LaBelle to Fort Myers

We intended to spent one night in LaBelle but spent three (the limit at the town dock). On Sunday night we heard two sonic booms as Space Shuttle Endeavor flew overhead. Gilles and one of the other guys at the dock fixed the dinghy engine. I finished reading The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (a remarkable tale of survival), bought honey at the honey store, and practiced tai chi in the church parking lot. We sadly left before the sheriff turned up to enforce the 3 days limit. We went through the last (the fifth) lock on the river dropping 2 feet. We saw llamas and a camel.

A forecast of rain and 30 mph winds drove us to the Fort Myers City Yacht Basin on the edge of a nicely renovated downtown, with a theater and restaurants, and this huge banyan tree in front of the courthouse.

Across Lake Okeechobee

We stopped in Indiantown on the St Lucie River, 10 miles from Lake Okeechobee waiting for the wind to change. The lake is large and shallow and a wind from the wrong direction can make for a very uncomfortable ride. Four days later the wind changed. We entered the lock at Port Mayaca (open because the lake level was high... a good thing) and made our way a few miles into the lake and then south to join the scenic rim route. Except it wasn't very scenic... the Army Corps of Engineers was shoring up and moving the levees and there were lots of dead trees, killed because they are not native to the area. We found a very nice anchorage in South Bay, with good wind and wave protection but with a monstrous alligator lying on the shore, its eyes peering into the cove. There were lots of birds and at sunset the mosquitoes came out.

Saturday, Feb 20 was a long day, 51 miles. We left the lake at Moore Haven, where the lock dropped us 3 feet into the Caloosahatchee Canal. We dropped 8 more feet three hours later at Ortona Lock. Near sunset we arrived in LaBelle, the "Honey Capital" and stopped at the town dock, where we had to do a Med mooring (stern first). We are next to the library (internet access!) and a beautiful park.

Leaving Stuart

We had a few days of bad weather, but today was sunny with light winds and we left Stuart in the morning, heading west on the St Lucie River.

An hour later we reached the first lock on the St. Lucie Canal, where Dolfijn was raised 15 feet before we were able to exit on the other side.

After scouting around for a good anchorage with no luck, we went into Indiantown Marina for the night. Gilles immediately spotted this alligator, then jumped in the dinghy to get close enough to get a good photo.

Stuart, FL

Still in Stuart, provisioning and organizing the boat and enjoying the town, its restaurants and coffeeshops. On Sunday, went to Riverwalk Jazz Fest, the band (Tales Untold) was surprisingly good, the singer awesome. Finished reading Just Kids by Patti Smith, the story of her life with Robert Mappelthorpe. Eating oranges. There's a painting in the marina lounge with the words Trust That the Wind Knows Where It's Going. It's been very windy, the boat moving a lot, difficult rowing to shore and back to the boat.

Across Florida, East to West

I left DC on a Tuesday afternoon, streets slushy with dirty snow, taking the metro and bus to BWI to catch a cheap Southwest Airlines flight to West Palm Beach. There were 25 people in wheelchairs waiting to board when I arrived at the gate. After everyone was aboard and the maintenance crew fixed something in the cockpit (we were never told what it was that needed to be fixed, just that it would be a good idea to fix it before we left), the plane left an hour late. C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce came to mind, except I was on a plane (he was on a bus) going from hell to heaven.

Two and a half hours later I was in West Palm Beach. I picked up my rental car and headed north on 95 to Stuart. Gilles was waiting at Sunset Bay Marina where the boat was in the mooring field.