Port #53: Stuart, FL...An Unplanned Stop

Great Loop II Date: 04/13/2015

Day #255 (Monday): 82.8 miles (3421 total miles)

Locks: 3 (29 total locks)

Bridges: 2 (3 total bridges)

Port #53: Stuart, FL

Marina: River Forest Yacht Center

The alarm clock went off at 4:45AM.  The night had been quiet but hot and muggy.  Luckily I had a battery operated fan I’d bought for Loop #1.  It helped cool us a little affording us some sleep.

We were off the free dock by 6:50AM and at the Ortona Lock by 7:30AM.  The rural setting continued with some beautiful houses mixed in along the way.

Sunrise at LaBelle

Our next lock, the Moore Haven Lock, was just before entering Lake Okeechobee.  There was some canal left to navigate before the lake opened up to us.  Once in the lake, the winds were stiff out of the southeast making our ride a little choppy.

Entering Lake Okeechobee

I had mentioned to Todd the next lock had some repairs being done to it by divers.  He had forgotten with all the other planning that went into the trip ahead as well as taking care of homeland matters that would be left behind for at least a month.  I called the lockmaster at the Mayaca Lock on the northeast side of ‘Lake O’, hoping for no repair work.  Unfortunately, he told be the lock was closed until 4PM.

We slowed OB’s speed but still came upon the lock with more than 2 hours to wait.  The winds had built and the lake was becoming very choppy.  We decided to try to tie off one of the tow pilings (dolphins).  Because of their very large size, it seemed tying off the bow anchor-style would give us more comfort.  The dolphins were too far apart to tie bow and stern.

It became hard to control the boat.  The line passed over the bow pulpit and broke off the top of our new navigation light.  We untied from the dolphin and spent the rest of the time going around in circles waiting for the lock to open.

By the time the divers were clear of the lock, 3 boats had gathered on the East side of the lock and 5 boats were on our side of the lock (the West side).  We’d all be bouncing around for over 2 hours.  Of course, as luck would have it, the lockmaster brought the boats on the other side of the lock through first.  So we danced around a little longer!

The Mayaca Lock on the east side of Lake O.  The dolphin we were tied to is at the right.  We were tied much like the sailboat in the picture but it didn't work well.

Because of the delay, we couldn’t make the last lock in the waterway system.  We stopped at a marina near the lock.  We met two other Looper boats, one of which had just come back from the Bahamas.  It was nice to be where we could turn on our air conditioners and take soothing showers before going to bed.

River Forest Marina.

OB slip for the night.