Okeechobee Waterway

Today we set out from Ft. Myers heading east on the Caloosahatchee river which also is the Okeechobee Waterway. We left the marina at 7:35am. It was the first time that we operated the boat from in the cabin. We had always been up on the flybridge but there was rain in the forecast. We went through the first of 3 locks around 9:45. It was the Franklin lock and we were the only boat in it. Other boats left behind stickers marking that they were there.

Later on we had to contact the Fort Denaud bridge master so he could open up the swing bridge, it only had a 9ft clearance.

The 2nd lock was Ortona and this time we were behind a larger boat, Linda Jane, that had past us earlier.

We were out in rural country with just some cows grazing.

The 3rd lock was at Moore Haven and again we were the only boat. The lovebugs were out here and swarming the boat.

On a map, at the point it looks like we are in Lake Oceechobee but we were actually in a desolate rim canal that continued on for 10 miles until our overnight stop in Clewiston. I cannot emphasize how uninteresting this stretch was as there was nothing there.  It's the photo taken from inside the cabin and you can see the rock wall bordering the shore. It's all we saw for miles and miles.

It never rained and actually got very warm to 88 degrees. We arrived at the marina in Clewiston at 4:55pm. It was a long day and we covered 60 miles. It was our 2nd longest leg with the 1st day on the gulf as the longest at 84 miles. At 5:30 the rains came and it was a heavy downpour that continued for an hour.

We are surrounded by very large boats compared to our 31 ft. We're at a floating dock that runs along side a narrow canal. Ahead of us is a 45 ft boat, behind us is a 72 ft and behind that is a 65 ft yacht shown below.

The marina is with an RV park and beside the dock is a large Tiki Bar where a band is scheduled to perform tonight.