Friday, December 3, 2004

Spent another day in Vero Beach (also known to cruisers as "velcro beach" - hard to leave once you get here!)  I know what they mean - beautiful beach just a couple of blocks walk, free town bus system that will take you to any of the malls, shopping, etc and great people.  Spent the morning cleaning the boat, even washed the hull.  Had dinner aboard "Sea Lion" with Jeannette and Bill  from the Annapolis boat show crew. 

Saturday, December 4, 2004

Left Vero Beach around 8:00 am and headed to Stuart for a stop before entering the Okeechobee canal which will take us across Florida to Ft Myers.  This is where we leave many of our new found friends because they are going further south in Florida and waiting for a good weather window to head over to the Bahamas.  The area from Vero Beach south through Ft. Pierce and to Stuart was hit hard by two hurricanes.  This is where we saw the most damage  - boats on their sides up on the shore, docks gone, buildings blown out.  There's still a lot of cleanup going on.  We saw barges that were picking up debris, including boats, and dumping them in what looked like a boat dump yard .  Still saw a lot of houses with the new Florida roof system - blue tarps.  It's pretty hard to imagine what it's been like for these people. 

Anchored in North Fork of St. Lucie River.  Quiet expect for wakes from passing boats.

Tomorrow morning we head to the first lock at St. Lucie which will start us through the canal.  The guidebook says "lots of bugs and watch for alligators"!  My camera is ready for that alligator picture!

Hurricane damage, Ft. Pierce, Florida

Sunday, December 5, 2004

Anchor up around 7:00am.  Lots of muck and mud on the chain and anchor - a real mess to clean up.  Locked through the St. Lucie lock at 9 30 am.  Locking through took an hour.  Locked through Port Mayaca Lock at 2:00 pm.  At this point we were on Lake Okeechobee.  Too early to stop but not enough time to make it across the lake so we followed the "rim route" for an hour and anchored just outside of the channel for the night.  The lake is so big (30+ miles across)hat you can't see the other shore so it felt like we were anchored out on the ocean - the sky met the horizon.  Lots of stars, no other boats, very deserted.  A hot and sunny day.

Monday, December 6, 2004

Anchor up around 7:45 am - lots of mud and muck again - can't wait to be out of this stuff.  The water is the color of hot chocolate!  cut across the lake from the rim route to connect to the shorter route.  Once across the lake we traveled along the shore through a swamp.  This is where they say you see the alligators - I stood careful watch but didn't see any.  Locked through at Moore Haven - after much  a do trying to tie up in the lock - wind was blowing us away from the wall on the port side and we finally gave up and were blown over to the opposite side of the lock for a starboard tie up.  The lock tenders never even tried to offer us a hand - an exciting moment.

Traveled through the Caloosahatchie  canal which eventually will put us in the Caloosahatchie River to Cape Coral.  There really are alligators in them der waters!  I spotted one crossing the canal in front of us - looked like a floating log at first but then I noticed that it was making continuous progress across the canal.  When we got closer we confirmed that it was an alligator!  Was difficult to get a picture before he went under but here it is.

Alligator on the Caloosahatchie Canal

Arrived at the LaBelle bridge at 4:30pm only to find out that the bridge is closed between 4 and 6:00 pm(commuter traffic) - not noted in any of the cruising guides.  Must  be something new.  By 6:00 pm it would be dark and we didn't want to sit around waiting for that opening,  We had hoped to tie up to one of the free docks on the other side and not have to deal with another mucky anchor.  Unfortunately it wasn't in the stars for us so we dropped the anchor for the night just before the bridge in lots of muck - looks like Alan will just have to get out those dirty jeans and the bucket in the morning when we raise anchor.  Once anchored we double checked with the bridge tender to be sure we could get through early in the morning.  She told us that the bridge would open on demand between 6:00 and 7:00 am and then from 7:00 am to 9:00 am it would be closed again for commuter traffic.  So we planned an early leave around 6:30 am.

Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Anchor up at 6:30 am.  I called the bridge tender for an opening.  It was a different tender than last night, she acted surprised that I was asking for an opening and  tried to tell me that she was on a schedule and the bridge would be closed until 9:00 am.  I told her that we had been informed last night that the bridge would be opening between 6:00 and 7:00 am and that was why I was calling.  She reluctantly gave us an opening.  There must be some conflict going on between the locals and the bridges because this was very unusual.

Had one more lock to get through and several bridges but made good time.  Another warm and sunny day. Arrived at Alan's parents' dock in Cape Coral at 12:30 pm.  The "Mystic Jitney" had gone full circle.  It was just under seven years ago that Alan, Captain Ken Johnson, and Alan's brother Ron left this dock to bring "Mystic Jitney" to CT.  Now we were back where it all started.  It was a bittersweet arrival - Alan's mom passed away this spring and his dad is living in NY with his brother, Ron and wife, Marie.  But it was good, none the less, to be back.  We spent some time cleaning the boat, took a swim in the pool,  and were invited to dinner with neighbors, Sandy and Dan and their daughter Candy and her son Joe.  Alan's sister, Shirley and her husband, Don, stopped by to visit in the evening.  Was good to see them again.

Mystic Jitney at dock in Cape Coral, Florida

We plan to spend the next week here working on small projects on the boat and the house.  Our niece, Kayla, gets married on the 18th and we have a flight home on the 19th for the holidays.  This has been an amazing trip and we feel so fortunate and blessed.  To all our family and friends - a very happy and blessed holiday and new year!  We'll be returning after the 1st of the year and are looking forward to continuing our adventure then.