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CRUISE Day 2 -
Saturday, July 20, 2002
We didn’t find out for a day or so that we had “technical difficulties” with the camera (over-exposed) and so pictures of the trip through the Okeechobee Waterway over the next day or two are relatively non-existent. Didn’t miss much though and not much to see anyway – kind of like
♫“Up the lazy River by the old Mill stream”♫ - just a slow moving
puttz with lots of dead trees and swamp along the way.
Left Moore Haven at 9:00 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. The water depth is approximately 8’ – 12’ and the banks of the Waterway are very barren. At the Clewiston Lock you can either go through the Lock and onto Clewiston or go left and across the Lake to Stuart. We went toward the Lake on the Okeechobee Waterway that looks more like a swamp than the opening to Lake Okeechobee, but in no time you are in the open waters of the famous Lake Okeechobee! It was a beautiful day, sun was shining and the Lake was like glass. Across the Lake you come to the Port Mayaca Lock. It was “open” and we went straight through at 1:00 pm. The next Lock is the St. Lucie Lock – this is a “real” Lock
much like the ones "up North" and we had approximately a 15’ drop to go down into the St. Lucie Waterway. It is starting to look like civilization with big houses, big boats and big water! However, the water does start to get more shallow – around 4’ to 6’ just past Palm City Bridge.
We fueled up at Martin County Marina just as we entered Stuart and then docked overnight at
Northside Marina at 5:30 pm. This is a great spot with the Wahoo Restaurant right at the end of the dock. We had a wonderful dinner and brought Salty home some leftover chicken, which we found out later in the trip this would be a nightly event. The facilities were also great and we met the Dock master “Alex” and “June” his significant other. Alex spent 5 years on his sailboat and has been working at the Northside Marina for about 9 months. June is a retired Real Estate Broker – they live on their sailboat at the Marina with 2 cats and their pup “Rummy”. Salty and Rummy got along just fine – although, Salty wanted to play a little harder than Rummy did – but that’s a Wheaten for you! Salty managed to miss-step getting onto the boat and fell in the water, but it’s not the first time he’s done that, so he just swam back over to where Barry was calling him from the swim platform to fish him out. After that bit of excitement and a hose-down for Salty, we headed off again on the next leg of our trip.
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