After crossing Lake Okeechobee (the 2nd largest natural fresh water lake in North America), we stayed a couple of days in the marina provided by the Corps of Engineers.These spots are tiny, with room for only a half dozen boats or so, and adjoin campgrounds full of RVs.

Here’s Dory on the right, and Sea Otter II on the left, with George and Jackie on deck.

We reached St. Petersburg April 7th, and stopped to wait out high winds and thunderstorms before continuing. The forecast was for several days of this. Because of the long stretches of open water ahead, with no place to duck in out of bad weather, we had to wait for a several day break between cold fronts and associated winds and waves. That’s about normal for this time of year, but… In case you wondered, boating is mostly waiting for weather!)

4/19, and still in St. Petersburg. As you can see, it’s a pleasant anchorage, and the weather for being a tourist is spectacular. Someday, the waves in the Gulf will calm down, and we’ll move on…

Change of plans!

We’d planned to go to New Orleans and then to head up the Tennessee-Tombigbee River at Mobile Alabama, inland for about 400-500 miles to the Kentucky Lakes, and on to Nashville when we left Florida, but the traditional “March winds” kept blowing throughout April, and are forecast to continue well into May. We needed calm winds for an extended period in order to cross some 300 miles of the Gulf of Mexico (at 6-7 miles an hour). Also, the heavy snowstorms in the winter resulted in record amounts of flood waters being sent down the rivers, meaning we’d have to fight our way up the rivers.

Well, in waiting for calm winds we’ve now used up all of the time we’d hoped to spend visiting New Orleans and up the rivers. We’d get to our destination, and then have to immediately turn around and head back.

So, we’ve decided to change plans, and head across Florida via Lake Okeechobee, then up the east coast into the Chesapeake, probably with a stop in Washington DC.

These plans will change, no doubt, but the Gulf and the rivers are out for this year.

In early March, we left Islamorada and headed up to the west coast of Florida. Shallow water near land meant that we were far off the coast much of the time. We anchored in the Little Shark River on the edge of the Everglades the first night headed north, and then anchored behind an island a few miles from Everglades City the second night. Upon reaching Marco Island, we anchored near the city and stopped for a few days, for shopping and for a few maintenance items before continuing to Naples.

Weather (mostly a choppy Gulf of Mexico) kept us in Naples for about a week, but we finally found a break in the weather and moved to Cape Coral, where we met up with friends from North Carolina we’d met earlier in our cruising. We anchored in a small basin near a city park and several homes. Here’s a sunrise shot of the other boats at anchor at Bimini Basin, in Cape Coral FL, and a photo from space of the same area.

A week of windy weather kept us in Cape Coral. The forecast looks good for April 2nd or so to continue north.

By the way, life isn’t all boring when we get stuck. The satellite image shows the basin we are anchored in. We’re among 3 other boats, anchored a few hundred feet apart in the middle of the basin. We’ve gotten together frequently.

At the top/north of the basin you can see a little canal. We take our dinghies to that canal and tie up along the side, which is part of a city park. (The park administration thoughtfully provides cleats for our dinghies.) From there, it’s a short walk to a grocery store, a great breakfast place, a coin laundry, and a local bar and grill with a nice “happy hour”.

A local resident invited the 8 of us (on 4 boats) to visit and have cocktails, and a few days later drove some of us to the local farmers’ market.

Also, there is an extensive bus system, and we can get just about anywhere within 20 miles or so vis the busses.

We went on to Boca Grande when the weather finally cleared up. This little island has a tiny anchorage. Unlike most, where we dropped the anchor well away from other boats, here we had to drop anchor and then back up to the mangroves, where we tied the stern to keep it from swinging into adjacent boats.

After a night at Boca Grande, we went to Sarasota. A beautiful city, but very rocky anchorage, from boats that didn’t bother to slow down going to and from the marina as they went past the anchored boats.

We left Miami Beach after wandering down to the South Beach area and taking a photo or two of a sand castle there. (Photos of the sunbathers do not belong in a family journal such as this.)

This sand castle is, the artist claims, made solely of beach sand and water, and took 2 weeks to complete. It is about 8-9 feet tall at the peak.

We left Miami, where we were anchored north of the city, and went to a protected anchorage called No Name Harbor, at the south tip of Biscayne Key. Although only a few miles from Miami (as you can see from this photo of Miami’s skyline from here), it’s almost impossible to detect much in the way of civilization here! Trails through a lush jungle wind through the area and parallel the beach.

Lots of boats headed to the Bahamas stop here. It’s a quick run from Miami, but only minutes from open ocean, so many boats will come to No Name Harbor once they have bought all the groceries they need and done whatever else they wanted to do in the USA. By getting here the day before they depart for the Bahamas, they cut a couple of hours off the crossing time.

When we arrived in mid-afternoon, there were dozens of boats already anchored, and more arriving. By dawn the next day, all but 3-4 had already departed for the southern islands of the Bahamas.

A few days later (2/28) we arrived at Key Largo. From there we motored to Islamorada, where we stayed for about a week waiting for mail. The beautiful weather made us think of those up north in the record snowfall areas, but somehow we were able to overcome our concerns.