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Okeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon

January - March 2025
Okeechobee WW out and back with a 5 star marina resort stay to the Hontoon Gathering on the St. John River. Read more
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  • 24footprints
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  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 1–2

    Travel Day 1, PNS-Hilton Garden N Tampa

    January 10 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 63 °F

    We hitched up in Pensacola onboard PNS NAS in the dark with a 470 mile goal (500 miles is our usual max goal). This hotel has lots of parking room and no I-75 noise and a Bob Evans 2 blocks away. There are lots of less expensive options, including state parks, but that requires us to re configure the berth and we're too lazy to do that. Only 150 miles to our fav FL 5 star marina resort, PInk Shell, which has essentially the same weather as Key West but is much closer. However, lacks the amazing water colors of the Keys.Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 2–3

    Logistics Day 2

    January 11 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 61 °F

    Complex logistics are part of trailer boat segment cruising. Today we moved the boat out of tight quarters at the hotel, fueled up the boat at a RaceTrac, arranged truck and trailer storage, and launched at Salty Sam Marina short ramp, returned the rig to storage and cruised 3 miles to dock at the Pink Shell Marina. Tomorrow we hope to start a Okeechobee out and back before returning to Pink Shell until the March Hontoon Hoot.
    Safe Travels!
    John    Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 3–4

    Ft Myers Beach to LaBelle

    January 12 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 59 °F

    Beautiful cruise uprive to LaBelle city dock. Calm waters and very easy Locking. The Bridge moise is not a big deal to us with fans and heat on. The Franklin Lock had a mechanical gate issue that added a half hour to the transit time. The lift is only about 3 feet with ropes to grab about every 10 feet. There are some prolonged Manatee zones.Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 4

    Labelle to Moore Haven, W of Lake O

    January 13 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F

    Labelle to Moore Haven

    This is bass tournament country with rodeos going on this week, so the few marinas are pretty full. We had a pleasant cruise down the canal with sunny weather and high of 82 degrees. There’s not a whole lot of reviewed anchorages, but we favor marinas since it gets down to the mid 40’s some mornings and we prefer shore power for heat and cooking. The new Yamaha control has 16 switches, buttons and lights not including the gauge panel. I asked to keep the old analog gas gauges because they are the most accurate ever in 13 trailer boats over the years.

    The OWW locks are unique in that there are no valves or plumbing that fill and empty the lock…they just open the gate about six inches and the water comes sluicing in. I wish I could have taken video of eight vertical feet of water pouring in but I can’t manage that one handed with one hand on the rope. Were having a great time. I wish more boaters understood Florida’s definition of ‘Slow Speed Minimum Wake’...The vessel must be level with the waterline with no part starting to come on plane. The video shows two; the first not in compliance while the second boat is.

    Our NEBO report for the day is here:

    https://reports.nebo.global/c39be3b5-c00c-4ce8-…

    What broke:

    Garmin can’t plot an Auto route without running over a dam, dry rocky land, a cluster of 30 story condos, or all three within a mile or two.

    Oh, wait! That means it’s operating normally. Sorry.

    Safe travels!    Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 5–7

    Moore Haven to the Elliot's Dock

    January 14 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 36 °F

    Moore Haven to the Elliot’s Place near Okeechobee

    We found that Ken and Sharon Elliott were at home on the North shore of Lake Okeechobee near Okeechobee city. The lake was in a snotty but not dangerous mood and we crossed without a drop on the windshield. They live on Taylor Creek and the Taylor Creek Lock is a unique one. You have to maneuver up to the timbers to pull a cord to notify the lockmaster that you want to pass through. The lock is so short it was barely long enough for our boat. It took five tries to get the gates closed satisfactorily. It was all a hoot for us.

    Here’s today’s NEBOLINK report.

    https://reports.nebo.global/c39be3b5-c00c-4ce8-…

    Tonight we get a free Elliot laundry (none near marinas to date). We’re having a great time exploring. Safe Travels!    Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 6

    Elliot's Place, Day 2

    January 15 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    Elliot’s place, Day 2

    Today was not a good cruising day on Lake O, so we stayed put. NOAA issued a small craft caution and blue Windy app predicted winds of 15-20 with gusts to 24. That’s in our No Go range so we had a weather day here. We got a tour of the Rim walk for two miles. One particularly hard slam yesterday resulted in ‘LOSS OF SONAR MODULE’ (which was showing 89 feet in the 4 foot canal) and ‘LOSS OF RADAR MODULE’ warnings. I tracked that down to a Garmin Network plug that got jarred loose despite a screw on cap to keep it in place way up on the back of one MFD.

    Tomorrow should be much less windy and it’s only 52 miles to Stuart via three locks and two 7 foot RR bridges, hopefully both will be open. The two engineers are asking why Find Penguins is mapping us zooming from Ft Lauderdale to New Orleans. I have no idea…my understanding is that the phone provides the mapping data. The good news is that the USAA Safe Pilot app is giving me credit for driving hours and hours at 24 MPH without touching the phone, which will give me a @ 29% insurance discount.
    First boat is NOT at FL reg Slow Speed Min Wake, second one is.
    ‘    Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 7–9

    Elliot's Winter Estate to Stuart, FL

    January 16 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 45 °F

    Ken and Sharon's place is near Okeechobee, FL, a part of the lake not frequented by cruisers or Loopers. The Taylor Creek lock was so short Cat O' Mine barely fit between the red lines. You have to maneuver up pull the cord, even though the lockmaster is watching you out the window. No phone or radio. We had a sloppy ride to the Mayaca Lock at the west end of Lake O, then two more locks and three 'automatic' 7 foot RR bridges. One was down and stayed down for 30 minutes after we arrived before it finally opened vertically at a majestic rate. More rural scenery down the St Lucie Canal to the bustle and crowds of Stuart.

    NeboLink report here; we try to stay over 20 MPH since no C-Dory wants a track that's not white.

    https://reports.nebo.global/c39be3b5-c00c-4ce8-…

    Safe Travels!    Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 8–10

    Stuart Safe Harbor Yacht Club Day 2

    January 17 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 39 °F

    Stuart, FL day 2

    We’re aboard Safe Harbor Harborage Yacht Club, one of the largest marinas we’ve ever seen…apparently by merging two adjacent giant marinas into one. It’s 1.9 miles to the bath house and back (you can call for a golf cart ride 7am-10pm if you want). We rate it within the top six 5-star marinas we’ve ever docked at. There are adjacent train tracks and horn noise. Tomorrow should be a good day to cross Lake O according to the sources we trust most (blue Windy.com, NOAA Lake O Marine Forecast and local knowledge).

    What Broke:

    Garmin VHF 215 won’t turn on or screen light up with power button, although the speaker is emitting a regular ‘ticking’ sound each second. Fuse is good.

    Garmin 8212 MFD is reporting Garmin GFS10 fuel data for both engines, but twin 8012 MFD is not.

    Brand new HH VHF #2 is transmitting but not receiving.

    It’s a boat, it’s always something.

    We walked to Publix (2 miles round trip) for a bit of re-provisioning.

    Great marina! To the west is Old Roosevelt 14 ft bridge and ‘automatic’
    RR bridge adjacent at 7 feet, but don’t get caught between them if one is down!

    John    Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 9

    Stuart, FL to Clewiston, Roland Martin's

    January 18 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 72 °F

    Great cruise at mostly 24 MPH through scenic St. Lucie river and canal!

    What got Fixed:

    Garmin VHF 215 responded with a 'soft reset' by pulling the fuse for 30 sec (thanks Mr Google).

    The MFD issues pointed to an N2K problem (hint: all images were working, but N2K can only carry non-image, numerical data like depth, temp, AIS, direction etc). I disconnected/reconnected four transom area N2K backbone T-connectors and all became G

    One of two brand new HH VHF radios will not transmit but receives OK. Nothing I can fix here.

    We docked at Roland and Mary Ann Martin Marina in Clewiston, FL today; a Looper fav and we are right beside the Tiki Bar and Grill. Sunny and 81 degrees, so you should be here too.

    NEGOLINK report for today is here, see the whole three pages:

    https://reports.nebo.global/c39be3b5-c00c-4ce8-…    Read more

  • TravelerOkeechobee-Pink Shell-Hontoon
    Day 10

    Clewiston, Day 2

    January 19 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    A short clip of the Lake O crossing, after the roughest part (we're both fully engaged when it's rough, defined as needing to use the wipers). At least the wind was at our backs. When we returned from Stuart, Lake O looked pretty calm but the NOAA forecast was a Small Craft Caution, winds 15 MPH with gusts to 25 and choppy (worse in a shallow lake like this). We have well-established 'NO-GO’ criteria, which saves a lot of time and agonizing debates.

    NO-GO CRITERIA:
    -Any NOAA marine forecast Caution or Advisory in effect on the route
    -NOAA wind over 18 MPH or gusts over 22 MPH
    -NOAA Choppy or Rough in Protected Waters
    -Windy.com (blue app) winds over 18 MPH or gusts over 22 for any block of time on route
    -Either of us prefer not to. We’re retired, we have all month.

    The boat can handle a lot more than that and the boat won’t break (but a femur might, and they are harder and more expensive to replace).

    It got to over 85 degrees in the cockpit today and it was windy.

    What broke:

    An exterior roof rail bolt drips in heavy rain. Of course the proper repair is disassembly, clean out core, epoxy and redrill. The temp repair is caulk on the outside (never the inside, or the water will infiltrate the core). You likely knew that.

    The cockpit lights are inop. When the shop replaced all the fuel lines for the new engines, a wire bundle was rerouted and too short; pulled off the switch blade in chop. I made a jumper extension long enough to remove the strain.

    A cockpit light lens screw went AWOL. There’s an ACE hardware store close to the cute church, so I bought a couple of extra 6-32 ½” replacements just in case.

    Safe Travels!    Read more

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