MARCH 23, 2009 “ST.LUCIE LOCK”

The morning of Monday, March 23, dawned as the last day of our winter cruising. We had spent the last few days just chillin’ in the Sunset Bay mooring field in Stuart, Florida, near the confluence of the ICW and the St. Lucie River. It’s now time to head upriver and inland toward Lake Okeechobee on our final leg to Indiantown Marina, Summer Breeze’s home for hurricane season. It’s only about 30 miles inland; it’s the first section of the long Okeechobee Waterway which cuts Florida completely in half. You can enter from the Atlantic on the east or from the Gulf of Mexico on the west heading up actual rivers, then you end up in a series of locks and canals on both sides of Lake Okeechobee. We’ve done its entire length before; it normally takes about 3 days with lots of gators watching us. We’ll do it next winter again, since we’re hoping to head to the Gulf coast and the Everglades next season rather than go back to the Bahamas again. It’s kinda neat going through the locks, so I thought we’d document the St. Lucie lock with a few consecutive photos. We followed another sailboat through the locking process, so that helped with what is normally a difficult picture-taking time. We have our hands full trying not to bang the boat around in the locks while handling the ever changing dock lines. The power of the water swirling into and out of the lock is pretty impressive . . . just ask the manatees that join us in them occasionally. I was disappointed that we didn’t have one locked in there with us this time, maybe next fall.
Anyhow, the pics above are approaching, locking, and leaving.