Ft. Myers & Okeechobee Waterway eastbound

I have changed the template for the blog and am trying some other tricks to make the pictures open properly. Not sure how well it will work but here we are.



At Ft. Myers beach there is a free trolley that runs the length of the island. We can tie our dinghy to the mangroves as was shown in a previous post and walk a short distance to the trolley stop. We left Ft. Myers beach on Tuesday and started our way across the Okeechobee Waterway to the east coast. We stopped at the town of LaBelle for the night and then got an early start on Wednesday to stage for crossing the lake.

"Somebody Pinch Me!"

The weather forecast was for the winds to pick up and, since the lake is 3 hours across we decided to make long days so that we could cross on Wednesday before the winds came in.

For once Bill, since he did not have electronic charting of the area, was following us and we were able to get a picture of something other than his stern. As you can see, being on this lake is much like the ocean in distances but can be rougher because it is only 8-10 feet deep all the way across.

We crossed the lake and then tied to these "dolphins" just after the lock and stayed the night here.

On Thursday we left early again and made our way to Vero Beach. Bill planned to go on ahead and get fuel in Ft. Pierce but missed his turn and had to come back. We got a chance to meet him head on at one of the bridges in Ft. Pierce.

After getting rafted up we had a nice dinner on the aft deck.

We missed the storms and tornadoes that hit north of us and we are in blustery and on-and-off rain at the moment. It is "supposed" to clear by Monday.