June 8, 2004
We finally pushed off from our boat slip in St. Pete Beach at 8 a.m., Sunday, May 23. What an exciting feeling it was to at last be off, especially as this last month had been quite exhausting finishing up necessary boat and condo projects. Thinking we�d be able to sail, we went down the outside coastline rather than along the Intracoastal Waterway. But, since the wind came from the direction we wanted to go, we ended up motorsailing. Ten hours later we anchored for the night in Venice Inlet, looking forward to a good night�s sleep.
We left our anchorage at 7 a.m. Monday and continued on down the coastline. We entered the Intracoastal Waterway at Boca Grande Pass and then 35 miles later arrived at Fort Myers. We anchored for the night around 8 p.m. in the Caloosahatchee River just east of the I-75 Bridge and Fort Myers.
Tuesday morning the air had that wonderful smell of cool fresh river water. How refreshing it was! We departed at 7 a.m., and as we traveled along the Okeechobee Waterway during the day we uplocked a total of 13 feet: 2 feet in the Franklin Lock, 8 feet in the Ortona Lock, and 3 feet in the Moore Haven Lock. All these locks were small and could be handled by just one lock tender. Upon entering the locks we went alongside the chamber wall, grabbed two of the lines, and tied them fore and aft taking in the slack as needed while uplocking. These locks were flooded (or drained) by opening one of the lock doors just a crack and slowly letting in (or out) the water. We rarely felt the change. This wasn�t the case at the Ortona Lock when we were quite startled for a moment to encounter a mini-waterfall coming in through the opening in the lock doors.
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