Our early Saturday morning departure from the Roland Martin's Marina at Clewiston came with a bit of a surprise. We were departing right at the start of a fishing tournament. Close to a hundred high speed outboard fishing boats were either departing the marina or launching on the Okeechobee Canal just outside the Clewiston Lock. As you can see in the photo below, they were buzzing around (slowly) like a bunch of bees. A few toots of the horn happily resulted in them giving us room to exit the lock and turn west on the canal.
 |
Guided Discovery at sunrise in the Clewiston Lock approaching fishing boats
massing for the start of a tournament
Note: We need to turn to port upon exiting the lock |
Explanatory Note: The Clewiston Lock connects the Clewiston Canal to the Okeechobee Waterway. This lock remains open and unattended when water levels do not pose a flood threat.
 |
| Clewiston Lock looking south from Lake Okeechobee |
 |
| Fishing boats launching along the canal as we head west toward Captiva |
The destination for today was an 84 NM run to the South Seas Resort on Captiva Island where I planned to have dinner with my good friends Jerry and Cathy Swerdlick.
Considering that we had three locks and several bridges along this route, the question was whether we could make to Captiva before the light failed at Civil Twilight (6:03 PM). Again I relied on my log from last November to assess the feasibility. My calculations showed that at 1400 RPM, our normal cruise, we would arrive at 6:15 PM, assuming that delays at the locks and bridges averaged out the same as last year. I set up the chart below at 8:07 AM to gauge whether we were on track.
| TIME |
TARGET |
ETA |
|
Start Time |
8:07 |
| 5:23 |
Clear of Franklin
Lock |
13:30 |
| 1:26 |
Clear of Edison
Bridge |
14:56 |
| 3:19 |
Arrive South Seas |
18:15 |
By changing our speed from 8.4 knots at 1400 RPM to 8.7 at 1500 we would pick up .3 knots per hour or approximately 3.6 NM over the 12 hour period. While seemingly insignificant, 3.6 NM translates into just short of a 30 minute time saving over 12 hours and therefore got us in before the end of civil twilight. Note: My back-up plan was to stop in Fort Myers if we fell behind our ETAs.
 |
| Skip Roper and Guy Aries as we cruise along the Okeechobee Canal |
The chart below, which adds Actual Time of Arrival (ATA), showed that at the Franklin Bridge and Edison Bridge that we were running ahead of schedule.
| TIME |
TARGET |
ETA |
ATA |
|
Start Time |
8:07 |
|
| 5:23 |
Clear of Franklin
Lock |
13:30 |
13:08 |
| 1:26 |
Clear of Edison
Bridge |
14:56 |
14:29 |
| 3:19 |
Arrive South Seas |
18:15 |
17:48 |
 |
| Ariel view of the Franklin Lock |
 |
| Skip on the bow as we approach the Franklin Lock at 12:52 PM |
 |
| Dolphins cavorting on the starboard side |
We arrived at South Seas Resort at 5:48 which was just slightly after sunset. Bottom line. Plenty of light.
 |
| Captive Island as the sun sets |
 |
| South Seas tour boat just outside of South Seas Resort just after sunset |
Shortly after arrival we were joined by Jerry and Cathy Swerdlick, my two oldest friends. Together with the crew we enjoyed a bottle of Mount Veeder 2012 Cabernet Savingnon before adjoring to dinner.
 |
| Jerry, Cathy, guy and Skip at South Seas Resort |
 |
| Jerry and Cathy arranging our table at Dock Fords |
Regarding the "Changing Culture" title of the article. Clewiston Florida has a population 7,143. The median income is $51,377 and the median home value is $123,000.
Captiva Florida, population 583, has a median income of $169,130 and houses South Seas Resort. It's like going to another world.
Clewiston to Captiva Data
> Leg Distance: 83.9 NM
> Total Distance: 1,362 NM (1,566 statute miles)
> Time Enroute: 11.7 hours
> Average Speed: 7.4 kts
> Fuel Used: 92 gallons
Written by Les.
No comments:
Post a Comment