We were ready to go, so we left the dock immediately. When we got to the lock and Fred hailed the lock master, he said we’d need to wait as he was locking through a vessel from the other side. What?! Nothing is easy…  

You can see Fred in this picture holding a line to keep the boat against the wall as we go down 2 feet. 

We were on the Caloosahatchee River and Canal today.  
There was a lot of construction going on with the levees we passed .

As we traveled, the fog was less and less.  We came to a point on the Canal where we had to make a 90 degree turn to go into the channel for Lake Okeechobee.  This was a new one  -we had to travel a skinny channel through a good chunk of the lake.  

The channel for Lake Okeechobee



Somewhere at the beginning of the lake channel, we picked up several seagulls who started following us.  Like they follow stinky fishing boats!  It was so embarrassing!  Did they think we were their mother?  Were we kicking up small fish for them to eat?  I still don’t know why they followed us, but they stayed right behind us for over an hour - flying their little hearts out!  It was interesting - one would be in the lead for awhile, then he would swoop back and another would take his place.  

Seagulls following our boat

Seagulls follow our boat

They did go from one side of the lake to the other.  Maybe they needed us to lead so they could fly, like autos get behind trucks.  It reduces your draft or something.  I don’t know…

We came to a point on the lake where we could only see water around us and we were still in the channel. 


We came to the other side of Lake Okeechobee and entered the Port Mayaka Lock. It was a two foot drop which is the least we have had in locks.  This lock only took a half hour total.  Not bad!

Once on the other side of the lock, we were in the St. Lucie channel.  

St. Lucie channel

We saw a lot of wildlife, including many egrets.

We finally made it to our marina for the evening after one of the longest days we have had.  Hopefully the guy Fred found will be able to repair our head.  We will find out tomorrow.  





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