Last night we had drinks with Ed and Lucy Guillard, who gave us lots of good advice on anchorages in Florida; they had done the loop several years ago, and liven on their boat for over 10 years.

We left Clewiston at 7:45 and followed Ed and Lucy from I love Lucy for most of the day.

The  lake crossing was about 25 miles,  the weather forecast had said their was a light chop.  I agree there was a light chop in places, but in other places  it was quite rough.

We were followed by  these seagulls across the lake- I’m not sure if we were maybe cutting down on the air current/wind and that’s why they kept so close.

We made it to Port Mayaca lock mile 40   just after 11:00.   We followed the St.Lucie channel for most of the afternoon, and reached the  Port St. Lucie lock at mile 15.0,  at 2:30, and made it through by 3:30 with 5 other boats.    

We saw several canals which were  bringing run-off  into the St.Lucie channel.

We’ve now completed the Okeechobee Waterway and crossed the state of Florida from East to West in 3 days.

We are at the Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart for the night, as we needed to do laundry and get pumped out.  We thought we were having an issue with our heat pump, but it seems to be working tonight.

We will be heading South tomorrow and will be anchoring out for the next few days.

The Okeechobee Waterway is a 154  statue mile passage from the   Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean.  To  actually cross Lake Okeechobee  there are 2 choices either the open water crossing   (39 statute miles)or the rim route (50 statute miles), which skirts around the shore line, the route you take depends on the lake depth and your boat’s draft.

We left CapeCoral at 10:20 and made out way down the Caloosahatchee River, passing the city of Fort Myers.

We continued on and passed through the  Franklin Lock at  mile  121.4 at  1:30.    In this lock we only went  up 2.5 feet; nothing compared to the locks we had encountered on the   river system earlier in the trip.

Near the lock there were some wooden structures- which are referred to as Dolphins, which you can tie up to.

We passed through several bridges, one of which was a swing bridge.

We arrived at the free city dock at LaBelle at 3:40, where there were 5 boats tied up.

We went for a walk and found a Dollar General and bought a few provisions.  In the morning we went to McDonalds for breakfast and to check our emails.

We left at 9:05 and passed through the Ortona  (rise of 8 feet), and Moore Haven locks, most of the trip today was  through a channel with farmland on one side, and tall grasses/swamp on the other.

Near this second lock I saw this sign, which I had to include—we have seen so many boaters since we arrived in Florida, but rarely have I seen anyone wearing a lifejacket.

We arrived at Clewiston at 2:15.  We ended up rafting with a boat called I Love Lucy on park dock, which we had met in LaBelle and had followed for most of the day.

Tomorrow we plan to cross the Lake.

It was a warm day  on Saturday in Fort Myers Beach and many people were out enjoying the sunshine

I think everyone that owned a boat was  also out on the water.

We left the marina at 11:15 and took our time navigating the channel and staying out of the wakes of the go fast boats, we  arrived at Kitty’s at 2:00.  Kitty Nicolai, is a volunteer Harbour host for American Great Loop Cruisers Association (AGLCA).  She has a dock outside her house in Cape Coral that she offers for free to loopers for a night or two.

Cape Coral is along the Caloosahatchee River which is the first segment of the Okeechobee waterway.

She has a lovely home, with a west wing for guests and a pool – kept at 89^o, where we spent the afternoon visiting ,partaking in docktails, followed later by supper.

Our great hostess- Kitty Nicolai

As we were leaving to go back to the boat for the night the rain started; at about 2:00 a.m. the winds started gusting as a system was blowing through, we went out and checked the ropes.  About  3:30 the cell phone rang- it was Kitty saying there was a tornado warning and that we should come up and spend the remainder of the night in the house.   I tried to sleep while Andy watched a rerun of the Packers –Cardinals game.

Around noon today , we met Kim Russo, who is the AGLCA Director, she had come to Fort Myers for the Gold Looper Reunion, and had stopped by to see Kitty.  In the afternoon we went out to get some provisions.  I suspect we will be turning in early tonight.   Plan for tomorrow if the winds subside is to get to Labelle.

January 15

The day started with rain beginning at 5:00 a.m., it continued for many hours, and the wind started to increase. At 10:30, we were advised on the radio that there was a tornado watch for several counties in Florida including where we were.   At 10:45, we left the boat to seek shelter in marina buildings.  I was in the ladies washroom with several other women and 2 dogs.  The winds and torrential rains came and lasted about an hour.  We heard several large bangs, and the power went out a few times.  We returned to our boat by 12:15, to discover that one of the large bangs had been a transformer being hit & we had no shore power.  Dawn came about an hour later to take us shopping and sightseeing.  There was quite a bit of water over the road, coming out of the marina.

After shopping we went to one of Dawn’s favourite places for some beverages and French fries.

Peter called and he and Andy are now discussing things to keep them busy  now that they are  both retired.

Today the sky is blue and the humidity is  at 97%; we plan to leave Salty Sam’s and go to Cape Coral to  start the Lake Okeechobee waterway tomorrow.  There is a pirate ship here- so took another picture.

Saw this sign  we’re a long way from home….

January 8-14

We ended up staying 4 nights at Regatta Point Marina.  We had hoped to leave Monday morning but there were 4 to 5 foot waves on Tampa Bay, so we opted to stay another day.

While in Palmetto, we spent time with the Gillespies, and walked into town and did some shopping.  I also caught up on laundry and read another book.  The internet at the marina was only accessible in the boaters lounge—so wasn’t able to do too much on the blog.   Check out this house  boat it use to be a wedding chapel.

On Tuesday we traveled with Dream Catcher through Sarasota

I think this is the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum – it was purple so I took the picture.

and up  until Venice where they went into a marina

and we opted to go another 20 miles to an anchorage in Cape Haze at mile marker 36,  there were two other looper boats in the bay, and one of them was  from Montreal.  We travelled  under 12 bridges that range from 65 feet to 9 feet ( this was the  Blackburn Swing Bridge)

 and saw a car ferry,

we also went through several Manatee zones, but didn’t see any.

On Wednesday we left Cape Haze at 9:00, and found the water to be moderately choppy across Charlotte harbor so we only went about 15 miles to a sheltered   anchorage behind  Punta Blanca island.

We spent the night there with another boat called Frost Free.  While checking the oil; Andy noticed that we had a fuel leak.  This morning when he started up the engine he found the leaky hose.  Here’s his solution to collect the leaking fuel while we travelled- it’s amazing what you can do with tin foil and clothes pins and string– maybe his last name should be McGyver

When we got to Salty Sam’s Marina in Fort Myers beach,

we called  Dawn; who is Peter Westhead’s partner—she was able to drive us to a hydraulics shop with our leaky fuel intake  hose; and they made us another one while we waited.  We then went out for supper, and then to Dawn’s condo to meet their cats Kirkby and Sefton

We  also found a loaner car to use for the weekend. Just kidding Peter- we’re not going to use it.

We crossed mile marker 0 of the gulf  intercoastal waterway today ,  When we go back out on the water will turn East and cross the state of Florida  on the  Lake Okeechobee waterway.

It is suppose to storm tonight- so we may be here for a day or two.

Jan  6-7^th

We had lunch with the Pierces at a restaurant on Tarpon   Lake on Thursday, we really enjoyed our two visits with them—it’s good to see people  from home.

We left Tarpon Springs and followed the  ICW ( intracoastal waterway) down through Dunedin  (winter training grounds of the Blue Jays),

Clearwater , Treasure Island,

St. Petersburg and then into Tampa Bay.  We went under several bridges, some of which had to open for the boats we were traveling with as they were too tall.

We took a channel along the Sunshine Skyway bridge,

that cut off several miles and crossed the shipping channel in Tampa Bay, which wasn’t too busy- we only saw one large vessel.   There were dolphins and more crab pots along our route today, and lots of birds . We arrived at Regatta Point Marina at about 4:00.  Our friends Pat and Marcia Gillespie, formerly of Victoria Harbour, (who had travelled with Andy on the first leg of the loop trip)  and another couple Eric and Marg met us for supper at the  marina.  The Gillespies are going to return on Saturday and take us shopping.

January 2- 6

Tarpon Springs has lots of very quaint shops as well as sponges, soaps and tourist T-shirts.  There are also some very fine restaurants, and bakeries.  I hadn’t eaten much bread for the past two months,  but found a bakery about a block away and can’t resist fresh “village” loafs (2 feet long loaves for $2)  and have eaten more than my share the past week.   If our freezer was larger  I would be taking some with us.   Our marina is  very new and within walking distance of the down-town, and there are a number of  other Loopers here.  If you pay for 5 nights you get 2 free- so we’re staying put until our time is up.

 I loved the Christmas tree!

Had lunch with the Pierce’s and went grocery  shopping on Saturday.   It is now Wednesday and we are still in Tarpons Springs.  We had a “real” marine electrician- Louie look at our electrical system on Monday morning.  Within minutes he identified the problem we were having ( an undersized isolator and not installed properly)   He was able to explain how our system was designed, and what was required to make it work properly.     Installation of 2 new isolators, some new cable and a fuse as well as re-installing our old alternators and regulators was all that we needed.  We also had the generator battery tested and found that it was close to dying- so had it replaced this morning.

We really, really feel confident now that our “ electrical  saga” has concluded.   Louie and Shane  did an  amazing job.  It’s really too bad we hadn’t found them  sooner as then  we wouldn’t have had  to hire  mechanics in Britt,  Seneca,  Fulton,   Gulf Coast, Pensacola, Niceville and  Panama City to diagnose our issues.  Enough said no more talk about electrical issues for the next 8 months.

Today is January 6^th, Epithany, which is the largest celebration of this Greek holiday anywhere in North or South America.  (Back home it would be Ukrainian Christmas eve.)  There were a number of events scheduled for today—blessing of the water, litany procession  and release of a peace  dove, followed  by the casting of the cross.  The archbishop casts a custom made weighed white cross into the water and young men will dive for it.  The cross retriever then receives a special blessing from the Archbishop.    The celebration continues throughout the afternoon and evening.  On our way back to the boat– we ran into a couple from Transcona the first Manitobans we  had run into, besides the Pierces.

Divers entering the water to get to the row boats

Archbishop getting ready to cast  the cross

Divers searching for the cross.

We’re going out for seafood tonight and then  plan  to leave  early Friday morning and go south to Bradenton/Palmetto area to meet up with the Gillespies.  We want to get off the water for the weekend, as that is when  the waterways are known to fill up with go-fast boats.

Leaving Dog Island

It was a 22 hour ordeal  that  we waited almost two week  for–but we finally made it across the Gulf.    Ed the weather guy had this weather prediction for December 31st: despite this morning’s rain and the cloudy skies all afternoon, waves in the Gulf should settle down by departure time (after 3 p.m.) to two feet or less.  Wind should be negligible throughout the night; wave direction off the quarter bow for most of the route; occasional light rain will help keep the water quiet.  Don’t forget to take a lat/long fix at midnight so you can brag about where you were when 2016 kicked off!   He made an error- The waves were 3 plus for most of the day and well into the night- not the trip I had envisioned.   We did have a brief shower, some fog, humidity close to 100% and because it was overcast- no moon.  It was as if you were driving blind for 13 hours and never knew when the next wave or swell was going to hit.  Andy drove almost the full time, although I did stay awake and kept  him company.  During the first leg of the trip I ended up a little sea sick from all the bouncing – so I was immobilized and afraid to move-  I may have got a demotion from Admiral to deck hand, based on this behaviour.

At midnight; we were at Latitude 28^o58.507 and Longitude 83 ^o43.961,   71.5 miles and 314 ^o  from Tarpon Springs- so almost at the 1/2 way point. There ended up being  7 boats in our group  : Miss Hattie, Dream Catcher, Priority, Hush a bye, Bucket list and Kilt Drifter, as well as ourselves,on the Gulf of Mexico.  I don’t need to repeat this New Year’s tradition- ever!.  I did miss our usual New Year’s eve – having dinner with friends and babysitting the grandson, and then barbecued burgers for lunch on New Year’s day.

Once we got to our slip we went for showers and then met the AGLCA Harbour Host- Herb Seaton, who welcomed us to Tarpon Springs.  We callled family and then we went for afternoon naps, and  will be going  over to Dream Catcher’s for new Year’s dinner, and champagne.  Tomorrow we will be getting together with Keith and Patricia Pierce, who live in Newport Richey   and boat with us in Winnipeg Beach back home.  We plan to go for lunch and get some provisions for the next leg of the trip.

Sun Rise on the Gulf of Mexico  at 7:25 January 1, 2016

December 27-31

We left Apalachicola on Sunday with Dream Catcher and Isabella II,  these two boats went into Carbelle to stay at the Moorings marina.  We chose to anchor out in Shipping cove off Dog Island.  We spent four nights here.  Winds have been variable, Monday night was the worst—we put out more anchor chain and monitored our lat/long and depth most of the night as the wind swung us around.We dinghied  to the island a couple of times and walked on the sandy beach on the gulf side and the cove side, and picked up shells and looked at the sea life  Yesterday we took a long walk with the Coleman’s from Davali, who had joined us in the cove on Tuesday.  We had supper on their sailboat last night- Chris had made Pork Vindaloo—it was amazing! We then had to return to our boat in the dark—and we had forgotten to put our anchor light on,   thank goodness Gwen had a good flashlight to show us the way.   We will be leaving this afternoon around 3:00 headed for Turtle cove Marina in Tarpon Springs, with 4 other boats, including Miss Hattie, Bucket List, Dream Catcher.  If all goes well it should be about a 22 hour crossing.  Davali, plan to leave this morning and are headed further south than us.