The Day of the Dolphin Saturday, January 17, 2021 Day 42

 As we left Stuart, we traveled on the ICW, into the St. Lucie Canal. The canal is wide and deep, so steering was pleasurable. Also, although a Saturday, there was not much boat traffic; always a joy! 

There were lovely homes along the way and at approximately, 1 o'clock, we approached our first lock, The St. Lucie Lock. It is quite a large lift, about 14 1/2 feet; the deepest lock on our trip across Florida. Unfortunately there was another boat in the lock when we arrived so we had a long wait while that boat was lifted and the water drained before we could enter.

Expecting to tie on the starboard side of the lock, all our fenders (the inflatable objects protecting the boat from damage when next to other objects, like other boats, docks, pilings, and lock walls), were on the starboard. The dock tender directed a port side tie up, so we rushed to untie and move the lines and the fenders to the port.

Roland had given me some advice with respect to the lock procedure, expecting help from the lock tender. Forget it. No assistance was available. It was on us. Ropes were hanging every 5 or 6 feet, and I had to grab one with the boat hook. This being my first serious boat hook maneuver, it took several tries, as the boat went past several hanging ropes. Finally I snagged one and pulled it in. Roland had already tied up the bow, and ran back to help me pull in the stern. It required way more strength than I could have mustered on my own.

When in the lock, I felt as if we were in a deep well. The eastern gates closed and the water started to flow in from the western gates. It was really weird as the boat was lifted slowly at first, I was hanging on to keep the boat close to the wall as the water lifted the boat. The sky had been overcast and as we rose up to the top we saw that the lock was located in a lovely park, the grass was very green, and suddenly, the sun was shinning as we were magically lifted out of the well. It was ethereal.

The scenery was very lovely after the St. Lucie Lock. It was flat, very few homes and, in parts, wilderness. We even tried steering on the flybridge for a while even though it was not really warm enough. The flybridge is at the top of the boat, is all open and provides a wonderful view.

At about 4:15 PM we reach the Port Mayaca Lock , a mere 2 foot difference, also up. The last lock transit was in 15 minutes. The lock tender suggested that if we wanted to go through we really had to do so, immediately. He also mentioned that the waves not only in Lake Okeechobee on the other side, but also in the lock, itself were 4 feet high with 15 to 20 knot winds. We told him that we had planned to go through in the morning when conditions were calmer. He said that the last boat that went through didn't even tie up; they just tried to stay in the middle rocking all over the place. They had to use both their bow and stern thrusters just to keep from smashing against the walls. We only have a bow thruster. Captain Roland knew the conditions were unacceptable, and that the forecast for the morning was beautifully calm, so we declined the lock until the morning, and kept to our plan. Roland's planning was exquisite. He had, as usual, checked out the weather, and the conditions and knew exactly what we what would be best for us to do.

The plan was for us to tie up to the dolphins, which are located immediately before and after each lock. I think they were designed for barges and other work boats.

Neither of us had ever tied between two dolphins (I had never even heard of or seen one before today), but we were going to give it a go. The dolphins are several pilings, tied together, wider at the bottom than the top, and look a bit like a teepee. They have cleats and the idea is to tie the stern and bow with lines to two different dolphins. We have since learned that it may be better to tie put out the anchor at the bow, and tie the stern to the dolphin (Now you tell me?!). The dolphins are spaced differently so that smaller boats and larger boats can still use one set of dolphins. We chose the medium size. I did not think we could get into the smaller one and the bigger one was way too big. So like Goldilocks, we thought the middle one was just right. Wrong! We had to tie 2 lines together at the bow, go back and forth slowly to tie up without smashing the boat, to make this work. Dophining was not easy; I probably should have been davening instead.

Tying up to the dolphins was not fun, but it was cake compared to untying. It is amazing that it worked. It was stressful, but as I said, not as stressful as untying Sunday morning; but that comes later.

The sunset was beautiful, and we had a great steak on the grill. I had a zoom with 25 or more of us from TIAW who meet every year on this weekend in Safety Harbor, near Clearwater. It was great to see everybody and catch up.

After dark we went out with a very strong flashlight and looked in the marshes for the shiny red eyes of alligators. Fortunately, we didn't see any.

We were extremely tired after the stress of my first lock and first dolphin experience. I had not slept much the night before, so after I finished the dishes, I went to bed. Fortunately, I had no idea of what lie ahead in the morning when we were to untie from the dolphins.