November 12-13, 2015
The locks on the Okeechobee Waterway don’t have floating
bollards like most of the locks on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, and
Tenn-Tom river systems. Instead they
have ropes that are secured along the lock walls, and when a boat enters the
lock, someone has to grab one of the lines from both the bow and the stern. If the boat is too big for 1 person to hold
both lines – since the lines are relatively short – then 2 people are needed. Since we had plenty of crew aboard Tamure,
this was no problem at all. Like the
Lorelei IV, many cruising boats have only 2 people, so in that case, after 1
person grabs either a bow or stern line, the pilot would then need to run out
and grab the other line.
There were six boats, including Tamure, waiting to lock up
at the first lock, St Lucie Lock, since there were some eastbound boats already
in the chamber locking down. Once they
were clear, the lockmaster called the boats in one at a time since space would
be relatively tight in the 250 x 50 ft lock.
Since most of the locks on the river systems we had traveled so far have
been at least 600 x 110 ft, we did feel a bit cramped, especially since we were
the last boat in. Since the lock didn’t
have floating bollards and we would have to take in line as we went up, we only
did half of a wrap around our cleats – enough to keep tension without too much
effort when we wanted to but not so much that we couldn’t pull in line when
needed. The lift was only about 14 ft,
so it didn’t take too long and then we were on our way to Port Mayaca Lock
which was about 20 miles away
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| Okeechobee Waterway |
When we got to Port Mayaca Lock, the gates on both ends were
open so we only had to do a No Wake pass-through. What a lucky break! There were seagulls and cormorants lined up on
the approach walls to the lock, first welcoming us in and then wishing us “bon
voyage”.
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| Port Mayaca Lock |
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| Seagulls on the approach fender |
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| Cormorants lined up to wish us Bon Voyage and Godspeed |
Once we were through the lock, we were on Lake
Okeechobee. It was a calm sunny day with
little wind, so the 30 miles or so across the lake was a beautiful easy
cruise. On the other side of the lake,
we came to a marshy area, and then turned into a narrow canal. We went through one more lock, Moore Haven
lock, which had just a 4 ft drop.
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| Lake Okeechobee |
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| Marshy area on the west end of the lake |
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| Narrow canal with marsh on one side |
Since it was about 80 miles from Sunset Bay Marina to Ortona
Lock, we weren’t sure we would make it there in time to lock through and then
get somewhere to dock before dark. Rob
called River Forest Yachting Center, which is just east of Ortona Lock, and
fortunately, they had room for us there.
River Forest is a hurricane storage facility as well as a full service
marine repair and maintenance shop. They
have large fenced secure grounds, which was perfect for Sasha.
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| Tamure docked at River Forest Yachting Center |
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| Sasha like playing Frisbee on this large grassy lawn |
The next morning we were underway fairly early since we
wanted to get to Ortona Lock by 7 a.m. in the hopes of making the first
lock-through. It was a bit foggy above
the lock, but the fog had cleared by the time we locked down about 4 ft.
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| Foggy morning at Ortona Lock |
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| Campground along the canal near Ortona Lock |
28 miles later, we locked through the fifth and final lock,
W.P. Franklin Lock, for a drop of only 1.5 ft.
When locking down, the lockmaster opens the lower gate a small amount to
allow the water in the chamber to flow out until the levels equalize. Somehow it doesn’t seem to take as long when
you can see the process in action.
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| Lower lock gate slightly open to allow water to drain out of the chamber |
In no time at all it seemed, we were on the Caloosahatchie
River and could see the taller buildings of the Ft Myers downtown riverfront
area. It was about this time that we
also saw our first dolphins of the whole trip.
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| Most railroad bridges are left in the up position unless a train needs to cross |
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| Ft Myers in sight! |
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| Dolphin playing in Tamure's wake |
We reached the Ft Myers Yacht Basin before noon, and Captain
Ray backed Tamure right into her new slip on E dock beside Lorelei IV. All too soon, it was time to say goodbye to
him when Linda and 2 of their friends came to pick him up. He really did a great job for Jim – both in serving
as captain for the trip and giving Jim pointers about boat handling -- and we
would recommend him to anyone who needs a boat delivery or marine repair work
done.
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| Ft Myers Yacht Basin |
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| Tamure (large boat just in front of the red Fire Dept boat canopy) with Lorelei IV to the right |
