I’m playing catch-up here. I haven't been feeling good and not didn’t get on the computer.
We had a beautiful sunrise. As you can see….we are underway very early. Tide is in our favor.
The water is getting more beautiful as we near the Port St Lucie Inlet.
We are in the Okeechobee Waterway. Been thru our first lock. 5 more to go before we reach the West Coast (Florida), and into the Gulf. These are much easier than the locks on the Tenn-Tom Waterway. They hand you two lines…one for someone on the bow and one for the stern. You just keep pulling line in as you go up. On the Tenn-Tom, you had to hook a floating ballard built into the wall, with your own line and then fend off fore and aft, and it can be a rough ride with water pouring in.
As we were leaving the lock…Larry’s boat started overheating. So we pulled close to shore and rafted head to tail with both anchors down, to keep us out of the channel.
Larry and Jim would work on it…start it…work on it some more…etc. Changed the impeller and cleaned things out…still overheated. They quit for the night and Larry was up early working on it this morning.
Larry called Indian Town Marina to see if they had slips and rental cars available in the area, in case we need to go get the trucks and trailers to haul home. While on the phone, the mechanic suggested he may have picked up some trash in the lock, to run it in reverse for a few minutes…sometimes it will come loose. We had been towing him so he tossed me the line and gave it a try….guess it worked…it’s not overheating any more.
We made it to Indian Town Marina and are tied up for the night.
The couple with the sailboat that had swamped it’s dingy are here. They entered the lock right behind us. Jim was able to chat with them while the lock was filling. They had been having some problems with their diesel engine, but sounded like it may have been solved.
Jim did the laundry, Diane made supper….and I stayed aboard so as not to give anyone else my germs. I am feeling better, but not over it, yet.
We filled our water tank and jugs. I took a nice long hot shower, aboard, then we topped it off again. We’re ready to leave early in the morning.
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