“Big Water” – Lake Okeechobee and the Rim Route

From our one-night stop in LaBelle, we proceeded toward Lake Okeechobee (or in Seminole Indian language, Big Water), we’ll be taking the rim route around the lake instead of going straight across this time. The Okeechobee Waterway, which includes the Caloosahatchee River and the St. Lucie River, boasts 134.3 nautical miles from west to east and is the 2nd largest freshwater lake in the United States. You can transit the lake by going straight across or by the more protected, though shallower, rim route that follows the southern edge of the lake. We’ve never done this path before and are looking forward to seeing something new. We’ll stop one night to anchor at South Bay Cove, a spot Jim found on Active Captain and heard other boaters talk about. It is located at the southern end of the lake.

It was a very thickly overcast day so we did not get very good photos but when we reached the anchorage we were treated to a smoldering, slowly setting sun that got more intense as the early evening wore on.

To see more photos of Lake Okeechobee (when we crossed it a few years ago), Favors Great Loop Blog.

We went through a few locks today, not busy we were the only boat every time.

The rim route to Lake Okeechobee is lined on one side by this rock bank. They have been working on this for some time.

We got creative tonight during happy hour and used this bottle of hot sauce we found in our cabinet to put on top of some hummus. That and a few taco chips almost made a meal! We got the bottle from Mark Coles, Boating Georgian Bay, last summer during the 2014 Ranger Tugs and Cutwater North Channel Rendezvous in Little Current, Ontario, Canada.

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