Dolphins and warm weather

Finally a break in the cooler weather and we were up in the high 70's.  We decided to take our Marina's Estero Bay tour.  Since the bulk of this bay is less than 3ft deep, TIKA would not be a great platform to go manatee and dolphin hunting.  We had a great time and saw many dolphins, but no manatees.  The water temperature is around 60, so the manatees are somewhere in warmer water.

Fish Tale Marina's entrance is between the two tall condo buildings.  It sets back on a canal about 1/4 mile. The Marina is off of Estero Bay on Etstero Island directly across from the city of Estero.        Got it?

Mother and baby dolphin came right up alongside our boat to check us out.  Over 80 dolphins make Estero Bay their year round home.

Sand Dollars, Bicycles and Sunsets

Our first morning walk on the beach resulted in 15 perfect sand dollars, plus many other beautiful shells.

 Marlene and I riding the trails at Lovers Key State Park.

 Raccoon crossing the trail.

 Turtle crossing the trail

 Kayakers paddling the estuary the trail follows

Another turtle checking us out!

Marlene......DON'T WALK INTO THE LIGHT !!!!!!!

Life's a Beach

We ventured across the street from our Marina to find one of the widest stretched of sugar white sand we have ever seen.

 TIKA's home for the next 30 days at Fish Tale Marina

 One of the many beautiful shells we found on our first walk on the beach. This one went back in the gulf since it was still occupied.

Exploring Ft. Myers Beach

Our first day on the Island was for exploring.  Estero Island is the home to Ft. Meyers Beach.  It is approximately 7 miles long and 2 blocks wide.  The island has a trolley and there is a stop in front of our Marina.  Publix and all of the islands amenities are within a 20 minute trolley ride.  On our first day on the ground, we managed to get laundry and groceries out of the way while exploring the island.  The weather is still cool.  The low last night was in the 40's with highs in the 60's.  We are looking for a warm up to the normal average high of 75.

 Sugar white sandy beaches on Ft. Myers Beach......just need about 15 degrees warmer temps.

 Marlene attracting some pelican attention.

 Marlene trying on her outfit for when TIKA flies her Pirate flag.

 TIKA is parked in a Marina Canal behind 4 large yachts....we look like a baby boat.

 Sunset sky was beautiful

 Our first attempt at gourmet boat pizza...found out we need a pan or foil under the pizza.  The crust got a little crispy (and black) when placed directly on the grill grate.

East Coast to West Coast complete !

Up early at sunrise and bound for the Gulf of Mexico.  The final leg to the Gulf took about an hour, passing  Cape Coral and Sanibel Island.  Passing under the Sanibel Island bridge, we briefly entered the Gulf for the one hour trip to Ft. Myers Beach.  The city has a mooring field managed by the Matanzas Inn, one of the unique older hotels in the Island.  We ate at a popular watering hole called Nervous Nellies where the servings are so large, you wished you had shared an entree.  We decided to spend a night here on our way to the Fish Tale Marina, where we have a slip reserved for the next month.  Ft. Myers Beach is a major winter tourist destination, so we plan on spending some time here checking out what they have to offer.

 Ft. Myers at sunrise.....cruisers start the day early and end the day early

 The Gulf of Mexico with Ft.Myers Beach to port.  Open water is always a thrill.

  Admiral Marlene dressed in warm clothes to handle the cold front that moved in.  We ate at a restaurant called.Nervous Nellies.  Food was great!

Nervous Nellies on the water

Sunsets over the Ocean

We made it to the West Coast of Florida....or very close to it.   We took off with Pat and Dave on Indecision at 7:00 AM.  We made it from Moore Haven to Ft. Meyers in one day! Almost a 60 mile trip on the waterway at 7 mph.   After leaving and traveling couple of hours, a larger, faster 60 ft yacht that moored with us the night before radioed back to us that they were stuck at the first lock and it was foggy.  Luckily for us, the fog lifted by the time TIKA and Indecision arrived at the lock.   Turns out the lock was broken, which held us up for more than an hour.  They ended up having to open and close the lock doors with a manual crank taking one half hour to open and another half to close.   We had to circle in front of the lock for about 45 minutes before we even could enter the lock. We ended up going through the lock with the big yacht, so I guess speed and size doesn't always get you there faster.  While we were impatiently waiting, Admiral Marlene stated they needed to call in a locksmith and get that thing fixed.  We got lucky with the weather. Two heavy storms passed to the north and south of us, but we managed to see the dark clouds around us and just get a sprinkle.  We arrived in Ft. Meyers around 4:00pm.  We fueled, pump out the unmentionables, and took a mooring ball across the river from the Marina.  We had to say goodbye to our new boat friends Mike and Barbara on Last Chance as well as Pat and Dave on Indecision as we all head separate ways on the West Coast.  Being an east coaster, we get to see sunrises on the Ocean....yeah, like we actually get up and go the beach that early in the morning!  So, we are anxious to see the sunsets on Florida's west coast.  Lucky for us, the sun sets early this time of year, so we aren't in bed yet.

 Look close, that is a deer reflecting in the waterway.  It is a very big deer!

 Less impressive cows on the waterway!

The view from our mooring ball in Ft. Meyers.  It is going to be a noisy night, as we are right next to a bridge.

Lake Okeechobee to Moore Haven

Up before dawn, we set out from Indiantown at sunrise to make the voyage across Lake Okeechobee.  The Port Mayaca lock is the entry point to the lake. With all the rain the eastern side of Florida received, the gates of the lock were open and we were able to pass through without delay.  When you depart the lock, you are in open waters.  The path across the lake is southwest, so it is a 25 mile or approximately 3 hour trip to the other side.  Our weather planning was perfect and the lake only had a slight chop. We made the crossing with "Last Chance" and "Indecision" in great time arriving in Clewiston around noon.  Then up the coast through the inside channel to Moore Haven and through a lock that dropped us about 3 feet.  Moore Haven is a very small town, but it has an authentic Mexican Restaurant.  If we were driving by it in a car, it would not be a place we would stop, but in a small town with limited selection it was looking good to us.  We went with Dave and Pat from "Indecision" and ended up having a wonderful time.  While we were underway crossing the lake we had a return call from one of the Marina's we were trying to get into when we get to Ft. Meyers.  We are really excited as we made multiple calls and all the Marina's in the area were not accepting extended stays.  Tomorrow, we are off to see how close we can get to Ft. Myers.

Approaching the bridge and lock at Port Mayaca.  We followed "Indecision" across Lake Okeechobee.

 Passing through the open lock at Port Mayaca.

 Exiting the lock and entering Lake Okeechobee.  The lake is big enough that you can't see the shoreline to the west or north. 

Exiting Lake Okeechobee with what looked like sugar cane growing in the water.  This is what we thought the Everglades would look like.

Exiting the lake you travel about 10 miles north through a canal that borders the lake next to the levee.

Indiantown

After 3 great days at the St. Lucie Lock Marina, TIKA was ready to head west.  We met new boat friends at the Locks, Mike and Barbara on "Last Chance" and Dave and Pat on "Indecision". We all decided to make the 15 mile trip to Indiantown and then do the crossing of Lake Okeechobee on Monday.  The lake is the second largest lake totally within US boundaries, second to Lake Michigan.  Although it is large it is only 14ft deep, which makes a perfect environment to build waves on a windy days. The lake route we plan to take will take a little over 3 hours over open water.  Weather windows are a factor in crossing the state, much like the crossing to the Bahamas. Indiantown in on the east side of the lake, and is the last stop prior to entering the lock and Lake Okeechobee from the east.  This part of Florida is very rural, but it is the heart of  Florida's citrus industry,  Since Indiantown is in the center of the State along a canal system, there are major marinas for boat storage and repair.  In the event of a hurricane in the area, large yachts can be brought through the canal here, put up on the ground and tied down. There is one modern mega marina on each side of the lake.  The Indiantown Marina is a smaller marina and boat yard. The community is very small, but it is home to the Seminole Inn, a historic hotel and restaurant. Indiantown was the vision of S. Davies Warfield, a Baltimore banker who planned to make Indiantown the southern headquarters of the Seaboard Airline Railroad which would stretch from central Florida to West Palm Beach.  The Seminole Inn was built to be the focal point of the planned community. His niece, who later became the Dutchess of Windor attended the grand opening and visited several times.  The restaurant sent a car to the marina to pick up Mike, Barbara, Marlene and me and take us to their Sunday Brunch.  The meal was delicious and plentiful and mandated we make the mile walk to the marina.

 The St. Lucie Canal is a beautiful trip across the state. 

Captain Kevin "digesting" lunch on a rocking chair at the Seminole Inn, prior the mile walk back to the Marina.

New boat friends Mike and Barbara in front of the historic Seminole Inn.  It is both a restaurant and hotel, beautifully maintained with a lot of ambiance.

Hanging at the Lock

 TIKA in the foreground and the St. Lucie Lock and Dam in the background

The St. Lucie Lock and Dam drops 13 feet.  It is the biggest drop of the 5 locks in the waterway across Florida through Lake Okeechobee.

Women's rowing team from Germany?  They were speaking German anyway.   I guess rowing team practice on the waterways of Florida in the winter as we saw the Boston College women's team practicing in Vero Beach.

Checking out Admiral Marlene checking out the lock doors on the high side.  They fill the locks by opening the doors about a foot and a 13 foot wall of water crashes into the lock.

Captain Kevin sporting a 3 week old boating beard.  Ok, is my chin a couple of years older than the rest of my face?

Today we had a service call on the boat to repair our seawater pump (ouch on the wallet).  The weather improved greatly so we explored the lock and walked 3 miles round trip to a Dairy Queen for lunch.  This was the closest restaurant to the lock facility.  We had to walk over an overpass over the Florida Turnpike with no sidewalk.  We had our doubts if we wanted to do this as this overpass was a 4 lane state highway and we were a little worried about getting hit by a truck.  It was a great time to pull out that over used phrase "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it"....and we did.  The Dairy Queen chocolate chip cookie dough Blizzard was especially good as a reward for our hard work and bravery to get there.

TIKA gains altitude for the first time !

After 19 days in Vero Beach, we disconnected our lines from the mooring ball and headed south and west.  This was not a great day for travelling by boat.  Winds were pretty consistently from the east at over 20 mph and it was raining.  Several times we thought we were heading into fog, but turned to be rain storms.  One of the advantages TIKA has is the choice of driving from and enclosed cabin or up on top under a bimini top.  Needless to say, today was a day for being indoors.  From Vero Beach, we passed Ft. Pierce and turned into the St. Lucie River to go 10 miles west into Stuart.  We passed the Marina we stayed at last year, and continued West to a new adventure.  We left the St. Lucie River southwest of Stuart and entered the St. Lucie canal which leads to the east side of Lake Okeechobee.  Our intention is to head across the Lake and out the west side, where we will pick up a river which comes out at Fort Myers near Sanibel Island. This is a two to three day journey dependent on weather.

Our first adventure on the canal was to gain some altitude.  The St. Lucie lock raised TIKA 13 feet.  There are other locks which will eventually get us up to the level of the lake, then we will come back down on the west side.  The canal we are on is a man made Corp of Engineers project to allow boats to cut across Florida..  This was our first time through a lock.  Luckily, the rain let up enough for us to get out and hold lines as TIKA was raised in the lock.  The locks works very simply  You enter, park along the wall, the rear door closes and they, open the front gates about a foot.  Suddenly you see a 13 foot wall of water gush through filling the lock.  I would have liked to include a photo, but we were busy, hanging on for dear life as the lock filled with water.  As the 13 foot wall of water was reduced to the new higher level, fish poured through the gushing water and jumped in the lock.  We were told Manatees and Alligators also use the lock to pass from the lake to the ocean.  We didn't see any, but we will have several more locks before our journey to Fort Myers is complete. 

Just past the lock was a Corp of Engineers campground which includes 8 boat slips with electricity, water and use of the park's restrooms and showers.  We are staying here for two nights so after the rain lets up, we hope to get some pictures.  As I am writing this, we have had 7 inches of rain in 5 hours today.  There are thunderstorm and flood warnings for the county we are in.  Since we are less than a hundred yards from a lock and dam, I don't think we will see much change in water level where we are. 

 Cruising the calm, but rainy waters of the St. Lucie Canal.

A huge home on the St. Lucie Canal.  That is all one house.  There is also a boat house for a yacht just out of the picture on the right.