We left Fort Pierce early on the morning of Tuesday April 4. It was time to begin the journey to deliver Good Karma to her new owners in Galveston TX.

Leaving Ft. Pierce City Marina

All week prior we cleaned the boat, removing the final personal items we did not want to have to pack up in Texas. We took out all the winter clothes, coats and fancy clothes except what we need for an upcoming wedding and Marissa’s graduation. All our clothes are now condensed into two drawers each! We took four more bins and some extra supplies over to the storage unit, put the bikes in the truck and took the truck over to St. Lucie Tire and Battery so it could get a transmission update while we are gone.

We finally broke it to Jack Kitty!

Frankly I don’t think we will miss anything we removed. Funny how we carry so much extra stuff with us on this life journey.

Leaving Ft Pierce City Marina

The morning we left it was pretty calm compared to the big winds during March. As we passed we waved and said so long to many familiar sites: Fort Pierce City Marina and the fine folks who make that place run, the bridge to South Hutchinson Island, the marina, Conchy Joe’s Restaurant, The Dolphin until finally we reached Stuart.

Low tide made turning the corner up the St. Lucie River at Stuart a bit challenging. I guess it is better to see the low water than to stumble through it but it looked daunting. We passed Sunset Marina where we visited Why Knot.

The St. Lucie River ties Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean on the east side of the lake. The water is deep brown and the channel is not too wide. There are houses along most of the way separated by areas of undergrowth. It looks like the river is bound by levees because we can’t see over the sides of the river.

We saw gaters! Not too many but enough eyes sticking up the top of the water to know they were there. We saw plenty of birds including a bald eagle, always a majestic sight!

The first lock is St. Lucie Lock, about halfway between Stuart and the Lake. These locks are different from any other locks we’ve gone through in that they do not have equipment below the lock to manage the water. They close the gate behind you and open the gate in front of you a little bit, like about 1 foot. Water gushes in or out, depending on your direction. And it really moves!

As we pulled into the lock, we picked up a front and back line hanging from the top of the lock wall. We just held them trying to keep the boat straight. A sailboat with a crusty old guy pulled in behind us in a POS old sailboat. The lockmaster came up and said, “I am not opening that gate until you cleat those lines to control your boat!” Huh? We never cleat the lines in a lock, especially not after that scary incident on the Erie Canal when Kermit had to put on his Superman cape to just down and cut a line because it got stuck in the cleat. But this guy said all the locks on the Okeechobee require that the boaters stick the line around a cleat to secure the boat. So we reluctantly did as we were instructed. Everything went fine but we felt weird doing it!

We traveled our normal trawler speed. Our goal was to get to the west side of Lake Okeechobee if we could. Once we made the decision to travel across the lake there were very few places to anchor along the way so timing was important. This put pressure on us to keep moving. See what artificial time commitments do to you?

To achieve our goal we had to travel through 2 locks on the east side and two locks on the west side. The first lock took about 45 minutes to raise us 13 feet. The goal was slipping away at that rate.

We found some good news when we got to the lake itself. The second lock at Port Macaya immediately east of the lake was open! Evidently the water was high enough that there was no need to equalize behind the lake so we just drove right through!! Picking up time!

Moore Haven

Lake Okeechobee is big but not as big as Lake Oneida in NY. This lake is only 20 miles long. We made that in about one hour traveling at speed. We kept close watch for sunken vessels and obstructions since the lake is only about 10 to 12 feet deep. There are some homes around the edges but not much else is visible. No one swims because the water is yucky, fit only for those unseen alligators. I can’t recall we saw a single other boat across the lake.

At the other side is another lock. We couldn’t tell till we got closer but that lock is off to the side protecting some marinas off the lake. We didn’t have to go through it since we intended to travel through immediately around the lake. So we made a hard right turn and headed along the ditch on the southwest side of the lake until Moore Haven Lock. This is a 13 foot fall (countering the 13 foot rise on the east end). Easy peasy. We made this final lock of the day at 4pm, just before the last lift of the day at 4:30pm. By the skin of our teeth.

We tied up at Moore Haven Municipal Docks which is not as glamorous as it sounds. This is a wall that can hold about six boats our size. Two boats were already tied up, loopers. We could see people but no one was very friendly.

Throughout the day we passed Looper after Looper traveling east while we traveled west! We waved and honked the horn to say hello. We sure wished we had our Looper flag up. But it is packed safely in a storage bin back in Ft. Pierce.

This town is pretty dead. There are few shops that we could see. An interstate runs through it. Locals travel around in golf carts. The park where we docked is very pretty and the docks are well maintained.

We headed for the only place in town that serves food, the local bar. Active Captain had notes that this bar served the best hamburgers, bar none. I am not sure they were the absolute best but they were very good. And the people were entertaining. They are used to seeing boaters so everyone was very friendly.

The former Rialto Marina

The next morning we were out at 7am headed west along the Caloosahatchee River that connects Lake Okeechobee with the Gulf of Mexico at Fort Myers. This river is just beautiful with lots of homes, cows, horses and the occasional gater (not too many!).

 We passed the amazing Rialto Marina, now closed, where we spent a glorious weekend in 2013 with Michael and Judy Hechtkopf on One September. That side trip was totally worth it! We never felt so pampered as that time at Rialto. Unfortunately for boaters, the owners decided to close the marina. We could still see the couple’s two boats tied up but the other docking areas were empty. Such a loss!!

Ft. Myers

We also thought of Peggy and Jimmy who live in Alva FL nearby. They were such delightful hosts when we visited in 2013. No time to stop this time. Perhaps next time.

Kermit in Ft. Myers

Finally we turned the corner into Fort Myers with reservations to stay at Fort Myers Yacht Basin. We had a lovely lunch with Kris and Dennis Cada from our yacht club. So nice to catch up!

Thursday morning 4/6 we saddled up and headed out, bound for Sarasota. Getting out of the slip was easier said than done. We sterned in to a dock along the wall at the end of a fairway. It was easier getting in than getting out. Kermit had to go back and forth a little at a time to escape this tight dock. In full view of a dozen dockers of course. You wouldn’t want a little privacy getting out of a tight spot, right??

Venice FL

On the way to Sarasota we passed Venice FL, a beautiful little town. Along the way we passed police boats from every burg in the west coast. Evidently they were hosting some sort of tournament (hopefully for underprivaleged kids). We like to think it was the local polices' version of All Ports Yacht Clubs Christy Lane charitable event. In any event we did not speed through this section!

Marina Jack

It was a relatively short jaunt to Sarasota to Marina Jack, a beautiful marina right on the ICW. We stayed here in 2013. In 2016 this marina was recognized as the best large marina in the US and I agree. It has the best bathrooms and showers I think I’ve ever seen. I did a load of floor covers to keep up with the cleaning.

Owen's Fish Camp - delicious

On Thursday evening we met up with David and Susan Hoecker from Trinity Canton. We laughed and laughed as we caught up while enjoying dinner in Sarasota. Unfortunately yet again we forgot to take pictures. Trust me, we had a blast!!

Looks like a big wedding party!!

We thought we were leaving on Friday but no way. The wind was at least 20 to 30 mph all day so we had to stay. We had an early dinner at Owen’s Fish Camp. Even Kermit had fish!! We walked back the long way to the closest grocery store, Whole Foods where we got bread and traveling food. On the next block a group had tables set up along the entire block for a wine tasting dinner.  All sold out!

Bill and Sarah Vellucci stopped over later on Friday evening, staying over until Saturday. We had pancakes and a long walk in the park followed by lunch at the tiki hut. Such a wonderful way to spend a weekend!!

It was clear we were not leaving any time soon. So Palm Sunday we walked about 2 miles to the local United Church of Christ for an 11am service then walked another 2 miles to lunch and another mile home. It was a good day of exercise.

Monday still no good for traveling. We decided to leave on Tuesday to head north to position ourselves in Dunedin or Tarpon Springs so we could be ready at a moment notice when the weather changed.

Surprise!! The weather changed overnight on Monday night! We headed out at 7am from Sarasota out the Big Sarasota Pass northwest to Carrabelle. We traveled at speed, at about 20mph the entire day. This is a 200 mile trip. It would be shorter if we were already positioned in Tarpon Springs but we were not. We had a little fuel filter issue about 10 miles from Carrabelle but Kermit changed those filters in less than 5 minutes. I think he is trying out for the fuel filter changing Olympics!!

Leaving Sarasota 

That kind of water is about as flat as it gets during the day. It was delightful. Kermit got to take several naps while I drove. We spelled each other. We needed to because we did not arrive at Carrabelle until about 7pm. The 200 mile trip took 11 hours at about 20 mph, slowing down to conserve fuel in the last 20 miles.

It was getting dark so we just dropped anchor around the back of Dog Island, just inside the entrance to the bay from the Gulf of Mexico. As we were dropping anchor and trying to relax, a fishing boat came towards us, fully lit with arms and nets out. Magnificent!

This was also the evening of the big red full moon!! So many reasons to be happy...

I remember when we first crossed the Gulf with Michael and Judy on One September. We were so nervous. We stocked up on food and wore our life jackets for the overnight journey. This time we are more experienced and not nervous at all. We did file a float plan, wore life jackets all day, and put our valuables in a ditch bag for each access in case there was a problem. But there was no problem at all!! 

It is crazy how much we have learned in the last five year.

Today as I write this, we pulled into Carrabelle to get fuel. We got up at 7am but could not enter the channel to the town until 10am because the current is so strong it is necessary to wait until slack tide, that moment when low tide has arrived and high tide has not yet begun to come in. We came in to Carrabelle carefully and slowly, filled with fuel and did not get back on the road until about noon.

ICW

We traveled on the Intercoastal Waterway between Carrabelle and Panama City. We waved at Apalachacola and passed lots of dead boats and swamps. We did not see too many other boats. A few fishing boats and some cruisers going east but not much else. It looked like rain but it never came.

As we entered Panama City Bay we finally saw Blue Angels!! I doubt the pictures will come out but if they do I will post them on Facebook!!

Here are our next anticipated steps on this journey:

• Thursday, April 13, Orange Beach for dinner with Charlie Crawford and Mary from the Loop
• Friday, April 14, to Gulfport
• Saturday April 15 to New Orleans (darn, New Orleans on a Saturday!)
• Sunday April 16 through Thursday April 20 to Galvaston – Joy Preble we are coming your way on the weekend of April 22 or 23!!



Panama City

• Friday and Saturday (maybe Sunday) April 21 – 23 we turn our boat over to her new owners!!

Then we have to come home. This is complicated. So far here is our plan:

• April 23 or 24, pick up a van and load up our stuff off the boat
• April 24, Kermit takes me to airport in Houston for a flight to CLE; Kermit continues by van to Fort Pierce where he loads up the truck with the stuff from the storage unit and turns in the van from Houston
• April 27 Kermit picks me up at Orlando and we head north to Cleveland. We should be in our new apartment by May 1, assuming everything goes well.

Keep watching. I will load pictures as I can. If you happen to be in our path raise your hand so we can stop and say hello!! In the meantime, you’ve got Good Karma!