1.10.12

Indiantown Marina was our dockage for the night. It’s on the Okeechobee Waterway. E of Lake Okeechobee.

A lot of people keep their boats in storage during the summer…come down…put them in the water and either hang out around the marina or do the small loop down to the Keys or the Bahamas, and other places S.

It has a nice laundry, TV room and computer access. Cooks outs and a nice place just to hang out in.

We found it a bit pricey….but there also weren’t a lot of slips available. Pricey to us may be reasonable to others. It really wasn’t too bad. Anchoring or mooring is more to our taste, and purse size.

Here we are…docked behind the palms.

According to Wikipedia.com , Lake Okeechobee  is the largest freshwater lake in Florida and the second largest contained entirely in the lower 48 states. It’s average depth is only 9 ft. and makes it a tough lake to cross in bad weather.

Today was beautiful….we started out doing the “rim route” but decided to cut across and get back to the channel. Here’s A Dollar More…

We attempted to make this crossing a few years ago and had to turn back…so did many bigger boats. We waited 3 days and the wind never let up.

Once across the lake we were back in the rim route. There is a nice section here where you can drive your vehicle, park and picnic or fish along the canal.

We found a spot to anchor for the night. This is looking into a channel for fishing boat access to the lake. Don’t think we’ll try it…but gives us a spot to get out of the main channel.

We’ll be back in the waterway tomorrow. Glad we got across today….high winds and rain forecast for tomorrow. 

Feeling much better today….still have the sneezes and coughs but over-all feeling is a whole lot better.

 

Grounding score update

For those of you who are interested, or like to keep score….Larry is in the lead again…..3-2.

As we were leaving Vero Beach, he somehow strayed out of the channel….and now we know what “hard aground” really means. This wasn’t an easy pull off.

Tow Boat US came by to see if he was needed but we told him we were going to give it a try.  Larry had his dingy down and was rowing his anchor out to “kedge” off.  You drop your anchor as far from the boat as you can…hopefully in deeper water and pull yourself off. It didn’t work. While he was talking to the Tow Boat guy his dingy drifted away and Jim went on a retrieval mission.

The small white thing in the lower R corner is a float cushion. We had tied all the long lines we had together and Jim motored as close to Larry as he could. When he ran out of line he tied the end to a float cushion and headed over to get Larry’s line. That is what he is getting from the back of the boat. He used his stern anchor rode and all long line...and believe me….he has quite a few. We couldn’t get any where  near him the water was so shallow.

Jim figures we had over 900 ft. of line out.

Tow Boat motored around and found the deepest water and we tried to get Larry dragged into it.  Larry even got in the water and walked around looking for as much depth as he could find. We don’t have a water temp gauge on our boat but I believe it had been in the mid to high 60’s….that is cold.

I think the saying on the ICW is “It’s now if you will run aground…but when.”

Tow Boat hung around and gave as much advice as he could, even though it looked like we were going to get the job done.

As we were making a final try…..a big boat was headed up the channel….with a nice big wake. The Tow Boat Captain yelled over to let the wake help us. As soon as the wake started lifting A Dollar More up and down we were giving it the fuel and off it came. It was nice of the captain to give us advice even though he wasn’t going to  get the job of towing A Dollar More off the bar. We thanked him and continued on our way.

We had to stop a ways down the channel to return Larry’s lines. He didn’t have anything to load the dingy on the back with. Once that was taken care of we were off again.

I post these things…because they are a part of boating, especially on the ICW.  Most people don’t like to admit they run aground, but there are a lot of new boaters out there that need to understand some of the things that are involved or can go wrong when on the water.  If we can help someone else not make a mistake that we’ve made…then it’s worth it.  No boat damage…no expensive towing fees…so all in all it was just a few hours out of our day on the water….a lot of work and  perhaps a little frustration. So now..you sit back and laugh at it and hope you don’t make the same mistake again.

I posted this out of sequence because I always like to ask Larry’s permission. When I did….he just laughed and said “go ahead”. Guess he feels the same way we do.

Even though, now, we are having some chuckles with him about it…the thought is always in the back of minds…the next laugh could be on us.

1.7.12

Dinner at Waldo’s, was, to put it mildly….COLD.  We opted to eat out on the deck so we could see the ocean. The food was good and priced right. The restaurant is actually in “The Driftwood Motel”….you have to drive into the rear. The sky was a gorgeous sky-blue-pink with a nice full moon. I had on a jacket to match Jim’s and I was still cold.

I have been coughing and sneezing …..so dinner outside probably wasn’t one of my best choices….but it definitely was beautiful. We had just decided to go back inside when the food arrived.

Jim was up around 0530 this morning. He and Larry are going to return the rental car. Before they do that they’ll see if they can find an Auto Zone for the LEDs. We were so cold last night we just headed home.

This is the marina at sunrise.

I spotted a couple of dolphins working along the shoreline and was trying to get pictures when this beauty was pulling out. I could definitely live here….but I think I know who would get to varnish the masts. So many of the boats in here belong to long distance voyagers….several were up before the sun came up…getting the boats cleaned up with mops and stowing everything away…getting “ship-shaped” as they put it. When you travel the ICW, you are always thinking of how the tide is going to help you…if it means being ready as soon as you can see…then you are. Nothing like being retired and sleeping in…

Jim was able to set up the extended run with the new tank. We wanted to try it out and he wanted me to be warm so we let it run. I had picked up a small slow cooker and was trying Diane’s recipe for ribs, they needed to cook all night.

Well, I’m paying for my mistake of sitting outside, I am worse today. I manage to get a really bad cold about once every 3 years and I was due…I spent most of the day in bed….what a luxury….I normally don’t sleep all night…let alone all day.

I was up long enough to get rafted up at the anchorage for the night….fix supper and clean up….then back to bed. The ribs were good…but not as good as Diane’s. I’ll have to keep trying.

A beautiful sunset.

 

 

1.6.12

We had so many stops to make, in town, we decided to rent a car. If we were going to be here for a few days, we could use the bus line. But there were so many changes that had to be made it would have taken all day……so we rented a car.

Jim and I went in early so he could shower. When we got to the dingy dock a van pulled up and dropped of a young lady. She had taken her husband to the hospital the day before by rescue boat and her dingy was at their boat. Larry was just pulling in so he agreed to give her a ride over. I loaned her my jacket as she was in a sleeveless blouse and it was cold.  Things had happened so fast yesterday, that she hadn’t thought of either thing.

Saw her later and he was doing well….should be out in another day. Our good deed for the day.

Our car showed up…and we did all of our running around. Jim bought another tank for extended run with the generator…now we should be able to run it all night if needed for the heater.

He also replaced our broken anchor light.

We still have one more stop….Auto Zone for LED lights to read by. Larry has some in his cockpit and they are perfect. Hope we can find one on our way to supper tonight. The couple we talked to yesterday recommended a restaurant on the ocean front. Waldo’s. Said they have good food and reasonable prices. Might try it.

This is the view looking back…you can see the mooring balls.

This is looking forward….I think we are the smallest boats in here.