CHAPTER FIFTY THREE: OW-WHEE OKEECHOBEE – IT’S A LOCK!

CHAPTER FIFTY THREE: OW-WHEE OKEECHOBEE – IT’S A LOCK!

It’s alligator country again. Swamp people cannot be far behind. We’re heading west! Today, January 12, we started our journey on the Okeechobee Waterway. This is a cool 140 mile channel, which cobbles together rivers (St. Lucie, Caloosahatchee), Lake Okeechobee, five locks, and canals (St. Lucie) that take you from the East Coast of Florida, around Jensen Beach, to the West Coast of Florida near Ft. Myers and Cape Coral.  What an exciting first day we had!

Last night we docked at Nettles Island. We had been promised our “old spot” from our stay last June, alongside one of their docks. But when we arrived, we were told it was taken and we could come to a “very safe, very large” slip inside the marina. Well, the slip was very safe, but it was NOT very large. In fact, it was very small. And we barely got our 15 plus foot Slow Motion in between the pilings. We had also been told that it would be easy to just back out in the morning. Wrong – there were big boats very close to us that presented great bump ‘em car opportunities, had we done as suggested. Naturally, the Admiral stayed awake most of the night thinking of the 100 possible ways to get out of that slip without hitting another boat. We were up at dawn to try to way he had decided upon. And miraculously, we got out of the slip and out of the marina without hitting any neighboring boat, or even the cement wall that was also dangerously close. It was partly a miracle and partly a tribute to the developing skills of the Admiral that we extricated ourselves without a scratch from that very congested marina.

We cruised down the Indian River until we reached the cutoff to enter the Okeechobee Waterway about 10 miles south of Nettles Island. And as we entered the St. Lucie River, everything changed. We were in the tropics within an hour of turning westward. We were also in a very quiet channel with very few boats. Keep in mind this is a Saturday, when most jet skiers are out terrorizing the cruisers and other jet skiers. We haven’t seen one jet skier on the Okeechobee Waterway – yet. As we came to Stuart, Florida, we saw two beautiful marinas and a lot of manicured lawns in front of some very large houses, most of which had “Florida rooms”, the metal mesh covered posts which are constructed over outdoor swimming pools to protect the swimmers from mosquitoes and other summer biters. Stuart is at about the 8 mile marker on the OWW. We were headed to Indiantown, which is at the 29 mile marker.

Between Stuart and Indiantown, the tranquil mood of the waterway continued. We made a stop for the cheapest diesel fuel on the OWW, or maybe anywhere, at the American Yacht Basin. And then we moseyed on along the waterway past what appeared to be a jungle. There were lots of palm trees, yes, but there were also lots of other trees that were so thick, you could not see through them to the land behind. The Admiral kept looking for alligators, and he thought he saw one ahead of Slow Motion in the middle of the channel. At the last minute we realized it was a wooden post, probably at one time much taller with a day marker on it. And we were able to save Slow Motion’s propellers by veering around it. Last night pelicans stood watch over Slow Motion at the dock. They were perched on the pilings right next to us. But today on the OWW they did not get up close and personal with us. There were plenty of hawks flying overhead at one point, circling around some kind of prey, but no dive bombing pelicans to entertain us.

Now here’s the really cool part of the day: the St. Lucie Lock. We had been through one lock in Virginia, heading both north and south, and the water level difference was minimal, not much more than a foot. Not so, St. Lucie – she raises a boat 13 feet higher than when the boat enters the lock, THIRTEEN FEET HIGHER. What a thrilling ride. We entered the lock, and the lock hand gave me a line and told me to hold it at the bow. The Admiral got a line to hold at the stern. We were supposed to hold the 20 tons of Slow Motion next to the southern wall of the lock, as gallons of water came gushing in from the west portals. This was fun!  The portals opened, and Little Niagara Falls came tumbling through the gates, heading toward us. Slow Motion was the only boat in the entire lock, which is 250 feet long and 50 feet wide. All of that rushing, gushing water was coming for us! As the water encircled Slow Motion, I kept tightening the line around the bow cleat, because we were indeed rising – and at a rapid pace – so I needed less and less rope, as we got closer to the top of the lock. By the end of this water surge, we had been raised out of the cavernous “basement” of the lock to the “penthouse”. The portals opened and we cruised smoothly out the western end. What a ride that was! Tomorrow we have two locks to go through. I can only hope that we have to climb higher and higher to get to Lake Okeechobee, because it’s really neat getting a “lift” from thousands of gallons of water in a matter of minutes.

Nothing was going to beat the “Lock Ride”, so we returned to our serenely calm cruise on the OWW. Sure, there was a 7 foot railroad bridge that had to open for us, but when the day is going good for you, it keeps going good – the bridge was open and stayed open for us. About ten minutes after we passed through, we heard the train coming. This was a day of good luck, and we were enjoying every minute of it. Shortly after we went past the railroad bridge, we saw a tiny entrance to something on the north side of the waterway. Having been used to big marinas with big signs, we were not at all sure that this small canal led to the Indiantown Marina, our destination. But we eased the prow of Slow Motion into the opening, and I noticed a small sign for Indiantown Marina on the hill next to the water. We entered a world of liveaboard boaters, who appeared to be the original fan club for Jimmy Buffett. We could be in the Bahamas, or the Keys. No one really runs this marina, as is apparent by the haphazard docking of several large transient boats. We were told by Theresa, who is “new” here, to “park” next to “Dixie”. I’m sure she knew what Dixie was and where she was, but we didn’t. And Debbie had promised me when I called that we would be able to tie up at their “long facedock”. So I called Theresa back and said that we were promised the facedock. She seemed a bit flustered, but said we could “try”, “there might be room”, she just didn’t know.

As you may know, the Admiral loves a challenge, and when we are promised a facedock, by gosh, we are going to get to tie up at a facedock. So we crept slowly past the facedock to size up the situation. A transient boater had tied up right in the middle of it, in front of the fuel pumps, and disappeared. There was a space in front of him and a space behind him on the facedock. The Admiral opted for the space behind him, which was the end of the facedock. He took Slow Motion back into the bowels of the marina, where there was just enough room for a rowboat to turn around. And somehow he turned around Slow Motion and headed back to the end of the facedock. The liveaboards looked in amazement. One of the guys told the Admiral that he really knew how to handle this big boat. Then a few of the folks helped us tie up. Even the sailboat guy on the right angles facedock moved the bow of his boat back, so that we could use the end of the facedock. The folks here are really friendly, except for one lady who complained to Theresa that we had pulled into the fuel dock and were preventing a 20 foot motor boat from getting fuel. The Admiral overheard this complaint and said that he had offered to help that boat get fuel, but the guy decided to head for Stuart. And so, Ms. Busybody was mollified. Is everybody happy at Indiantown? Yes, we are. Barbecue on the patio at 5:30.

These days of cruising from one marina to the next, getting up at dawn, tying up at 3 p.m., are draining. We are really looking forward to several weeks in one place, Legacy Harbour in Ft. Myers. Did you hear that? If you are getting tired of winter and you would like to join us in 80 degree sunny weather sipping iced tea and eating crackers and cheese, please come visit us any time during the rest of January at Legacy Harbour. But if you think you can make it through January and don’t really get tired of winter until February, then hold out for a visit to us at the always fascinating town of Key West. We’ll let you know as soon as we know where we’re staying. But we promise to take you fishing, and we are reasonably certain that you will have a good time. Come on down, you Sunbirds, you know you want to!