Our Great Loop Completed!

Palm Beach

11/22/14

We made it to Palm Beach! Yeah! It was probably the windiest day that we've ever traveled on. It was also cloudy, rainy and very humid. We kept hearing small craft warnings being issued by the Coast Guard on the VHF. It was a terrible travel day, but we just wanted to get settled at our second home in Palm Beach. It was such a relief to see the familiar waters of Singer Island and Lake Worth Inlet. We stopped briefly at Peanut Island to give Hooper shore leave and decide which marina we wanted to go to. We decided on the Riviera Beach Marina because the prices were reasonable, it's close to our condo, has floating docks and is the most protected marina in the area. The boat will probably stay here most of the winter, unless we decide to go to the Bahamas.

We went through the St. Lucie Lock and were back in saltwater

Had to have the bridge in Stuart open

Jupiter Lighthouse

Blue Heron Bridge. We feel at home on the other side of the bridge.

Boat dock at Peanut Island

Riviera Beach Marina. We were so happy to be safely tied up in a slip after dealing with such high winds all day

The calm after the storm. Red sky at night sailors delight. It should be beautiful tomorrow.

Lake Okeechobee

11/21/14

It was a cold, windy, rainy day. It doesn't feel like we're in Florida which is supposed to be the sunshine state. We took route 2, which is the rim route around Lake Okeechobee. It was an easy day since we weren't exposed to any rough water from the lake.

Trees along the waterway

Eagles

Lot's of vegetation in the waterway

Smoke from fires in the sugarcane fields

Black soot from the fires got all over the boat

Had to wait for the Point Chosen Bridge to be opened. The Point Chosen Bridge is the oldest swing drawbridge in Florida. It's the only swing bridge in the state that has to be hand-cranked to open. We watched the bridge tender ride his bicycle from one end of the bridge to the other to put the traffic gates down by hand. He then rode to the middle, put a metal rod in the mechanism and manually opened the bridge. The same man has been opening this bridge since 1965. He took over the job from his father.

Our wake stirs up small fish and the birds dive after them

Port Mayaca Lock

A tugboat came into the lock with us

Indiantown Railway Bridge had to open for us. The bridge tender told us to speed up because a train was on the way.

Stopped for the night at Port St. Lucie Lock Marina and Campground

Clewiston

11/20/14

It was warm & sunny for the first time in several days, so it was nice to be up on the flybridge again. It's still blowing a gale from the northeast making the temperature much lower than usual. We went through three locks, Ortona, More Haven & Clewiston. The only reason for going through the Clewiston Lock is to get to The Roland Martin Marina on the other side.

Along the waterway today we saw lot's of farms with horses & cows. There's also sugar cane fields. We saw an eagle dive to the water right in front of the boat and grab a big fish. It happened too quickly for me to get a good picture. When the doors of the Moore Haven lock opened there was a manatee right in front of the boat. It dove down, went under the boat and came up again right behind us. It then went into the lock. I guess it's traveling in search of warmer waters. It might be headed to the spring in Crystal River were the manatees gather because the water in the spring never goes below 72 degrees.

We spent the night at Roland Martin Marina and had dinner at the Tiki Bar. The food was good but the karaoke singing later that night was pretty bad. We had to shut the windows in the boat and turn on the air to drown out the terrible screeching that some people called singing.

Tomorrow we'll take the rim route around Lake Okeechobee. We haven't gone that way before. It's 10 miles longer than crossing the open lake, but will be much calmer and should be more scenic. Since the wind has been blowing so hard for days now the waves on Lake Okeechobee are in the 5-6 ft. range and are expected to be 7-8 ft. tomorrow. We don't need to deal with that!

Ortona Lock

Water spills in from the front to raise us up to lake level.

Moore Haven Lock

Airboat on the waterway. Probably going into the swamp to hunt alligators

Construction on the waterway. It doesn't look like they made any progress since the last time we came through.

Clewiston Lock

LaBelle

11/19/14

Because of stormy weather we stayed in Fort Myers an extra day. The last time we were here we didn't get to see the town. This time we had extra time to see the town and really enjoyed it. Right in the marina there was a hair salon on a barge. I haven't had a haircut since we were on Lake Michigan and it felt great to get a trim. For dinner we went to Capone's Coal Fired Pizza. This was without a doubt the best pizza we've had since we left New York.

The weather was still cold, windy and rainy, but we decided to head out anyway since we would be on the protected waters of the Okeechobee Waterway. We went through the Franklin Lock and were back in freshwater.

We stopped at the free town dock at LaBelle. This dock has gotten a complete makeover since the last time we were here. Everything is brand new plus there's electric and water on the dock. We had a great dinner at Log Cabin Bar-B-Que.

Best pizza on the loop!

Franklin Lock

This lock empties & fills by opening the front doors.

We had to wait for the Fort Denaud Swing Bridge to open. The bridge tender needs to walk to the center of the bridge to open it.

A new sign to go with the new dock

Not sure what this is, but it was on display

A wooded area near the docks

Great food