Our thanks to Skipper Gene Faatz for sharing his experience crossing south Florida via the Okeechobee Canal and Lake Okeechobee.

As we all know it might be a little early to put boat back in the water after 5 months of high and dry storage with hurricane season not ending for a while yet but I have confidence that we will be safe here in South Florida. We departed River Forest Yachting Center LaBelle on Friday Oct. 11 for a 4 1/2 hr. trip eastbound in the Caloosahatchee Canal to cross Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie Canal with our final destination on the north fork of the St. Lucie River in Palm City. It was quite breezy with 10 to 15 kt. winds out of the N/NE but very warm. We only got to the Moorehaven railroad bridge for our first delay of about 20 minutes do to work on the tracks but locked through the Moorehaven Lock without any further delay. Reached Lake O without any issues and found the water depth to be the deepest I have seen in a long time do the lake level over 13 ft. and the wind blowing the water to the south end, min depth anywhere in the channel and lake was over 8 ft. The lake was rather bumpy with 2-3 ft. and an occasional 4 just for fun. Port Mayaca Lock was actually locking through with a 6 inch drop [ new lockmaster training]. Prior to arriving at the St. Lucie we were pleasantly surprised to pass the John F. Kennedy Presidential Yacht “Honey Fitz” moored on the canal. We missed the St Lucie lock by a few minutes so had to wait for westbound vessel to come through, about a 25 minute delay . Arrived safely home after another successful lake crossing.

St. Jucie Lock, but not Gene Faatz’s boat.