Phil, Carol and I departed Roland Martin's Marina at 7:01 AM. The sky was clear and the wind was out of the southwest at 15kts. Our location at Clewiston placed us, literally, at the start of a Route 1 lake crossing. The southwest wind promised a following sea and a dry ride.
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| Roland Martin's Marina |
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| Guided Discovery at the start of Route1 |
Our first "obstacle" was the Clewiston Lock, which while open due to current lake level is a bit narrow. A fisherman in a small bass boat was trolling the channel as we entered the lock. No big deal but a bit inconsiderate on his part.
The lock serves an important role especially in high water. Without the lock the town of 7,000 inhabitants would be flooded. Such was the case in August of 2013 when lake levels reached 15.78 feet during the rainy season. Likewise a drop of 3 feet would render the marina unusable for many of the larger boats.
The 22 NM lake crossing from Clewiston took just under three hours putting us at the Myaka Lock at 9;45 AM. The lock was open and we locked through in 19 minutes.
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| Two yachts entering Port Myaka Lock as we head east down the St Lucie Canal |
During the crossing we were overtaken by a 70 foot Hatteras named Social Director, which incidentally is Kodi's "official" title on our boat card. The captain courteously gave us a slow pass. Later as we approached the Port Myaka Lock we saw the remains of a shipwreck that is off the Route 1 by 300 yards. The wreck shows up on the Garmin chartplotter.
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| Social Director |
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| Shipwreck off Route 1 |
We had now traversed four of the five locks on the Okeechobee Waterway and all of our locking experiences had been quick and easy. The prompted me to talk about the many locks Diana and I have negotiated, which after clearing Port Myaka totaled 113. My point to Phil and Carol was that the locks on the Okeechobee were easy owing to small lifts (1 ft to 14 ft), low turbulence, hanging lines, friendly lockmasters who throw the lines to you and no commercial traffic. I then said one more easy lock at Port St. Lucie and we are finished with the locks. Carol comments that I may have jinxed myself by talking about the locking experience my optimism for the final lock.
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| Speaking of wrecks |
Carol's "jinx comment proved correct. Sure enough as we approached the St. Lucie Lock at 12:40 PM we observed a tug with one barge awaiting lockage. We called in to the lock master who informed us that the Summer Star had priority and that the wait would be 45 minutes. Ugh!
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| Tug Summer Star with one barge at the St. Lucie lock |
An hour and 8 minutes later we approached the lock. Oh well, Murphy's Law, "everything takes longer than you think." I turn the boat around and headed west for about a mile and then drifted back toward the lock, which we FINALLY entered at 1:48 PM. This lock dropped us 14 feet into the St. Lucie Canal. Again, quick, easy and done in 19 minutes. Is there really such a thing as a jinx?
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| Finally we get to ride |
The next two hours were relaxing as we cruised the St. Lucie Canal River arriving in Stuart at the Roosevelt Bridge at 3:05 PM. Remember Carol and the "jinx." Well, as we approached the Roosevelt Bridge was caught up with Summer Star, which almost go stuck at the railroad bridge. It seems that Summer Star was perfectly positioned to block our passage. Fortunately he made it but it was dicey there for a few seconds.
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| Another potential wreck at RR bridhe in Stuart |
At 4:03 PM we intersected with the Atlantic ICW (R240) at the St. Lucie Inlet and proceeded north in the wide well marked waterway. As we headed north the wind picked up gusting up to 40 knots from the west. No problem on open water but the wind could prove to be a problem docking later on (which it was not).
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| Carol reading |
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| Phil relaxed at the helm |
At 6:25 PM we entered the well marked channel to Harbortown Marina and five minutes later were tied up at their fuel dock.
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| Entering Harbortown Marina - That's a 65 Outer Reef, Quimby, at the end of the dock |
Statistics:
- Distance Today: 78.0 Nautical miles
- Fuel Used: 76.2 gallons of diesel
- Time Enroute: 11 hours and 36 minutes
- Total Distance: 218.7 nautical miles
- Total Engine Fuel Used: 210.5 gallons
- Total Generator Fuel Used: 32.4 gallons
- Fuel Added: 246.545 gallons
- Fuel Price: $3.13 per gallon
- Fuel Cost: $771.69
The first activity was taking on fuel. Since we had topped off at Marina Jack prior to this cruise, I now had had an opportunity to check the accuracy of the Cat engine monitors which had been reprogrammed to correct for fuel consumption discrepancy that showed us using considerably less fuel than what was consumed in actuality.
Explanatory Note: During the trip south in November, I noted that the amount of fuel added at Morehead City and Stuart were substantially higher than the amount of fuel consumed. The Cat engine monitors said we used 486 gallons. Based on that we needed to add 514 gallons. We actually added 635 gallons representing a 121 gallon or 25% discrepancy. The data from this run was particular useful as we ran at 1,400 RPM on flat water for the entire 597 nautical mile cruise and used only 5 hours of generator time. Caterpillar reprogrammed the ECU's using my data in combination with their standard fuel curve.
The preliminary results look good but are not conclusive due to the short distance (218 NM). Adding 32.4 gallons of generator fuel consumed based on 1.2 GPH for the 12KW and 1.7 GPH for the 16 KW for the hours appropriate to each generator, our total fuel consumed for the trip was 242.9 gallons. That's a difference of 3.6 gallons or 1.5%. That's the positive side. The reason for the uncertainty is the discrepancy on each tank, which was +12% of the port side and -5% on starboard.
Explanatory Note: The port engine and 12 KW generator run off the port 500 gallon tank. The starboard engine and the 16 KW generator run off the starboard tank.
Written by Les.
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