Lake Okeechobee - Ft Pierce

Our great weather window continued on Sunday (April 6) with sunny skies and only moderate winds. This made our crossing of Lake Okeechobee a relatively smooth and uneventful 2.5 hours. Uneventful-dare I say boring-is a GOOD thing when crossing 20+ miles of open water. The wet winter has kept the water levels high, so we had no concerns about the depth of the water in the route. In drier times it can apparently be a challenge to make the crossing.

White pelicans 

Preparing to enter Lake Okeechobee

The fresh water meant that we saw white pelicans, instead of the brown ones seen in salt water areas.

Sunday turned into a longer day than expected because the marina that we were hoping to stay at in Indiantown had no available slips. So instead of a 6-hour/50 mile day we motored on for another couple of hours (and 18 miles) to the Riverwatch Marina near Stuart. This included going through the deepest lock of the route, a 14.5 foot drop at the St. Lucie Lock. We hope not to repeat that length of cruising day too often.

Exiting the St. Lucie Lock

The long day on Sunday shortened our cruising on Monday and we arrived in Fort Pierce early in the afternoon. We're staying in Fort Pierce for two nights, mostly to allow us to be in safe harbor for the storms that are rolling through today. It also enables us to take a breather and do a bit of grocery shopping and laundry. The nice part of this stop is that we have a friend in the area, Gary Campeau, the father of a former co-worker of Lon. Gary has a boat in the marina here, and he was kind enough to drive us around a bit so that we could get a feel for Fort Pierce. We also had a very pleasant dinner with Gary and two friends of his, Roger and Ann.

Lon and Gary on Gary's boat

Pat & Lon at Ft Pierce Inlet

Dinner at Harbor Cove Restaurant

This morning we were able to fit in a bike ride to North Hutchinson Island, one of the barrier islands in the Fort Pierce area. We walked a bit on the beach, but the main purpose of the trip was to pay a visit to the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum.

Pat - Pepper Park beach

Navy UDT-SEAL Museum

The museum is in the original training area for the first Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) formed in 1943. The UDTs were a forerunner of the SEALs. It's a wonderful museum that traces the history of the Navy SEALs and honors those who have served.  One of the fun items to see on display was the lifeboat from the "Maersk Alabama", aboard which Somali pirates held "Captain Phillips" hostage prior to his rescue by Navy SEALs.

UDT-SEAL Memorial

Lifeboat from the Maersk Alabama

The weather outside is currently proving to us that we made a good decision when we chose to stay in port today. We are definitely rocking! Tomorrow promises to be better and it will be on to the Melbourne area.