Staging at Stewart, Florda

On Jan 12, Gerry and I set out to take the R&B Haven from North Fort Myers to Stuart, Florida.

On the way out of the harbour, I tried the bow thruster just to make sure it worked. This was one piece of equipment that I had forgotten to verify while making our preparations. It was a no-go. When do you need a bow thruster. When you are crossing an ocean or anchoring. No, you need it for locks and for docking in marinas such as when you need to buy fuel. Of course, when it would not work was precisely when we needed it.

The tide was pretty low when we left. In fact, we only had about 6 inches under our keel in some parts of the channel out of the marina and the tide was scheduled to fall 6 inches more over the next hour or so. Good thing we did not touch and did not get stuck.

At 9:00, we pulled into Fort Myers Municipal Marina where we bought 110 gallons of diesel at $2.70 per gallon. There were cheaper places we could have gone to, but they were not right on our track.

It was still cold. The manatees went for the warmest water. We must have seen 20 of them when approaching the first lock.
Fortunately, the wind was fairly calm so we were able to dock without incident or challenge.

We did see one aligator sunning on a rock near one of the locks. It was to be our only one – and I thought Lake Okeechobee would be full of them. Perhaps it was too cold and they were hiding under water.

We arrived in Moore Haven around 4:30. We would have liked to press on but there are few places to stay until the other side of Lake Okeechobee and that was about 50 miles away.

On Wednesday, Jan 13, we cast off at 7:00 since we had 80 miles to do including 3 locks and 2 bridges, all of which can slow you down.

Right off, we ran into trouble. The front window would not stay rolled up since it was so cold and it was misted. The railway bridge which was about 200 yards from the Moore Haven municipal dock was silver and almost invisible in the early morning pre-dawn light. We almost hit the bridge before I saw it. We had to wait for 20 minutes, then a single train engine rolled over the bridge. It was another 10 before the bridge master showed up to open the bridge. So much for our early start.

One good thing was that while docked at Moore Haven, I traced the bow thruster problem to a corroded toggle switch that was never used anyway. I bypassed it and we then had an operational bow thruster.

The wind was low. Lake Okeechobee was benign but boring. At the St Lucie Locks, I radioed ahead and they held the lock for us.

We made it to Manatee Pocket around 5PM where we were met by our friends Chris and Deke. They have a property in Stuart and they also have a sailboat which serves as their home for a few months in the winter in the Bahama. I think they would liked to have taken the same weather window as us, but were not quite ready.

Chris and Deke live in a strange comunity where dogs are not allowed and this includes the marina. I showed up at the dock with the dogs hoping to let them have one last pee on grass. It was a “no go”. However, there was a park nearby so I set off for it in the dingy at a full plane – right up to the dock where a conservation officer just happened to be watching me come in. Apparently, this was a manatee zone. Imagine that with a name like Manatee Pocket! Anyway, I pleaded ignorance. I think the ranger thought stupidity would be a more appropriate plea, but he let me off with a warning instead of a $95.00 fine anyway. I was greatful.

After dinner with Chris and Deke and Gerry and Pam and after doing a little last minute shopping, we said thanks and good-bye to all.

Gerry's help in bring the boat across the State was invaluable. Its too bad they will not be able to join us in the Bahamas.