We waved goodbye to Stuart and were on our way at 7:20 am. It was another calm, warm day and there were a few clouds in the sky. Our trip through St. Lucie Lock was not nearly as harrowing as it was the first time we went through it last March. Since we were the only boat in the lock, the lockmaster had us take lines as far back from the upstream doors as possible. Last time we were closer to the doors and had to hang on for dear life as the water poured in. This time, we didn’t even feel any disturbance!
We saw two alligators after that first lock. The railroad bridge just west of Indiantown was being worked on but we didn’t have long to wait before the part was installed and we were allowed to pass. The second lock at Port Mayaca was at the entrance to Lake Okeechobee. As we entered the lock, hundreds of birds were sitting along the walls. Birds were waiting on the exit side as well and several of them followed us out into Lake Okeechobee for several miles. We weren’t sure what they were looking for, but they were persistent.
The 152-mile Okeechobee Waterway is like the Intracoastal Waterway in that it is an adaptation of existing waters – the St. Lucie River from Stuart to Lake Okeechobee, the lake itself, then the Caloosahatchee River to the Gulf. The two rivers had always drained the lake and supported passage by small boats, but after the disastrous floods of the mid-20s and the diking of the lake, the natural system was overhauled by the Corps of Engineers and opened in 1937 as a first-rate commercial waterway – and a wonderful shortcut for cruising boaters to get from the Atlantic to the Gulf without rounding the Keys, a saving of 206 miles.
It took a few hours to cross the lake but we finished our transit just before sunset and tied up to the barge pilings (called dolphins) at Clewiston at 5:30 pm. The mosquitoes drove us inside but at least they didn’t bother us there.
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