Author: kbambas

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Great Adventure: Week 1, part 2

I left off with all the negative things about crossing Lake Okeechobee. There were positives, too. The sun was shining, the breeze kept us from overheating, and for quite a while it was just us, the boat, and the water. Not even a bit of land on the horizon. They say that three is company and four is a crowd, but it never felt crowded when we were overtaken by another boat.

We entered the St. Lucie Canal in Port Mayaca and continued in calmer waters. Well, it was calmer until someone in a small speedy boat passed us without slowing down. Then it was rock and roll time. We stayed the night tied up to a slip at the Army Corps of Engineers’ campground upstream of the St. Lucie South lock. We have stayed here before, and it is a nice spot. Friendly people, nice facilities and very reasonable rates.

We made the short hop through the lock and to Apex Marine in Stuart in the morning. If anyone is boating in this area and needs a place to tie up, I highly recommend this marina. The managers are fantastic (thank you, Dutch and Mary!) and their help are just as good. They have a great night watchman, Manny, who keeps an eye on things and makes sure he meets everyone who is staying on board. The only drawback is the train tracks that run just the other side of the road, but that quickly morphs into background noise. At night, just take your hearing aids out, and you don’t notice the trains even if you have windows open.

We have been here for three nights. We had an adventure on Easter Sunday. We decided to do our laundry, and Karl checked and saw the laundromat was open, called an Uber, and off we went, dirty laundry in tow. As we were pulling up to the laundry, our hearts fell… no cars, it was closed. Our driver said, ‘No problem, I can take you back.’ Then immediately slapped his forehead. He had accepted another ride while we were on our way. So we sat and waited for another Uber. We were in the shade with a nice breeze and enjoyed just sitting and watching traffic go by. Sometimes Life makes you slow down, and that is a good thing. While we were sitting, Karl started looking for his iPad. He left it in the first uber. We checked FindMy and it showed it was at Apex. Our driver had left it on the front steps. Uber drivers are the best!!!

We made a provisioning run to WallyWorld, and to Boat Owner’s Warehouse for supplies. Karl installed a new masthead light and we tidied up the boat. (Oh, dratted technology!!!! We were just sitting here talking, and I must have touched something, and my iPad started to take dictation of our conversation.)

Pause….

We left this morning and stopped for a pump out of the black water tank and to get fuel. We have passed under the bridge in Stuart into the inland waterway and plan on going up to Fort Pierce today.

That brings us up to date, and I will try to keep this updated every day or two. I’ll try to get some more photos uploaded, too.

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Great Adventure: Week 1

We have started our Great Loop adventure. We left Port Tarpon Marina in Tarpon Springs, Florida at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning , April 14 with the sun shining over the top of the trees. The winds were light so we went straight out into the Gulf and it was fine. We anchored at Lido Key, in the Sarasota Inlet for the night. The big excitement: shortly before we stopped for the night, a sand shark swam by the boat.

I’m not sure which day the dolphins played in our bow wave, but they were certainly entertaining. They swam along, occasionally turning on their side as if to make sure I was watching and getting good pictures! They only stayed with us for a few minutes, but it was fun.

Our second day was very different from the first. The wind had shifted and was coming across the gulf making some waves with white caps. Still not the roughest leg of our journey so far. Anchorage at Punta Blanca Island off Charlotte Harbor, south of Punta Gorda.

It felt good to get into the river to start across the Okeechobee Waterway. Much calmer and quieter. We went upstream to the first lock and spent the night there. The next morning, we worked our behinds off getting the dinghy off the rear deck and onto the davits where it belongs. I’m not going to detail the trials and tribulations of that task, suffice it to say that we didn’t depart until after noon. We did get to run the dinghy around and test out our new electric motor. (We had decided that neither one of us wanted to have to pull start the outboard, and it was pretty heavy, too!) The new motor moved the dinghy along pretty smartly.

That afternoon, we arrived at the Ortona Lock at 4:33 p.m. After we hailed the lockmaster several times (and another boat tried twice), they came on the radio and informed us (very politely) that the lock’s hours were from 7 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and they were officially closed…. We dropped anchor.

That left one lock to go through before crossing Lake Okeechobee: the Julian Keen, Jr. Lock. The passing went well and we went out into the lake. Lake Okeechobee is a pretty large lake. It is also a pretty shallow lake. Even staying in the channel, at times we only had 4.5’ reading on the depth finder. It was windy. It was rough. We had to hang on whenever we moved around the boat. Sometimes it felt like we were riding a bull at a rodeo! What a ride!

To be continued….

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Day Minus One and Counting

The Great Loop is the name for an aquatic adventure that circumnavigates the eastern United States.  Starting (for Dolly and I) it leaves Tarpon Springs, Florida; goes to the Atlantic thru Lake Okeechobee; up the East Coast to New York; up the Hudson River to the Erie Canal; then to the Great Lakes; South through Chicago to the Mississippi; transfers to the Tennessee River and the Ten-Tom waterway to Mobile, Alabama; and back across the Gulf to Tarpon Springs.  At our speed it will take the better part of seven to eight months. Our Great Loop adventure is set to begin tomorrow, Monday April 14, 2025. Weather forecast for the Gulf of America near our starting point is wave heights of one foot or less. So, the plan is to go outside from the Anclote river down to lower Tampa Bay.