Ft Myers to Lake Okeechobee, Bass Fishing

Catching up from the last post.  Denise and I took a short cruise out into the Gulf before going to the Sanibel Harbour Marriot Resort, where she is staying for a few days.  When arriving at the resort, we cruised past the docks to determine the best (easiest) place to park, but none looked very easy.  Docks were right on the channel and even though there was a no wake within 500 ft, boats were flying past creating very rough conditions.  As we approached the captain of the resort boat told me where to park and said "just back it in".  What he didn't know was I had never backed into a slip before, but after my panic subsided I gave it a shot and was able to manuever two turns backwards and stop squarely in the slip without touching the floating docks on either side.  I was planning to post a picture of the parking spot, but had a mishap with the new camera and cannot retrieve the picture.  Keep reading to find out about the mishap.  After seeing how I could park the boat, Denise suggested we could now stay in more marinas instead of anchoring.  Maybe I should have hit a dock.

Tom arrived at the hotel and we waved good bye to Denise on the deck and headed up the Caloosahatchee River, which is the beginning of the Okeechobee Waterway.  As it was already 5 PM when we left, we went just 24 miles and found an anchorage a few miles east of I75 and downtown Ft Myers.  Tom had brought some fuses I had requested and was able to get the upper helm radio working, along with the engine synchronizer and the cigarette lighter outlet.  He then discovered that the inverter I had just purchased to use in that outlet had a burning smell and a blown fuse of its own and was the probable source of the boat fuse trouble.  So two new fuses and three problems were resolved.   Before leaving the anchorage, Tom took a look at the belt issue on the starboard engine and determined the belt was bad, but the bolt hole that I had retapped was holding just fine.  He changed the belt and we were off towards Clewiston.  Its great to have friends who can solve problems.

64 miles later through three locks we arrived in Clewiston.  There is a 12 mile stretch from Moore Haven to Clewiston on the "Rim Canal", a dredged canal that circles the entire 487,000 acre Lake Okeechobee.  We got excited when we spotted an aligator on the edge of the canal and stopped to get some pictures thinking this would be a rare event.  By the time we got to Clewiston we had lost count on the number of aligators we saw.  Arriving in Clewiston Tom encouraged me to see if I could turn a 40 ft boat around in a 45 foot wide canal with rocks on one side and the dock on the other.  Still feeling good about my parking job in Ft Myers I gave it a shot.  Low and behold, I spun it around without hitting either side and we tied up for the night.  I'm getting a bit cocky with my driving abilities.  Tom collected phones, binoculars, the satelite radio and other miscellaneous items to bring back down to the cabin and in the process my camera slipped from his hand into the canal.  It was in its case and we were able to retrieve it before it sunk, but it appears fried.  It comes on, but then gives an error.  Maybe I will be able to save the pictures when I can put the card in another reader.  But Tom is also working on that problem and has been able to retrieve a couple.  If it works, I'll post a couple later.  I really want to post the one showing Tranquility safely parked at the hotel dock.   Luckily, I bought the protection package when I bought the camera because I didn't want to spring for the more expensive water proof one.  I think I can replace it when we find a Best Buy if it still has problems.  I do have a few pics from Tom's camera to share though.

Sunday we were up at 5:45 to meet our fishing guide Mark for a day of bass fishing on the world renowned bass fishing Lake Okeechobee.  We had great fishing in the morning when we were using live bait, but it slowed down in the afternoon when we went to artificial.  At $20 a dozen for large shiners, we only took 4 dozen.  None the less, we had a great time and caught the biggest large mouth bass either of us had ever seen.  I got two over 7 lbs and Ton got one that was over 6.  We stayed again at the marina and will head across the lake today.  Its a three hour cruise across the lake.  Since I'm the captain, Tom will have to be Giligan even though he's more like the professor.  We're looking for Mary Ann and Ginger.  Tom thinks we could probably only get Mrs Howel though.  Will be trying to get near Stuart, Fl where we join the ICW.

By the way, I've heard people have tried to post comments, but couldn't.  I changed some settings and was able to post myself, so if you're interested, try it again.  I also have heard no one gets an email alert from a new posting, but haven't figured out if I'm supposed to do something on this end.  I'll look into it some more.