On Saturday, March 25th our convoy of two boats hit Franklin Lock at sunrise.
We passed an interesting boat going the other way named “H200”. A little later, we heard the captain explain to a bridge tender that it was a new ferry bound for New York Harbor.
Wait a minute. New York is the OTHER way! Do they have a compass on board?
As it turned out, the boat had been built in Louisiana. They’d tried to take the short cut across the Okeechobee and ran aground. They were on their way back to go the long way around South Florida.
Next was Ortona Lock.
Here we had an audience for the lock-through.
And finally, Moore Haven Lock.
Now at the level of Lake Okeechobee, we were passing swampland on either side of the long, straight man-made channels.
H200 wasn’t the only vessel to run into trouble on this stretch. We never did find out the story on this one.
We also started to see the occasional alligator.
We tied up for the night at the Clewiston dolphins. A “dolphin” in this usage is 3 or more pilings lashed together in a rough triangle. These are placed along the waterway to give commercial vessels something to secure to, but recreational boats can use them too, if there’s room.
We saw a few more alligators, and lots of birds.
On Day 24 we’d traveled 41 nautical miles for a trip total of 1225 miles.
Previous: Day 23 – Ft Myers to Franklin Lock