Our Adventures on Sea Dream: Early Start to Cross Lake Okeechobee

This morning we made ready to leave in the first twilight. However a closed train bridge blocked our path, with three long trains crossing, one after another. Still, we were on an early start and made St. Lucie Lock in good time. It raised SeaDream 14 feet, nearly to the level of Lake Okeechobee. The lockmaster was kind to us newbie’s and it was actually kind of fun.

Very few other boats were making the Okeechobee crossing today. It was nice navigating fairly deep water in the canal, nearly alone, and we enjoyed the many birds and occasional gator.

Lock number two, at Port Mayaca, held both its gates open and allowed us to pass straight through into the lake. The present 13 foot water level is unusually high for Okeechobee but that’s still very shallow for such a large lake. When crossing, there is no anchoring and no deviation from the marked channel. It must be crossed in one day so the timing of the trip is very important. Our trip today was 67 miles. We left Stuart at 6:45 AM and by 5:10 PM we were tied up to the city dock in Moore Haven, Florida.

Louis and I were glad to get ashore and walk this small, lazy town. Mike connected the dock water and washed the entire deck and pilothouse. He took special delight in blowing the midge flies off the aft deck.

We expect to travel about the same distance tomorrow but we only pass through two locks, then spend the night in Ft. Myers, finally on Florida’s West Coast!