We want to get on down the river so head out in the afternoon. Leaving Fort Myers on the Caloosahatchee River we make our way towards Lake Okeechobee. See the map below.
Lake Okeechobee is basically at the center of Florida. It is the largest lake in Florida and the second largest freshwater lake in the United States. The lake covers over 730 square miles and averages 10 feet in depth. There are 5 locks, 3 going up and 2 going down. 
Papa driving the boat using the auto-pilot. I really love this man. We are having great fun!
Our anchorage tonight is an oxbow off the river. There are houses on one side of the anchorage. As we're dropping the anchor we see a huge feral pig rooting around on shore then moves into the nearby wooded area.
Quiet evening here.
We're off the next morning about 9am. Our first stop is the Franklin Lock.
This lock isn't nearly as large as the ones we went through on the Tennessee River. No floating bollards, in fact the lockmaster tossed a couple of lines to Jerry to tie to the boat. Andreu, the lockmaster, works for the Corp of Engineers. Really friendly guy.
These locks only have a few feet drop so he cracked the upstream doors to let water into the lock. As we entered the lock, we see this lump in the water. It's a manatee. I sort of swerved the boat to miss it. The lockmaster had radioed to let me know it was there.
The scenery is different from what we've been experienced since we made it to Florida. Still seeing big and small houses. We see some citrus groves, not sure if it's oranges or something else. Also see bee hives along the way. Lots of bee hives.
It appears these hives are just being stored along the shore. Can't see any crops they might be pollinating, but maybe something beyond what we can see. We anchored today just south of the Moore Haven Lock on dolphins. These are pilings on the side of the canal for barges or other commercial vessels.
There were several airboats blasting out of the swamps. I guess they were fishing, not really sure.
Today we head into the Lake Okeechobee. It starts out very swampy. Several fishing boats are out in this area. We didn't really see very many boats out on the lake which is incredibly large and very shallow. Keep it between the buoys for sure. There are two routes, we took Route 1. Route 2, the Rim Route, was too shallow for our draft. It took the better part of the day to get across the lake. The water got kind of choppy on our crossing. Once across, we went through Port Mayaca lock. After that we had to wait for an Amtrak train to pass on the Indiantown Railroad Bridge.
Anchored at the St. Lucie Lock for the night just across from a campground. Used 2 anchors since we were close to shore and close to the channel.
No wind when we get up this morning, but when we decide to get going, the wind has picked up making pulling the anchors up quite a challenge. Jerry really struggled trying to get both anchor up. We have a pretty good system now, he gives me hand signals to direct the boat so he can raise the anchor. With the wind, it's a challenge for us both. Finally, the bow anchor breaks loose. The stern anchor becomes a real problem now. The bow is drifting and we can't position the boat to get the stern anchor up. After about 30 minutes Jerry is able to get it back on board. Whew!
We get into the lock and the wind is a challenge again but get tied off and shut down the engines. It doesn't take too long, only a 13 ft drop. I start the starboard engine, no problem. When I try to start the port engine, I get nothing. We've already untied from the lock. The lock master realizes we have a problem and yells "get a line on it". I run to the bow to catch the line he's thrown. I can't get it around a cleat fast enough. He throws another line, and fortunately, Jerry has come down from the bridge and gets the boat tied off so he can get the situation under control. The battery is dead. Jerry has to go into the engine room and jump start the battery. This was crazy chaotic.
We are finally underway. There was a boat waiting to get into the lock. Unfortunately, he had to fight the wind waiting for us to get out. What a mess.
Another railroad bridge and another train. Have to wait. Finally past the bridge and decide to stop at the free dock in Stuart, FL. Windy as hell. There was a boat already tied to the dock and a couple of guys walking towards it. I yelled at them asking if this was the free dock. They said yes, but the outside was only for commercial vessels. We could use the inside. Maneuvering towards the inside, we realized there were large pieces of the dock structure sticking out from the dock. There was no way we were going to dock there. Moving on, which was easier said than done, windage, we headed to a cove to anchor and get our stuff together and have lunch. I was too beat up to fix much so we had peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
Our next stop will be Fort Pierce Marina. There is a West Marine close by and we need filters for the generator. Waters were rough along with the wind, we just couldn't get away from it today.
We came across a couple of guys enjoying the wind.
Made it to the marina about 5pm. Got settled and needed to walk since we hadn't been on land for a few days. I wasn't cooking tonight so we decided on the Tiki Bar by the marina. Ate Hog fish, a local fish. It's a mild white fish, we thought it was kind of mushy.
Back to the boat for a well deserved glass of wine and we are now on the east coast of Florida. And what a disappointment. The Okeechobee had been advertised as a very natural, wildlife aplenty cruise. We saw lots of birds, no alligators, and only a bump of a manatee. Maybe we'll see more as we go up the coast. Probably just too cold, so we've been told.
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