Crossing the Lake and Thunder Storms

When we woke at 6.30am this morning, the first thing we did after putting the kettle on to boil, was turn on the marine radio. Lake Okeechobee was forecast to have light chop, and possible thunderstorms around noon. Ok...we had been warned.

A small trawler arrived last night at the town dock and docked in front of us. These folks had just returned from 8 weeks in the Bahamas. They were browner than ...well, chocolate brownies! We helped them tie up and went back inside as yet another wave of thunder and torrential rain descended. They took off before we did, this morning and were on their way west and back to Punta Gorda, which is where they call home.

Sunrise this morning...

 The little trawler is gone! the big boat is tied to a different dock.

 We have to go through the rail bridge gap and then into the Moore Haven Lock just beyond and to the right. The lock was ready for us when we called up. We shared the lock with a couple of fishermen in a boat. We got chatting....he goes to NZ for four weeks every year for fly fishing...first to Lake Taupo, and then down the South Island, to a lake...he said they all sound the same and he didn't remember which one, lol!:)  He told me he fishes EVERY day...his wife asked if he would prefer fishing over sex? His reply....If you can have sex for 18 hrs a day, then he would prefer sex!:) He said his wife is in her happy place at their holiday home in Wyoming, and he is in his happy place fishing on Lake Okeechobee! Each to their own!!

There is a right angle turn at the end of the lock, into the Okeechobee Waterway that parallels the Lake all the way to Clewiston, where you turn left onto the channel out on to the Lake.

This is what it looks like on the chart. Lake on the left.

It took 2 hrs from Moore Haven to Clewiston, this morning, cruising at around 8.3 knots.
Lots of fishermen out there on the water...and we saw lots of bird life and a HUGE Alligator grunting... He looked like he was mating, Waz thought...why else would he be grunting?:)

Fisher folk...we gave them slow pass.

 The grunting Alligator.

 We couldn't figure our what happened to this 39ft Meridian...what a waste!..did they just run her up onto the rocks? why not opposite into the marshes where less damage might have been done to her bottom?

 This Blue Heron was fishing on the levee wall.

 The lock at Clewiston opposite the channel out to the Lake.

Turning onto the Lake channel we felt the wind pick up. We knew it would be a little choppy and it was, but not too much at the beginning. Nice to have the wind to keep the boat cool inside. Lovely, after yesterday when it was hellishly hot.

Bye Bye south west Florida! We are on the Lake!

 The channel out to the lake is surrounded by marshes. It is VERY shallow, at around 6.5ft, on average.

 Still on the marked channel before open Lake.

 You can see this on the chart. wow...9ft! lol

 This chart of Lake Okeechobee shows the marked route to the other side at Myaka Lock, just below where the pencil is. Clewiston is bottom left.

 Morning light across the marsh grasses:)

 White Pelicans sitting on the little sandy marsh island out in the lake.

 2 1/2 hrs later, coming to the other side of the Lake, and straight into the Myaka Lock, which was opened for us, and we went right through and out the other side...no stopping and no tying up..woohoo!

 Lining her up to go straight through the Myaka Lock.

 and out the other end. That is Lake Okeechobee, out there.

 There we are...the little green triangle.

Well, we had been told that there would be thunderstorms around noon....hmmmm...accurate? You bet! at one minute after noon, yes, right on the dot, the rain came down in huge drops at first. We were up on the fly deck and I scurried to put all the windows down, while Waz negotiated the channel. He had taken the cover off the windshield just after we left, this morning, just in case we needed to go downstairs and drive from the pilothouse. We were glad we made those preparations!
Thank goodness for ziplock bags...over the top of one of the depth sounders. The rain got so bad up top that we were dodging the water pouring in through all the little holes in the bimini and the plastic. Anywhere you can see light is where the water found a way in~ aieeee! it got really wet! Downstairs Waz went while I stayed upstairs and drove while he organized the pilothouse for us to decamp down there.

 Absolutely torrential rain for an hour and a half!  The lightening was so close I could hear the fizz and the thunder so loud it made us jump, even though we had seen the flash and knew it was coming.

 The lightening was endless, it seemed, and the thunder just rolled ALL the time.
We cant understand why the windshield wiper only clears the bottom half of the window????who designed THAT!

 We really didn't want to be out in this storm, but there was literally nowhere to go. We couldn't anchor in the middle of the channel because there were other boats negotiating the same thing.

 There was a pause, after a while, and we went upstairs to continue the journey and wipe up a bit. We only opened the front window to see where we were going, and the subsequent rain just came in there...not to worry, it was already swimming, up top.

 Just before we got to the next lock, two large motor yachts joined us, going fast. We did request a slow pass, but they were a bit arrogant and did a half hearted attempt at it, passing us just...I mean JUST before the highway bridge prior to the lock. The big Lazzara went into the lock first, and all of us were requested to dock on our starb'd side. eh? The lock wasn't big enough for three large boats on one side. The following MY waited to put their fenders out in port side so they would fit into the lock on the other side. We were behind the Lazzara, which was about 70ft. This one here is about 80ft. Not much room between us!

 Yep, that's me on the front holding the rope. We were right up the butt of the boat in front. The other was beside is on our port side. These folks were discussing fuel prices and where they were going to top up, when they got to Stuart...talking over three dollars per gallon. We knew we could get it for around $2.60 (+/-), but they were too big to fit into the fuel dock where we were going to fuel up:)

 Not far for us to go before filling up with diesel. We have just left this marina with 250 gallon fill up.

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Our large boat friends were on the radio trying to get into Loggerhead Marina. This is the marina where we originally went to survey the 57ft.Vantare we had come over to Florida to purchase, back in Feb. 2013.
Thank goodness we didn't purchase that boat, and bought this one instead:) Some things are meant to happen.  I guess they found a berth for the night. They are both headed to the Bahamas for a week or so, they said....including the grey poodle that was aboard the boat in front of us at the lock.

So, we refueled, and made our way to the main harbor at Stuart. We knew where we would be anchoring....where we were last year! It works well, and we have 10 feet under us. The breeze is lovely, at 8.30pm... right now...there is enough breeze coming through all the open windows so we don't have to put the fans on:)

We are watching this cloud develop...storm clouds look like this! yes! hard to believe, but you will see lightening coming out of these clouds.

Loggerhead Marina and the Mooring field. We by-pass this place in favor of somewhere out of the noise of the traffic and rail bridges. We still hear the train, but not as close!.

 These are our neighbors, across the way...

the cloud as the sun is setting...still watching it develop. We will close up, upstairs, as more thunderstorms are forecast.

We have another few long days ahead of us. We HAVE to reach Georgia by the end of the month, and we will just keep moving until then.

Waz finally dug our NZ flag out of the box somewhere and hung it!:) Feels good to have it back there. It serves a few purposes. Sunshade, privacy and national pride!

Well, time to close up. Lovely sunset tonight! I will go and take a photo and you might see it tomorrow when we stop for the night.

We were so tired today. We have been out of the habit of working this hard...and yes, cruising IS hard work! Out of shape, mentally, methinx.

Night night.!