We left the dock about 7:30 this morning and went through the Port Lucie lock with only minor embarrassment. When I got even with the lock tender, who was standing ready to throw us a stern line, I put the boat in reverse to stop its forward motion, but the prop wash kicked the stern to the starboard side and as a result the bow went to port and hit against the lock wall. No damage was done to anything other than my ego, and it was certainly no more embarrassing than running aground.
When we got to the Mayaca lock, which is the entrance to Lake Okeechobee, the doors were open on both ends and the water levels were even on both sides. I had been told that they occasionally do this to drain some water off of the lake. After getting permission from the lock tender, we idled through the lock behind a sailboat named 'Jolly'. It was the easiest lock transit I've ever had.
We decided to take the direct, open water route across the lake instead of the more scenic route that follows the shoreline, in order to save a couple of hours. For the first hour and a half we were rocked back and forth by short but closely spaced choppy waves that reminded me of Mobile Bay. After that, though, the wind shifted to attack us more on our stern, and the waves diminished somewhat. At that point it was a pleasant ride to Lewiston at the West edge of the lake. The trip across the lake was about 25 miles, and in all we travelled 62.5 miles at an average speed of 6.2 mph.
The only gator I saw was a dead one being eaten by vultures, but Glenda saw a couple, and I understand we may see some around the boat about sun up. We'll keep Daisy on a short leash. Right after we tied up between two 'Dolphins' (groups of pililngs lashed together) for the night, we watched a bald eagle chasing an osprey overhead. The osprey had some kind of creature in his talons, and we assume the eagle was trying to steal it.
Tomorrow we will lock through the More Haven lock and head toward Ft. Meyers.
I apologize for not having captions to explain our pictures, but the app I'm using won't let me attach a caption that will stay with the picture as I edit the post, so I'll have to add them later.
We both slept good last night! Fixed ham and eggs for breakfast and headed off to the Port Lucie lock. (again). The lock tender was very nice and patient with his instructions. He was actually from Prattville Alabama, only about 45 miles from us. I did get flustered while I was holding the rope and realized I had left the pilot house door open and Daisy had followed me out. Now I'm holding on to her and the rope. But we managed with only a few seconds of increased heart rate.
This is just our second day owning the boat and we already had a man on his dock taking photos as we passed, another yelling from his dock that he liked our boat and a third stopped in his boat just a few minutes ago to say he was jealous☺️ Tom has managed well today, we bumped the wall a little in the lock but we stopped to get ice and he docked expertly and we are now tied up between two"dophins". I must say he didn't make it look as easy as Clyde did but he got the job done. We are both gaining confidence. It rained for about 2 hours today but other than that the weather has been just about perfect.
No comments:
Post a Comment