M/V Nearly Perfect: March 15, 2017 - Lake O to Vero Beach

We left Roland Martin's marina about 8:00 am for a chilly, bumpy ride across Lake Okeechobee. The ride wasn't that bad except one of the hooks holding Mr. Scooter came loose and he traveled at an angle the rest of the day. After about two hours, we were off the lake and into calm waters. The first lock we came to was open, the bridge at Indiantown (that had been broken and closed off and on the last week) was open, so we did not need to stop until we got to the St. Lucie Lock, our last lock on Lake O. One of the (faster) boats docked with us at Roland Martin's caught us at the lock and pulled up too close to the doors, so the lockmaster would not open the locks until he moved back. Lila Blue was anchored there so we just chatted with them for a few minutes while the guy decided to move back so the lock doors could open. Once through that lock, we had a great trip to Stuart. We found a little spot and anchored for the night. Since we didn't need to get to Vero until Friday, we spent Thursday anchored and enjoyed a nice, relaxing day, although a little rocky at times. On Friday, we pulled up our anchor around 8:00, finished the Okeechobee Waterway, and turned north on the Atlantic ICW to Vero Beach. This concluded the only part of travels that was new to us since we didn't cross the Okeechobee the year we did the loop. We pulled into Loggerhead Marina at about 3:00 where our friends Mark and Susan (the previous owners of our boat) live on their boat, Squivot. After we got settled, we had a few docktails and then went aboard Squivot for a good dinner. We'll spend the weekend here with Mark and Susan. (And Jack also spent some time getting Mr. Scooter secured again!)