Dec. 13 -16, 2017 - St. Lucie Lock, Lake Okeechobee, Franklin Lock

We left Stuart Wednesday at 9:20 for a quick 6 mile trip to our first of three anchorages, the St. Lucie Lock. We are now starting to move west.  We had a little wait at the lock (which raised us about 13 feet) and anchored on the other side of the lock at 11:30.  We took the dingy across the channel to walk around the RV park.  We met several boaters and RVers and enjoyed a little jam session with them late in the afternoon.

We left Lucie Lock around 8:10 for a beautiful day on the St. Lucie Canal heading to Lake Okeechobee.  There are two ways to cross Lake O - directly across (which we did earlier this year) and the southern rim route.  We were told by the Port Mayaca lockmaster that the rim route had a lot of debris and wasn't safe.  However, a boater heading east told us he had just come that way and it was great.  So we turned left out of the lock and headed south to our anchorage for the night at South Bay, the southern tip of Lake O.  That anchorage was beautiful and peaceful.  We passed only a few fishing boats and listened to the birds most of the afternoon.

Friday was a rather long, but beautiful day on the water.  Our travels took us around Lake O, into the Okeechobee Waterway, and then the Caloosahatchee River (which goes across Florida to the west side).  We went through two locks and had two bridge openings during our trip.  We docked at the Franklin Lock (marina and campground) around 4:00.  The park was so beautiful we decided to stay two nights.  Both of the camp hosts came over for a visit.  One couple had traveled a lot of the area we traveled this summer - only they were in their RV.  They homeschool their 6th grade daughter and were very interesting to talk to. Saturday was chore and relaxation day.  The park was very peaceful and we enjoyed our day.

This guy was having a little trouble grabbing his lines

Looking back at the St. Lucie Lock and Dam

Our anchorage across from the park

A fun jam session

Looking back at the St. Lucie RV park

The beautiful St. Lucie Canal

A little blurry, but that's an eagle surveying his world

The Port Mayaca lock heading into Lake Okeechobee

There's a reason it's called the "rim route" - just just follow the lake

This is the last remaining manually operated bridge opening in

Florida - just to the left on the bridge you can see the bridge tender

manually opening the gate for us

Entering our anchorage for the night

Beautiful sunset over Lake O

A beautiful, calm morning

Traveling west on the Okeechobee Waterway

Dale and Bev - one of the two camp host couples

Sunset over the Franklin Lock

and a beautiful sunrise

Looking back at the Franklin Dam

The boat docks and some of the camp areas

It was like he was posing for me

Beautiful house I passed on my afternoon walk

And a horse farm