FORT MYERS, FL TO MOORE HAVEN, FL

Saturday, March 7th, 2015

Day 215
Miles Traveled: 57
Total Miles Traveled: 2701


  We are finally cruising again and looking forward to all the new places we will see.  We stayed in Fort Myers for about 6 1/2 weeks and enjoyed every minute, but, we were anxious to resume our Great Loop adventure.  We left at first light and waved goodbye to our slip at Legacy Harbour Marina. 

Legacy Harbour Marina

Our empty slip at Legacy Harbour Marina

  Over the next several days, we will be going across Florida on the Okeechobee Waterway.  This man-made waterway was opened in 1937 and was created to provide a shorter water route from Fort Myers, FL on the west coast to Stuart, FL on the east coast.  It starts in Stuart, FL with the St. Lucie River and ends in Fort Myers, FL with the Caloosahatchee River.  In the middle is Lake Okeechobee.  Canals were made to connect the lake with each river, and thus the St. Lucie canal is east of the lake and the Caloosahatchee canal is west of the lake.  The distance of the waterway depends on whether one crosses the lake or takes the Rim Route along the lake's southern shore.  Crossing the lake is the shortest at 154 statute miles.  The Rim Route adds and additional 11 miles to the trip.  There are 5 locks on this waterway and they raise boats a total of 16 feet to get from either side to the lake.

  We enjoyed our travel day on the Caloosahatchee River and the Caloosahatchee Canal.  The day started out overcast but the sun made an appearance several times throughout the day. 

Caloosahatchee River - homes appear along the banks

Caloosahatchee Canal - banks are undeveloped

  The locks on the Okeechobee Waterway are different than the locks on the Ohio, TN, and Cumberland Rivers.  The floating bollards are absent, and, the water is not put in or released by valves within the lock wall.  Instead, there are lines hanging down the side of the lock walls that you hang onto and either let out line or take in line depending on whether the water level is going to increase of decrease, and, the forward gates are opened slightly to allow the water level in the lock to become the same as outside the lock.  Fortunately, there is not a big change in level required.  We went through two locks today - Franklin and Ortona.

Leaving Franklin Lock

  Our final destination for the day was Moore Haven, FL. The town has docks available with power and water.  There is not much to see in this town except City Hall right across the street from the docks.  This is also where you pay for the dockage.  On the weekends it is on the "honor system".  We put our payment in an envelope and dropped it in the night drop box.  There are not many good places to anchor on the Okeechobee Waterway, so having these docks available to us was great. 

"Seahorse" docked at Moore Haven city docks

City Hall

  It was good that there wasn't much to see in Moore Haven because shortly after we tied up it began to rain.  It was almost dinnertime, so Dan started to work on food preparation while Angie worked on the blog.  Like most of our traveling days, we spent the rest of the evening reviewing the waterway charts and guides for the next day's trip.