The infamous Port Mayaca Railway Lift Bridge, at 49 ft clearance it limits the sailboats that can cross the Okeechobee Waterway (Jascat's mast is 46 ft tall)

Our crossing of the Okeechobee Waterway turned out to be very pleasant three days of motoring along wide canals (and one big lake) in a temperate, gentle breeze right on our nose. We opened nine bridges and traversed seven locks (there are only six you say - we did the Clewiston lock twice, going in and then out).

Only one of the bridge openings caused any loss of time. We had to wait in Moore Haven about 20 minutes for a train to pass. And the only lock we had to wait on more than about 10 minutes was the last one, the St Lucie lock. This lock does the lion's share of the level change on the east side of Lake Okeechobee at 14.5 feet out of a total of about 16 feet. We got to the lock as it was being configured to fill on the west bound side and so we had to wait for a full cycle before we could lock through. We were there about 45 minutes.

The first day's run was from Ft Myers to Moore Haven, which we accomplished in 9 hours. We tied up at the Moore Haven City Dock which is an easy side tie right on the canal. Moore Haven doesn't offer many amenities but we did manage to walk over to Burger King for supper. We were told that the town also has a Subway but didn't see it.

The next day, we first hopped 7 nm over to Clewiston for fuel. Clewiston has its own private lock which is negotiated by the "wave your hand" or "honk your horn" method. Fortunately, the lock master saw us coming so we only had to wave. The drop is only about a foot so you lock through really fast.

The Roland and Mary Martin Marina at Clewiston is very nice. The fuel dock is easy to get to (if you are the only one there at least, it's in a tight channel). The marina shop has a good selection of goods and tee shirts and very nice rest rooms. They even gave us free guava turnovers as we left.

Leaving Clewiston at about 11am, we set out to cross Lake Okeechobee. The breeze, blowing 8 to 13 knots out of the northeast, was directly on our nose which really compromised our speed. In no wind and flat water, Jascat can motor up to 6 knots at the long range cruise power setting, 2650 rpm. Crossing Lake Okeechobee against the breeze and chop, we were lucky to see 5.5 knots and most of the time were down around 5 knots. The crossing is only about 20 nm, however, so we got over to the Port Mayaca Lock by mid afternoon and back into the smooth water of the canal.

From there, we motored on to the Indian Town Marina for another night at the dock. This marina is another prime stop with good rest rooms, showers and laundry, and an easy side tie transient dock. It looked like an excellent place to store a boat as well.

The third day, this past Saturday, had us making the 25 mile run on into Stuart. We passed up the new Stuart mooring field and went on around to the Manatee Pocket where we anchored at 2:30 in the afternoon completing our crossing of the Okeechobee Waterway.

The reason we have come into the Manatee Pocket, besides that it is an excellent anchorage, is that it is one of the bigger boating centers in Florida with numerous marinas, boat yards and dealers. We hope that it will be a good place to sell Jascat.

Today, Sunday, we ate lunch at Shrimpers, one of the many fine seafood restaurants around the Pocket, and then took a dinghy tour of the marinas looking for a good slip for Jascat. We saw several candidates and so tomorrow we'll be checking them out.