The messages below have been copied from the AGLCA mail list, and in response to an earlier question about cruise times and distances on the Okeechobee Waterway.

We crossed from west to east on Nov 11. If you only mean the lake, you should make it in 3-4 hours at this speed. Consider the rim route if the lake is rough (our friends did this on Nov 9 and said it had
plenty of water then). Call the Port Mayaca lock before you go since they have been working on it lately. The lake is nothing special to look at but boths sides, for 20 miles or so, are spectacular and
really feels like the everglades.
Roger & Mary Carter
“Jolly Roger”

The lake is ca. 25 miles across, so figure your statute miles per hour (not knots on fresh water) and you will have your estimated time to cross. The lake is shallow, so it never kicks up that bad (a wave
can not be any higher than the water depth).
As far as Lake Okeechobee looking like the Everglades, it is because it really is. Before it was diked up around the sides to turn it into a water reservoir for crop irrigation and the canal cut across
the state (effectively turning South Florida into an island); the lake was only a foot or so deep and considered part of the Okeechobee everglades. That was in the late 1950’s.
John

At 8.0 statute miles per hour:
2 1/2 hours from Port Mayaca to Clewiston. (Not a very useful number) (Did it Sunday, 11/29/2009) (7.5 ft minimum, cross lake route) (Rim route is 10 statute miles longer and much more tedious.)
(Locks are currently operating on request.) (Port Mayaca is open atboth ends.) (Clewiston basin depth is marginal for cruising boats.)
8 hours from St. Lucie Lock to Moore Haven City Dock.
At St. Lucie Lock, you can stay for $12 including electric with a Golden Age Passport. Leave at 07h00, and spend the next night at Moore Haven for $1.00/ft with electric. Or vice versa, 8 hours either
way. Add an hour if you stay in the mooring field at Stuart on the east end.
Peg and Jim Healy aboard Sanctuary