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The
"Continuing" Adventures of a "Salty Old Dog" in
2003
Well,
we’re finally going to do this!
We have been planning this trip to the Bahamas for months now
and it seemed we would never get away – work, work, work!
However, with Barry’s most recent clients well taken care of,
we are at last on our way. It
is probably also worth mentioning that the “Firstmate” put a tiny
screw into the works by somehow contracting a compressed sciatic nerve
that definitely contributed to at least a three day delay… not to
mention putting a damper on her enthusiasm to be jumping on and off
the boat. However,
thanks to our very good friend and friendly neighborhood “Doctor
Dave” off I went with a pile of pills on a wing and a prayer….
Cruise Day 1 -
Saturday June 7, 2003
We
left our dock in Cape Coral at 1:00 pm. It didn't help that around
7:00 am, the skies opened and it poured rain for a good part of
the morning - it never does that in Southwest Florida and of
course, along with the rain came thunder, lightning and WIND - oh
joy. We finally managed to get the boat packed in between showers
and the stifling heat, took a last dip in our pool and off we went
on the windiest day in months; oh well, it's not as if there won't
be any wind encountered over the next few weeks, so get used to
it, right? White caps on the River… yes indeed, it is a bit
windy out here but nothing we can't handle. Welcome to the
Caloosahatchee River - as we pass the "Idle Speed/No
Wake" and "Resume Normal and Safe Boating" signs in
the channel, we wave good-bye to the Fort Myers Electrical Plant
where the Manatees (who are the cause of those signs) like to
gather, eat sea-grass and generally just veg long enough to
enforce No Wake zones. Salty knew there was something fishy about
that whole thing! As we cruised up the Caloosahatchee River, we
passed our good friends "Captain Conrad Brown" and his
lovely wife Marilyn in their beautiful cruiser that he captains on
their "Old Florida River Tours" - what a gorgeous way to
see "Old Florida"! The first bridge we requested to have
opened was the Fort Denaud swing bridge with a clearance of only
9' - it's operational 6:00 am to 10:00 pm. We see an interesting
"Sea of Masts" just past the Ortona Locks on the other
side of the shoreline but as we get closer and pass by the Glades
Boat Storage we see the masts are all land-locked - it's hard to
believe the boats attached to those huge masts are in dry storage.
If you visited our "Okeechobee to the Keys" adventure,
you will have read more on where we are in the waterway right now
and nothing much has changed. We had originally planned on docking
in Clewiston overnight this time, however, it was later in the day
than we had anticipated and so we thought we would give Moore
Haven another shot before it got too dark (or would that be a shot
in the dark?). It seems nothing at the Moore Haven docks have
changed since last year either. We docked at 7:30 pm,
looked around and immediately decided to have dinner on board and
not go for a late night walk to get something to eat like we did
the last time. It actually turned out just fine for all of us - no
rain, no alligator, no beastly pizza, Salty ran around the park,
we had a wonderful dinner of micro-waved tacos (I know you're
jealous) and all was good in Moore Haven (except for the
facilities). Good thing we have Salty the boat to make life
easier!
Cruise Day 2 -
Sunday, June 8, 2002
It was
at this point on our last trip that the camera (or Firstmate) had
"technical difficulties" and so I was "ready"
this time to capture all those wonderful things I had missed in
August of 2002 in the Okeechobee Waterway and I did manage to get
a couple of really good shots of life in the "swamp". We
left Moore Haven at 8:30 am and headed up the Okeechobee
Waterway toward Clewiston and Lake Okeechobee. There is a fork in
the Waterway, so be sure to turn right at Uncle Joe's Fish Camp.
It was a beautiful day, sun was shining and the Lake was like
glass all the way to Port Mayaca Lock. Past the Lock is a
wonderful old bridge with huge weights - in the olden days,
workers would release the weights which would allow the bridge to
lower so railroad cars could pass through. Speaking of trains, the
swing bridge at Indiantown was closed today for an oncoming train
- that was a first because it is typically left open for the
boaters. Yes, it is quite the rural life along the Waterway …
with cows and horses grazing and walking along the banks.
We
waited for 20 minutes to go into the St. Lucie lock, as traffic
was quite heavy for this time of year. Salty was showing off his
new "docks and locks" requirement - he jumps up on the
back seat behind the helm, steps into his halter and is snapped
into place so there is no jumping from seat to seat or in front of
the Captain when he's trying to deal with going through the locks
or docking the boat. It works great… he can see what is going
on, is out of harms way and gets a treat for being a good boy when
it's all over! While in the lock, Barry was speaking with a guy
who had stopped at Clewiston the night before and he said that
when he got there - there were no slips left and he had to raft up
against another boat. It's a good thing we decided to stay in
Moore Haven that night as it would have been just lovely tromping
across someone's deck with Salty on an early morning run, that
would have been real special. We arrived in Stewart at the Northside
Marina at 4:00 pm and just in the nick of time! As we were
pulling in close to the gas pumps, the wind started to howl and
the waves began to roll, big time. We made it into our slip just
before the rain started to pour and thunder crash. We heard Sea
Tow on the VHF reporting waterspouts and tornado-like winds out
there - yes, we got in there just in the nick of time! We went to
the Wahoo Restaurant right at the end of the dock for dinner
overlooking the Marina and of course the water at this point, just
a couple of hours later, was like glass.
Cruise Day 3 -
Monday, June 9, 2002
Salty
and I watched the Manatees lumber about in the Marina Bay in the
morning - I've been in Florida for ten years and have never seen a
Manatee - so you see, they must all over on this side! We hosed
Salty down before we left on our afternoon cruise up to Lake Worth
so he wouldn't be too hot as he lays in the sun and gazes over the
stern seat at the wake behind us. We gassed up ($380.00), left
Stuart
at 12:30 pm and went up the St. Lucie River, which wasn't as
shallow as the last time we were here - it was up to about 4' - 5'
depth this time. A lot of the houses along the River have their
own private beach and a very long (and expensive) dock - needed
for depth at the end - you almost need a scooter to get to your
boat! We saw a very interesting house along the way with a
"grass roof" - very bizarre. We passed St. Lucie Inlet
where we would have gone out to the Bahamas, but the Captain
figured out it would be an additional 30 miles in the Atlantic if
we left from that point, so we headed toward Singer Island for
another day or so and a quicker exit out to the Bahamas. As we
entered Lake Worth, we headed into a nice little
"sun-shower" that quickly turned into a torrential
downpour - again! We scrambled to get the front bimini extension
on (it snaps on from the top bimini to the windshield) in the
howling wind and rain before we were soaked. With that
accomplished, we headed back into the more protected canal and out
of Lake Worth until the storm subsided which lasted about an hour
and we just floated in the canal until it was safe to head out
again toward Sailfish Marina. We pulled into Sailfish Marina on
Singer Island, Palm Beach Shores at 6:00 pm - we love this
place - it has great facilities and an absolutely wonderful
restaurant. We laid low on Marina Day 4, Tuesday June 10th
getting ready for our big "cross over" the next day. We
have quickly realized that one of the best purchases we have made
for this boat is the "pillow-top Queen-size" mattress -
awesome, even better than the bed at home!
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