Short Cruise Today – Transiting from South Bay Cover to Indiantown, Florida.

Leaving South Bay Cove in the morning put us with an early arrival to our day’s destination of Indiantown, Florida, located on the St. Lucie River, just off the big lake. Indiantown was established by the Seminole people as a trading Post.

On the way to our destination, we were intrigued by Slim’s riverside sign (below), too bad we didn’t have time to stop, it looked like it might be an interesting place to investigate off the river.

Finishing up the last leg of the “Rim Route” today to go through the lock and enter the St. Lucie River.

St. Lucie Lock and Dam awaited us this morning. We were the only boat locking through and, as usual, it was an easy process.

By the time we made it to Indiantown, the sun made a spectacular reappearance. Indiantown Marina looked like a peaceful haven for boaters looking to get off the water for a time.

Our neighbors at the marina were colorful and unique. This is a homeport for many and a very nice one at that. Loved how the woman on Pandemonium shaded her cockpit with a beautiful, big umbrella.

After two days on the boat, we needed to stretch our legs, so we headed toward town, we didn’t know if we’d make it there or not as it was already hot and humid at midday. Not surprisingly, we only made it to the end of the long straight road outside the marina, we could see the edge of town from there, but then turned around to head back to the boat. Look at what we happened to notice on the ground by the side of the road – if you guessed remnants of an alligator, you are right. Made us think twice about the wisdom of taking a long walk on that road.

The post We Found a Boating Haven in Indiantown, Florida appeared first on Trailer Trawler Life Blog – Cruising USA & Canada.

“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.

The post Rim Route to South Bay Cove on Lake Okeechobee, Florida appeared first on Trailer Trawler Life Blog – Cruising USA & Canada.