s/v Rachel: 2017/12

Location: Ft. Myers, Florida

Position: 26 39.457 N 081 52.638 W

Up through this past week we've been traveling over familiar ground. We've already been up and down the East coast via both the ICW and the Atlantic Ocean multiple times. After a night in Stuart (when we last wrote) we set off on a new adventure. We decide to take the Okeechobee Waterway and cross to the West coast of Florida via Lake Okeechobee, the second largest freshwater lake in the US (after Lake Michigan). Okeechobee is a Seminole Indian word meaning Big Water. We will be negotiating 5 locks, 6 opening bridges and be traversing some very shallow water.

The limiting height is a 49' railroad bridge at Port Mayaca on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. Our masthead is 46' above the water (we think) and the water levels in the lake are currently fairly high. This means we may only have a foot or so of clearance when we go through. We call ahead to the lock tender who knows the daily water levels and bridge clearance. He tells us that today's clearance is 48.65 feet. We're pretty sure we're less than that , but we've never actually measured. Because we are not certain, we take it very slowly, hopefully allowing us enough time to stop and back away before anything breaks, although we're not really sure about that strategy either. Julie is laying on the coach roof looking up so as to, theoretically, tell Mark if it looks like we'll hit. We are happy to report that the tip of

our flexible VHF antenna (the tallest thing on the

boat) is definitely less than 48.65 feet. We know this because the VHF antenna didn't touch the bridge as we went under. Phew.

After the railroad bridge, we spend our first night in the canal just East of Lake Okeechobee tied between two dolphins. Not the aquatic mammal sort of dolphin. Nor the "mahi mahi" / "dorado" fish sort of dolphin. No, this particular sort of dolphin is several pilings bound together that can be used as a place a tug or barge (or even a sailboat!!) can tie up while waiting for the lock. We call ahead to the lock tender and ask permission to tie up for the night so we can get an early lock-through. He says "sure, enjoy your night" – really nice guy, the same one we've been talking to about the railroad bridge height. While we're getting settled, we manage to misjudge the distance between the dolphins. We get the bow line tied off, but it's too short to allow us to back up to the other dolphin at the stern. So Mark lowers the dinghy, Julie breaks out the "really, really long line" and we get it set up so all we have to do is slip the lines in the morning. Nothing to it.

We enjoy chatting with the lock tenders – they always seem to have good stories. Like the fellow who told us about the automatic manatee sensors on the lock doors. Apparently, if the sensor is triggered by a passing manatee while the doors are closing, they reverse themselves and open so the manatee won't get squished. The operator can't override this automatic safety behavior until it's tried and failed to close three times in succession, adding about an extra half hour to the locking. When that happens during the last lock-through of the day and delays quitting time, he says "that dang manatee is no longer your friend".

We hope we'll be able to finally get some sailing in crossing the lake. We lock through and get out on the lake at about 8am, but there's no wind. We're in a big open place where we can sail, but there's no wind. The deepest spot we see is 10 feet deep so when the wind kicks up it can get very choppy Sigh. So we motor.....again! Just as we're almost across the 25 mile lake passage and are in a narrow, rocky, dredged channel, the wind picks up. Sheesh! We now have wind, but we can't sail in such narrow quarters. And so it goes.

We make the turn from the lake back into the canal and – Holy Molies! - there are loads of little islands in front of us! Has the canal shoaled in? Can we even get through here? We slowly nose our way in and find 17' of water! These are all floating islands of some sort of aquatic plant (turns out to be water hyacinth, an invasive species from South America), one little island even has a 4 foot tall heron standing on it! How strange – we weave our way through them, not wanting the plants and roots to get caught on our rudders or in our propeller. Gradually, they diminish until they're all behind us. Another first for us.

The Moore Haven lock is partially broken and is only opening on our port side. We manage to squeeze our 14' beam through a surprising small seeming 25' opening and lock through. Night 2 of our journey is spent tied to the Moore Haven town dock.

A strong cold front is scheduled to pass through this weekend (8-9 December), and we've read that there's a free dock at LaBelle, a small town on the western portion of the canal about 25 miles from Moore Haven. We pull in and learn that there are 8 slips with wifi from a nearby library, water and electricity – all for free. There's a "3 days in, 8 days out" policy posted on the bulkhead.

Our first day ashore we learn that there's a Christmas parade, a "Christmas in the park" with vendors, food, and a Santa Claus, followed by a Christmas boat parade, all on Saturday. Unfortunately, Saturday would be our 4^th night. Julie calls the dock master and asks if we can stay a 4^th night so we can attend the festivities. "Sure!" he says.

Our second night there we attend a food truck rodeo in the park. There are 8 different "lunch wagons" offering everything from wings to Mexican to French / Mediterranean to hot dogs to ice cream to BBQ to Greek – and it all smells and looks wonderful. We choose the French / Middle Eastern truck and bring our delicious lamb and chicken laden pitas back to Rachel for a night off from cooking and doing dishes. Yum!

Our third night there a big power boat named "Fiddlin' Around" with 4 guys on it literally squeaks in between the pilings two slips over from us. We help them tie up and after a while, one of them comes up on deck with a fiddle and starts playing Christmas carols and we start singing along. They are doing all the waterways in the US and travel 1 week together out of every month on this, their third boat. The first was a pontoon boat that sank somewhere along the TenTom Canal. We never learned what the second boat was or what happened to it. The fiddle player has a "small plane" they use to fly in to wherever they happen to be cruising. They turn out to be really nice guys and a lot of fun. We regret seeing them go the next day.

So now it's parade day. Unfortunately, after a week or more of 80 F days, our cold front is coming through and the low for tonight will be about 40 degrees F. It's already cooling off quite a bit – everyone is in jeans and wooly jumpers and attendance seems way down at the park. The vendors are pretty much standing around talking amongst themselves and the line for Santa is only about 3 kids deep. It's a shame, because we've really come to like this little town.

The parade participants, like any Christmas parade we've ever attended, toss candy and treats out to the bystanders, especially the kids. When we realize that the treats also include little mini "Moon Pies" we agree that we are definitely in the south. And here's a first for us – they're also tossing out packages of fireworks! With no kids around us we score 4 Moon Pies, 3 packages of "Whistling Chaser" fireworks, a piece of hard candy and a hot chocolate flavored lollipop. What a haul!

The evening is topped of by the boat parade, which goes right behind our stern. It only consists of 3 boats but they are all very enthusiastic and circle 3 times, to make it look like there are more boats!

We wake up on Sunday morning to 40 degrees F with 36 degrees F and a frost warning predicted in LaBelle for tonight. Fort Myers forecast has tonight's low set at 43, a good 7 degrees F warmer, so we say goodbye to LaBelle and make tracks. After a pretty long, breezy, very chilly but sunny day we arrive at our anchorage at 3pm and sit in the cockpit in the sun, relishing the warming rays. We're on Florida's west coast now and look forward to doing some exploring. And, after tonight, things are supposed to be warming up – we sure hope so, because we are really looking forward to that, as well.

Stay warm, be safe, and remember - it's almost Christmas!

Location: Stuart, Florida

Position: 27 11.513 N 080 16.093 W

You're probably wondering where we are and what we've been up to for the last 5-6 weeks. Here's a quick synopsis.

we don't ever see our boat from this angle, taken
from new hi-rise bridge in Beaufort, NC

This is what happens when you anchor
in too shallow water

We left Broad Creek (near Oriental, NC) after several fun and work filled days with friends and scurried down to Isle of Palms, SC (just north of Charleston) to spend about 10 days visiting friends. We were able to stay at their dock as their boat was in the yard getting work done. We took this opportunity fix some leaks (re-bedding and re-gasketing hatches, stanchions, and lockers) to stem the tide of water we took on every time it rained. Unfortunately it involved removing the dinghy davits so it was a bit complicated and time consuming. Luckily we had great success and now are dry and snug in inclement weather. While there, we also rented a car and drove up to visit Mark's mom in Greensboro, NC. Nice visit, but too short for all of us.

Hurricane damage to shrimp boat
in Little River, SC

Next we stopped at John's and James Islands in SC (just south of Charleston) to visit more cruising friends for a few days.

Morning fog on the Waccamaw River, SC

Unfortunately this 2 week hiatus left us with encroaching autumn weather. Lovely days but cold nights, down into the low 40s F. This made for cold mornings as we were hauling anchor at 7am just after first light and anchoring just before sunset. We made tracks for Vero Beach, FL because we decided to try and make it there for Thanksgiving. After 7 pretty long days on the water we arrived. It was a great trip and we had a wonderful time despite the cold and the long days.

South Island floating swing bridge SC

Sign for bridge it swings out across the river,
we had to wait for it

We attended the annual cruiser Thanksgiving pot luck dinner, along with about 150 other cruisers. Great fun, food, camaraderie and music. As always when we stop in Vero we had more boat jobs, a couple of trips up the mast, a visit from a couple of amateur radio club members to get Mark off on the right foot for our ham radio installation, and, of course, shopping and more happy hours with friends both old and new.

We left Vero yesterday and spent the night in Ft. Pierce after having lunch with yet more old friends. Today we made a leisiurly trip to Stuart, except for all the huge wakes from the weekend yahoos (grumble grumble). From here we'll jump off into new territory – the Okeechobee Waterway and Florida's West coast.

Ashepoo River

A bald eagle welcoming us
to the anchorage SC

Even though it sounds like all we've been doing is boat jobs and more boat jobs, we've been having a lot of fun, too. Reconnecting with old friends has been wonderful, as expected. And the new boat has been great, too. So far this trip we've done many things we weren't able to do on our old Rachel with her 6' draft. Those of you who have traveled the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW) will know what we mean when we say we've done McClellanville, Hell Gate, Ashepoo / Coosaw Cutoff, and Little Mud River all at or within an hour of low tide. For you non-cruisers, these are infamous shallow spots where people regularly run aground. We've even spent the night anchored in less than 4' of water!