Only 49 nautical miles from Ft. Myers, FL to Moore Haven, FL.  Sounds like an easy day.  Right?  We had 2 locks to go through and several bridges to wait for.  Something new for us.  Locks.  More on that later.

 

You can see some boats in the distance.  They are anchored out behind the small islands.

We saw a small group of pelicans surrounding this boat.  Apparently, the man was pulling fish out of his crab pots and gave the fish to the birds.  How lucky they were.  Easy pickings!!

Our first of many bridges today. Beautiful Island Railroad Bridge has 9 foot of clearance.  It usually is open unless a train is coming.  Still, this means no delays here and easy sailing under.

 

The Power plant is possible manatee spotting area. Manatees like the warm waters coming out of the plant.  I looked and didn’t see any today.  Maybe the air was too cool and they were all under water.

 

Lovely Florida home along the river bank.  It looks so close to the river.

The other side of the river looks like this:

 

The next homes we saw were that ever present mobile home park!  Everything so nice and neat.   Is anyone home?

We are one of 4 boats in a row heading in the same direction.  This view is out our back door.  Two are following behind us.

 

We are approaching our first ever Lock!  The Franklin Lock.  The doors are actually at the end of this pathway.  There is one boat ahead of us.  There were 4 of us.  All along the same side.  Once we were in and set, the back door was closed.

The lock master was really nice.  He communicated to both Wayne and I separately so we would know what to expect.  The lines ( ropes ) are supplied by the lock master and  were hanging down along the concrete wall.  As Wayne piloted us into the lock behind the other boat, I grabbed a line and wrapped it around the front bow cleat.  Tight enough to hold the boat close to the wall as the water rose us 3 feet higher.  As the boat rose, I kept reeling in the line keeping the boat close to the wall.  The lock master told me I was going to get taller today!  Yea!   You can see the water marks along the wall.  Algae never lies.

Wayne left the engines on and went back to pick up a stern line.  Holding the back of Always Home steady as the water rushed in.  The rushing water enters into the left side and causes lots of turbulence as we found out later.  Our side, not much turbulence at all.

Actually, this was the best locking experience ever and for the rest of the day!  Had we known we might have turned around and done it again!  We were on the starboard (right) side of the lock.   Calm waters.  Good communication.

Right past the Franklin Lock everyone sees a camel sitting by the side of the waterway.  We didn’t see a camel.  We saw llamas.  Trust me, we saw them. Alas, this shot is too far away.  OR the llama knew and hid behind the trees.  Must be a petting zoo.

As we are motoring along Wayne said… Plane.  “Sea plane is landing.”  I thought he said, “See a plane is landing”.  I was busy looking for the camel and didn’t see the plane. Two different things.  I finally see a small plane ON THE WATER through the binoculars.  Oh…a Sea Plane.  We saw it do that touch and go landings up in front of us for a hour.  Just as we were getting close, the plane would take off and soar ahead of us to land again in the still river waters.  I finally was able to get a final picture of the plane going to a grassy field.

Fort DeNaud Swing Bridge was open.  The operator walks to the center of the bridge to open it.  Two of us got through before the bridge tender had to close it.  Too many cars were waiting for us slow poke Trawlers to pass.  Next time you are sitting in a car and need to wait for some boaters to pass, be patient.  We can only go 3 mph!!  Slow speeds are required around bridges.  It’s the law.

 

Our second lock of the day.  Ortona Lock.  We had such a pleasant first experience, we thought this locking thing is going to be a piece of cake!!  However… we should have known things would be different.  The process is to call the lock master and ask when the next available time the lock would be opened.  No answer back.  As we got closer, we found two other boats ahead of us.  We three waited about 15 minutes for the 4th to finally come up behind us.  Which means you are at idle watching the current and the position of the other boats.  What is going on?  What are we waiting for?  Why won’t the lock master say howdy folks.  The lock master was waiting for the 4th boat to fill the space. The 4th boat got caught at the swing bridge.  It was very considerate. Had we known we would have been less worried.  You know, the thoughts that run through your mind…what do we do if the lock is broken?  Is the lock broken?  Why won’t the lock master tell us what is going on?  OMG!

The lock master finally came on the radio and let us know the first two boat were to go along the starboard (right) side and we and the last boat would be on the port (left) side.  Ok.  Here we go.

Our experience after I stuffed my phone back into my pocket was not good.  The surge of water seemed to come toward us on the port side.  I am holding on to the line with all my strength. What? Then I am pushing the boat away from the wall with all my strength.  Back and forth with this gushing water.  I look over at the boat on the starboard side and he is picking his nails or his nose. Which ever I don’t really know since I was preoccupied.  As if he has no concern in the world.  He isn’t feeling the water!!  Wayne tells me later he was doing the same thing.  Pushing the boat away from the wall and pulling the boat in so we didn’t hit the boat on the other side.   You saw the wall on the first lock.  Same kind of wall.  Same kind of setup.  Concrete is hard!  The sound of boat crunching is wincing and there is little we could do about it.  It seems we felt the brunt of the water turbulence.  Oh dear!!   Those were NOT the words I used, however.  Folks were filming their friends that were locking through on the starboard side.  I wonder if it will end up on youtube, edited, I hope?!  Ugh!!

After the lock, calm waters.  We were 4 feet taller.  I was so upset with that experience I didn’t care.  Total for the day…7 feet taller.

I did take a picture of our chart plotter when I was driving the boat.  Don’t tell Wayne I took my hands off the wheel for just a second.  There is a little image of a triangle behind the “boat” image.  It is a boat that followed us the rest of the afternoon.  The “boat” image is Always Home, in case you were wondering.

 

Onward to Moore Haven for the night.  Moore Haven is a small town of approximately 1700 people.  They have a city dock that is available for transients.  That is what we are.  Transients.  We never stay in one place very long.  $1.00 a foot for the night.  We are 47 feet long.  Water and power.  What more do we need?

As we rolled up to the Moore Haven, which is more like a wide spot on the side of the road, there were several boats already on the free dock (no power, no water)  We were interested in the city dock.  There was a group of folks outside milling around on the dock.  They saw that we had a dilemma.  There was space if only the small 30 footer would move forward along the dock just a tad.  He did!  Then Wayne parallel parked our Always Home into the space.  I threw a bow line to someone in the crowd and she fastened it to a cleat.  Someone else caught a stern line and we were in!!  The group praised Wayne for his prowess  – a master in docking the boat!!  Awesome!  We were in, tied up and feeling relieved that we had a spot along the dock for the night.  Three more boats pulled in at dusk.  They ended up on the rickety dock that didn’t look like it would hold itself up.  With little current, no tide, it was a quiet night.

We stayed in.  Others may have gone to the Mexican restaurant or the Burger King farther down the road.  7 hours on the waterway.  All that fresh air and partly sunny skies.  We were exhausted tired puppies.

Say goodnight….