March 8, 2021; Still Day 92. Still waiting for the RR bridge to open!
As soon as we received the message on the radio from the lock tender that the railroad bridge was in fact finally open (I guess the sugar company that owns the bridge finally found an employee to in fact open it appropriately and fully), we proceeded through the bridge and to the lock. Roland swapped out the long fenders for the round fenders (hauling and schlepping and tying and untying, and stowing and moving). The Captain preferred the round fenders in the lock, rather than the oval fenders because he felt that it was better protection from the lock walls, against which we had to hold the boat as the water level changed. This lock went up only 2 1/2 feet, but we still had to switch positions from stern to bow in order for me to hold the rope (the rope was too short and it took too much pressure in the stern), as the water rushed in from the front. This time we used the headphones, which made the situation work much better.
It was a slow, a short cruise, to the Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston, Florida. Captain Roland was rather nervous because he knew he had to back down a very narrow waterway in order to dock. We had not done a lot of reverse docking (actually, none at all I could think of). Fortunately, when we arrived, there was no traffic.
A couple of days before, a very large yacht had had a mechanical problem, said the captain, and his boat rammed into and punched a hole in, part of the dock. This did not inspire confidence in Captain Roland. We had hoped to get the first out space on the dock because we were planning to leave before 7am (it would still be dark, but we were anxious to leave in order to cross Lake Okeechobee as early as possible. The wind is normally way less early in the morning and we were hoping to not have to deal with heavy seas.
Captain Sam helped us dock and made suggestions about dinner at the Roland Martin restaurant behind us. Apparently it is a major party place with bands most nights (this was Monday so we only had to deal with the jukebox ), but the music was very loud and went on until midnight.
I had the opportunity to catch up with several friends and had a couple zoom events before we went to dinner where we had down-home, fried food, at the Roland Martin restaurant. We sat near the open windows and away from everybody else. Our waiter was very attentive and the food was plentiful.
I prepped for crossing the lake by applying a patch, taking a pill, hydrating and, after tonight, fasting. The plan was for me to steer across the lake; my sister and Captain Roland's friend Stephen , thought that would help. In any case, we were hoping for calm seas.
Tuesday, March 9, 2021. Day 93.
We were up early and off the dock by 6:10 am. When we approached the lake, the wind was at 10 kn but it wasn’t really bad. By 6:30 am, the wind had reached 12 to 13 kn.
As we were cruising, dozens of birds were flying over our wake,
We went through the last lock (14 feet down), and preceded in to the St. Lucie Canal at about 2:15pm. We anchored near Stuart in the St. Lucie River, just above Coconut Point; close to Sunset Bay Marina, where we would be docking the next day. Although it was cool and very sunny, it was too windy for the dinghy or the sups (sigh). I had the rest of the afternoon to start to contact various creditors to try to straighten out my US Postal Service mail problem (all mail being returned to sender – marked: undeliverable).
Roland made a great dinner to celebrate the successful Okeechobee crossing and our returned to the East Coast of Florida.
We were happy to be back on the East Coast, crossing without my getting seasick (yeah). The anchorage is quite pretty, we had a wonderful evening, and we were looking forward to checking in with some of our friends in Stuart for the next two evenings.
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