Thursday, February 28, 2013 – Moore Haven to Indiantown Marina (St. Lucie Canal):

            We didn’t have a very good night last night.

            First – there was the incident with the cat (yeah, I know – another one – well, it’s a cat).  This is a complicated story, but I’ll try and make it somewhat concise.  Usually after we stop for the night, Bob reads the engine hours for his maintenance log.  You have to read the engine hours with the engines running.  Kitty Cat seems to know when we have stopped for the night – maybe because we have turned the engines off and everything gets relatively quiet – I don’t know.  Last night, Bob forgot to check the engine hours before he turned off the engines – probably because it was starting to rain, and we were in a hurry to get everything closed up.  So he decided to check the engine hours long after we had turned the engines off for the night.  We had actually finished dinner and were playing cards when he got this brilliant idea to check them NOW instead of waiting till the morning when we would naturally turn the engines on to leave.  Well, Miss Lucy happened to be sitting right next to the hatch of the engine room when the “buzzers” sounded.  Not to be too gross, but this literally scared the @#$% right out of her as her little feet scrabbled on the floor to get away from the “buzzer monster.”  Unfortunately, we didn’t realize this until sometime later in the evening when we stepped in it.  We now have a new rule – no turning on the engines until two-legged and four-legged critters are prepared.  So that was the start of the “Sleepless in Moore Haven” night.

            After the cat incident, we couldn’t sleep, so we got up and decided to play cards.  That’s usually a calming activity, and sleep comes pretty easy after that.  Nope – not this night.  Now everyone who has read this “blog” knows that I love the sound of trains in the middle of the night.  However, at Moore Haven there is a train trestle right past the marina.  As a matter of fact, we have to go under it on our way to the Moore Haven Lock in the morning.  More on this later…

            There is nothing remotely distant or romantically imaginative about the trains that run in the middle of the night here.  Nope – there is this ear-splitting discordant horn like shrieking whistle that is right in your face and could possibly wake the dead as they rumble through at all hours.  Besides the train, there is the U.S. 27 bridge that is also right next to the marina, and this must be a favorite (or maybe only) route for the truckers driving their semi’s with their tandem trailers who roared by all night long.

            Bob thought this was a great marina (I think it has something to do with the cost of only $1.00 a foot), but, I don’t know why, I just couldn’t sleep.

            In the morning, the sky was gray but no rain.  Again, we have a relatively long way to go today plus we cross back over Lake Okeechobee again, but the weather is not supposed to be too bad.  We have a quick breakfast and start getting ready to go.  Miss Lucy has already headed for the covers.  We are tied up between two other boats, and I am thankful that there is no wind and the water is flat as a pancake for the moment.  We don’t have any trouble getting away from the marina.  As we leave we have to drive through a sea of water hyacinths.  We don’t know why more of this stuff doesn’t get tangled up in the propeller’s of boats.  Bob calls it “water kudzu.”  It’s pretty though.

            So after we leave the marina we have to go through the Moore Haven Railroad Bridge, which is usually open.  Now I really don’t understand why it’s open as the trains seem to run constantly – at least last night they did.  You all know how I feel about going through open railroad bridges especially if you read the “blog” yesterday.  So Bob is meandering up to the bridge (and I like meander speed – it’s my favorite), but when you approach railroad bridges, especially open ones, I call it dawdling.  So I am making my case for not “dawdling” through the bridge, and Bob says to me, “Stop worrying about every little thing.”  Well, I guess he didn’t sleep as well as I thought he did last night, either!  Well, excuse me, but he has known I worry about every little thing for about 20 years, and my worrying has often kept us out of a jam.  So there.  I just don’t feel like there should be enough time to have a snack and a drink while you are going through a raised bridge (especially knowing the train schedule in Moore Haven.) Well, needless to say, we got through the bridge just fine, and it only took about thirty seconds, and probably the train engineers’ “tour of duty” was up and they were having breakfast somewhere anyway.

            So now we move on to the Moore Haven Lock, and again drive through another sea of water hyacinths.  We get in the lock right away with no waiting, and the lock only goes up about 3’, and out we go again with no trouble at all, and we are now in the rim route of Lake Okeechobee. 

Tending the lines in the lock

The Moore Haven Lock opening

  It’s 9:00 a.m., and we seem to be making good time already.  The water is totally calm in here, but again, the landscape looks prehistoric. 

View along the rim route of the lake

  It is 13 miles to Clewiston where we turn left and head out into the Lake.  The temperature is getting chillier and the wind is picking up, and the sky is steel gray – we take turns driving and putting on warmer clothes and a jacket.  Once in the Lake, I don’t know what’s happened to our nice weather, but the waves are about 3’ and it’s cold – the boat is getting a real wash down, and the spray from the waves is actually hitting the flybridge.  I started singing the lyrics to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, but Bob just frowned at me, so I shut up.  I was glad I had retrieved some crackers when I went down below to get warmer clothes because that was going to be lunch!  I was getting concerned about what we would do when we got across and had to get into the Port Mayaca Lock, as the Waterway Guide indicated that it could be rough for eastbound boats to tie up in the lock, but lo and behold! once we got most of the way across, the skies cleared up, it got sunny again, and the water became nice and calm, and the best yet – the lock was open, and when I called the lock tender on the radio, he said just come right on through!! 

            We are back again in the St. Lucie Canal, and pretty soon we are ditching jackets, and I can go down and make lunch.

In the St. Lucie Canal

            We had a flock of seagulls follow us all the way across the Lake, chirping and chatting with each other the whole way in our slip stream, but as soon as we got to the lock, they flew off and left us.

            So now the cat does another strange thing.  As I have previously stated, she never comes out from under the covers of the bed until we tie up in the evening and turn off the engines.  But of all the strange things, when I went down to fix lunch, she came out, and meowed for her lunch.  Now this is really bizarre because the engine noise is really loud in the forward head where she eats, but it didn’t seem to bother her at all this afternoon.  I really can’t figure her out.  I would love to know what she is thinking, and what kitty cat memories she is storing in her little prehistoric brain, and wonder if she can retrieve them and think about her adventures.  She has been very friendly today, so maybe she is trying to apologize for her little “accident” yesterday. 

            The weather in the St. Lucie Canal is back to summertime again – clear blue skies and warm.  We open all the curtains on the flybridge and have lunch as we drive down the canal toward Indiantown Marina.  At one point, Bob says, “Look – there’s an alligator!”  But when I go for my camera, he changes his mind, and says it was just a duck.   Well, sure – ducks, alligators – they look alike don’t they?  (I know he didn’t sleep any better than I did last night!)

One of the birds "showing off"

            We go through the Indiantown Railway Bridge with no trouble, but guess what – they have a traffic light that is clearly visible.  What genius!  Why don’t they all come with a traffic light?   We got to the marina and were tied up by 2:30 p.m. – a perfect time.  The engines are off, and the cat is happy.  We plan to spend tomorrow here and then tackle the St. Lucie Lock (the last one until we get back to Virginia!!) and the Indian Street Bridge, which has closed the waterway from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. every day until March 8 due to construction.

            It’s a beautiful evening right now, and I think we deserve that glass of cold wine after today!