Okeechobee Waterway

Seagulls following our wake

   Lake Okeechobee is the largest lake in Florida, the 2nd largest lake completely in the US, and the 7th largest lake in America.  It is 35.7 miles long & 27 miles wide.  Therefore, when the wind kicks up, it is a large enough body of water to feel like the ocean.  Last night, we tied up just outside the Lake on the east side of the lock leading into the lake.  We were at the lock when it opened at 7am after a nice quiet night tied to the dolphins.  We checked the weather report for today and knew the lake would be choppy, but when the doors to the lock opened up to the lake side, we were still kinda shocked.  We cruised out into the very choppy lake water.  We've cruised in choppy waters before, but we found these waves were hitting us on the beam (side of the boat).  Not fun.  So, we changed our plans to go the 25 miles across the lake to the 35 miles around the rim of the lake.  The first 1.5 hrs were still a little choppy, but then it settled down as we reached protected waters on the southern portion.  It was here, we encountered an interesting bridge - the Torrey Island bridge.  It is a swing bridge which is manually operated.  You call the bridge master, he walks out to the middle and uses a long pole to turn the lever to open the bridge. Fascinating!

This route ended up adding 2 hours to today's journey, but it was beautiful.  Soon we were going through Moore Haven Lock (the first of 4 today), and cruising down the Caloosahatchee  River toward the west coast of Florida.  We had hoped to make it to downtown Ft Myers today, but it was just too far with the sun setting by 5:30p.  Therefore, we stopped east of Ft Myers in Olga and a marina for the night  Shawna & Joe, the owners, are so nice.  The also have a farm here, so they showed the kids some of the animals & gave us a few fresh eggs.

Total miles today:  84nm

Total miles traveled:  2,016 nm

Total cruising days: 31

Torrey Island Swing Bridge
(picture by Mike Farrell)