Trip Segments:
- 5/1: Sarasota to Fort Myers (Calusa Jack Marina)
- 5/2: Fort Myers to Labelle/Stuart??? Florida (River Forest Yachting Center)
Murphy's Law, if any thing can go wrong it will, essentially holds that any error you make with a calculation is likely to work against you. Well not today.
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Photo Art: A wreck along the Okeechobee Waterway
This is what happens when things go VERY wrong |
This morning, Tom Frakie informed me that the Moore Haven Lock was less than an hour away. I promptly informed him that he was wrong and looked to my Excel Worksheet to prove my point. It showed 4.6 hours from the Ortona Lock that we had just exited. He then directed my attention to the chart plotter where he pointed out that we were within 12 NM of Moore Haven. Oops. Calculation error. I had divided the cumulative miles (46.3 NM) by 8.4 knots instead of the actual distance (14 NM). 4 hours and 36 minutes instantly became 1 hour and 42 minutes. Now I'm almost three hours ahead of schedule.
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| Sunrise as we approach the Franklin Lock |
Now the story gets even better. Adjusting the time to Moore Haven meant that we would arrive at Clewiston at 2:00 PM rather than 5:00 PM. The next lock, Mayaka, at the east end of Lake Okeechobee closes at 5:00 PM. The time from Clewiston to Mayaka is 2:42 minutes. Bottom line. We can now make it to the lock before it closes. Consulting Active Captain, an AMAZING website for cruisers that shows the location of marinas (and just about anything else of importance to a mariner), showed a marina that could handle a boat of our size just 15 NM (i.e., just over two hours) from the Mayaka Lock and they had available space. Talk about having your cake and eating it too. We would get into the River Forest Yachting Center at 7:00 PM. Yes, I know it's a 12 hour day considering that we departed the Calusa Jack Marina this morning at 6:43 AM.
There's even more good news. But first I want to share our progress and a few adventures along the way.
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| The Crew. Tom, Les and Wylie |
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| Official Departure Photo. Wylie, Connie, Diana, Tom and kodi |
We departed Marina Jack on Sunday morning just 8 minutes later than our planned 7:00 AM departure time. Thank you Diana and crew. 35 minutes later we had our first adventure at Sarasota Big Pass where we traveled the one mile very narrow and very shallow route through the shoals recommended by the Sarasota Yacht Club (which I had verified using the GPS and Sonar in the dingy three days earlier). Success. The closest we came to the bottom was 3.5 feet. Recall that this route comes within 300 feet of where we had a soft grounding last November. We were off to a good start.
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| Sarasota Big Pass Recommended Route |
Six hours later we approach Redfish Pass, our second area requiring "local knowledge." I had checked with Tow Boat US to get their "local knowledge" and was told the pass was well marked and passable. I also had the benefit of traversing the pass last November and had bread crumbs (officially know by Garmin as tracks) on the chartplotter showing the course we had traveled. Based on the available data, the course was to take G1 to port and R4 to starboard. As we slowly followed our track from last November we found G1 missing and soon got a shallow water alarm. We immediately stopped, assessed and backtracked to deeper water. Turns out that in slightly less than 6 months the shoaling had encroached further south. As we headed west we spotted G1 approximately 1/3rd of a mile further south. Danger averted.
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Redfish Pass
Notice the shallow water just north and west (port astern) of the boat |
We passed the rather posh South Seas Resort on the north end of Captiva Island and intersected with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (ICW). Four and a half hours later at 7:00 PM we arrived at the Calusa Jack Marina, where we topped of the tanks, rinsed off the salt and spent the night.
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| Tom working hard |
Dinner at (9:00 PM): Chardonnay, cheese and crackers, caprice salad, grilled marinated tequila lime salmon with Herbes de Provence garlic potatoes and fresh strawberries with whipped cream followed by Cognac. Everybody was happy.
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| Wylie at the helm |
Data: Sarasota to Clewiston:
- Distance traveled: 89.2 NM
- Time en-route: 11:51 hours
- Fuel Used: 97 gallons this leg.
- Fuel Taken On: 306.24 gallons (last fueling early November at Clewiston)
- Fuel Price: $2.229/gal including tax
- Fuel Cost: $682.24
- Dockage: $83.48
Monday was a spectacular day. We had warm mild weather, piloted from the flybridge, traversed 3 bridges without having to wait more than 2 minutes and, most impressive, traversed a total of four locks, with no wait at Franklin, Ortona and Moorehaven and an open lock at Mayaka. Oh, and did I mention that the planned construction on Ortona Lock had not started.
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| Mayaka Lock open to through traffic |
Back to the bank error story. Being able to make Labelle on Monday evening meant that if we leave there at 7:00 AM we we would reach the Fort Pierce inlet at noon on Tuesday instead of 6:00 PM. That translated into 2 more saved hours (for a total of 5 hours). Why you ask is that important? The answer deals with the time required to reach Morehead City North Carolina, which is three days from the Fort Pierce Inlet. Morehead City Yacht Basin closes at 7:00 PM. Hence, with 574 NM to travel trying to make a 7;00 PM deadline is tight. With the five hours saved we have plenty of time to make our fueling (pit stop) and, weather at Cape Hatteras permitting, get back on the road.
Speaking of errors, I made a doozy. It turns out River Forest Yacht Center has two locations with the same name, one in Labelle on the WEST side of Okeechobee and one in Stuart on the east side. I booked the reservation at the WRONG location. Oops its 5:00 PM and we've cleared the Mayaka Lock and I discover MY ERROR. Murphy's Law. Did I mention it's 5:00 PM. The world of Okeechobee closes at 5:00 PM. Active Captain to the rescue. They list after hours phone numbers for both marinas. I was fortunate to reach John Helfich at the Labelle location and he made contact with his wife, Tracy, who runs the Stuart location. Fortunately they had space available in Stuart and the day was saved.
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| Guided Discovery docked at the River Forest Yacht Center - Stuart |
Side Note: I called the Indiantown Marina which 8 NM east of the Mayaka Lock and "begged" them for help. The person I talked to said "no room at the inn." A few minutes later we passed Indiantown and surprise, surprise, there was 55 feet of space at their launch ramp with a 45 foot sailboat tied close to shore (indicating plenty of depth). So we pulled in and with some assistance from some people from, of all places, Hull Massachusetts, where I spent my summers from age 5 to 20, tied up to the very nicely protected wall. No sooner were we tied off than Tracy called with the good news. Now we had a choice. Push on to River Forest Yacht Center, one hour further east or stay put. We chose the former as it secures one of the five hours already saved.
So, I very nice ending to a perfect day filled with errors. We beat Murphy.
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| Tom Frakie |
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| Wylie Crawford |
Data: Fort Myers to Stuat (River Forest Yacht Basin)
- Distance Traveled: 91.8 NM
- Cumulative Distance: 181.0 NM
- Time en-route: 12:54 hours
- Fuel Used: gallons this leg. 100.84 gallons
Bottom line: Prior planning prevents piss (sorry) poor performance. However, that is true only if it is accurate.
Written by Les
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