Lake Okeechobee
So we spent an extra day in Stuart, beyond our planned departure, due to inclement weather. Rained all day on and off. A quiet day spent reading, and crocheting. I have 6 baby hats done and one pair of booties, for Jenn and her best friend Melissa, who just had a baby girl. I will post pictures at www.picasaweb.google.com/bcaldoc.
Sunday morning we headed off down the Okeechobee waterway. Nice weather, sunny and warm, close to 30 degrees C. Pleasant trip, through a few bridges and one lock. Lots of birds to watch. More engine troubles. We were fine for the first 6 hours, then it started cutting out again. Worse this time. It seems to run better at lower rpms, so we putted into the marina at Pahokee around 4:30. This marina used to be a Loggerhead, but apparently that went broke and it was closed for one year. Just reopened Jan 15, now called Lake Okeechobee resort. No one answered my hail so we just tied up at a convenient dock. A man on the dock came up to speak to us. He lives there on a houseboat. It turns out he will be running the marina soon. Nice friendly guy, name of Mark Bramblett. Previously a small engine mechanic, who in the past year, qualified as a marine diesel mechanic and boat captain! Can you believe our luck! So he pulls out his tools and offers to fix our engine trouble, before he departs as he was just about to do, for Tampa. No other mechanics in town.
Sammy promptly hops off the boat and pees on his tool caddy. I could not believe he did that. I have never seen him do something like that. And we need this guy! No problem says Mark, dog pee doesn’t bother me, but I cleaned his caddy and tools for him before taking the dogs for a walk. Half an hour later, our new lift pump is installed and hopefully that solves the problem. Then he tells us he charges as much as we think it was worth! How about priceless?
The marina charged us $25 plus $4.50 for power. Never have we stayed anywhere cheaper. Nice floating docks too, huge restaurant and facilities, mostly closed still. The power stations have strange plugs, not compatible with ours, but someone had left a cord attached and we were able to plug into that and get power. Free city water. When they get this up and running it should be a great place. We certainly can recommend the marina manager.
Onward around Lake Okeechobee tomorrow, trying the rim route this year. Tom plans to fish along the way. Great bass fishing area and that is his speciality.

Clewiston
Well, the engine problem is not fixed, no improvement, seems worse. Goes fine for a few hours then starts cutting out. Better after sitting for awhile. We limped into Clewiston and are tied up at Roland Martin’s marina. Expensive but good internet and the restaurant is supposed to be good. We are going out tonight, we deserve a treat, the day was difficult. Tom did manage a bit of fishing and brought home a small bass, but we were almost completely focused on trying various things to fix the engine problem. Had to anchor more than once when we had no engine power. Lots of birds on the waterway, I did get a few pics.
It seems every year we have to go through some horrible problem with the boat before we get to relax and enjoy our vacation. Wish we could skip that part. Still, we are seeing things and places we could not see except on a boat. Tom says owning and running a small plane was the same, always some crisis. Same benefit, unforgettable experiences, worse possible outcomes. Like the problem he had with the landing gear on one of his planes. It refused to come down on two occasions, necessitating a one wheel, one wing landing on ice one time, on grass the second time. Death was a distinct possibility. At least we are not in danger of dying!