December 17 Stuart Florida - Closed on new 48.

After spending our first night on the boat, December 18th the adventure begins. Say goodbye to Stuart.

The St. Lucie River.

Running West St Lucie.

Highway 95 Bridge, Still in Stuart.

Our approach to the St. Lucie Lock.

The St. Lucie Lock cycles at 10:00am. Outbound traffic went first?

In the St. Lucie Lock with a sail boat from California.

Distance to go. A long way.

The lock is closed.

St. Lucie lock filling.

We go up 7 feet.

Distance traveled so far only 9 miles!

Leaving the St. Lucie lock at 11:15am.

Arundel Rail Road Bridge.

Arundel Swings open for us.

Highway 710 and another Rail Road Bridge. This one goes up.

Port Mayaca Lock @ the skinny Lake Okeechobee.

Out to Okeechobee we go.

Lake Okeechobee for about an hour & a half we idle in only 4 feet of water.

We made it to the other side of the Lake without damage, but our nerves are shot.

Route 1 at Clewiston is solid rock. The canal was blasted open.

The Channel to Moore Haven Lock.

Moore Haven Lock arrived at 2:15pm. We only have 45 minutes to get to the Franklin Lock. No Way!

The Moore Haven Lock has a pull cord to ring the operator.

On this side of the lake we go down 5 feet.

The doors open to the Caloosahatchee.

We made it to the Franklin Lock at 5:30pm. Nice sunset but we are not getting through the lock until tomorrow.

There is a very nice campground with about 6 slips.

With our length, we barely fit into the slip. There are catfish everywhere.

Day 3 - December 19th. Good morning and the Lock opens at 10:00am. They cycle outbound first again?

We are first in line.

We are accompanied by a mom and baby manatee.

We drop another 5 feet.

The is the powerplant on the Caloosahatchee.

This train bridge stops us everytime we get east of it.

We waited for the train and the operator finally opens it for us.

It opens and away we go again. Lost track of the number of bridges, locks, etc. stopping us along the way.

The Chiquita Lock was no problem and we made it to our Maxine Canal.

We spin her around and begin to dock.

Home at last; 3:00pm. Captain Mike went to the store to get provisions for his trip back with our old boat.

This is Captain Mike and our old Monterey is on its way back to Stuart.

Nice end to a VERY SCARY trip.

Getting ready for a trip up to North Captiva.

Lunch Time View.