March 2, 2018 - Stats Update

A lot of time has passed since I last posted stats but not a lot of miles. With the holidays and a long time waiting to cross the gulf, we have been sitting a lot. Linda and Roofus don’t think so, but I like to be moving or at least doing things in different towns, being in one place seems too much like being at home without transportation. This post covers from Mobile AL. to Daytona Beach, FL., which includes 270 miles on the Gulf Inter-coastal Waterway across the panhandle, 187 miles crossing the Gulf of Mexico, 193 miles on the Gulf Inter-coastal Waterway along the west coast of Florida, 146 miles across the Okeechobee Waterway, and then 160 miles up the Atlantic Inter-coastal Waterway. With this segment  we are back in tidal waters for the most part and mostly salt water, the things we are most accustomed to, but the tides are very different in timing and scope, and we have more extremes ahead.

 We are currently in Daytona Beach, FL and will be moving on tomorrow heading further north. To date, 03/02/18,  here are our stats for our Loop so far:

Miles Travelled          5206

Days Travelled           111

Hours Travelled         603

Fuel Consumed         3411 gallons

Average Speed           8.64 MPH

Locks Traversed        171

Bridges Crossed        547, of which 66 were in one day on the Chicago River

Tunnels Crossed        7

Days lost to weather      54

Days lost to repairs        13

We will be continuing north on the AICW stopping in St Augustine for a couple of days then heading to Jacksonville, FL where we will do the St Johns River side trip before returning to Jacksonville the head home up the AICW. Our projections for being complete are approximately mid-June depending on any side trips we want to do. This trip is a great adventure and learning process, as well as lots of fun and meeting wonderful people along the way.

March 2, 2018 Fort Myers to Daytona Beach, FL

Good bye west coast of Florida.  Hello Lake Okeechobee.  We have opted to not visit the Keys on this trip but rather, make it a winter destination in the next couple of years.  With that decision made we cut across the state of Florida through Lake Okeechobee.  We made our way via the rim route over a leisurely 4 days.  We saw alligators but our reaction time was lousy so there are no pics.  Suffice to say that if Roofus fell over board she would have been a nice snack.  They were pretty big. What really surprised me were the jet skiers.  They are much braver than me or maybe I am just smarter than them??!!

Sunrise the morning we left Fort Myers.

A flock white pelicans as we cruised the Caloosahatchee River on our way to Lake Okeechobee.

Moorehaven on Lake Okeechobee.  I spend most of this stop in the library catching up the blog.  Ken took pics and was fascinated with this leaning tree.  Had to include it!

Moorehaven - These are fish feeding, catfish, I think.  Ugly little things but fascinating.

Sunset in Moorehaven.  Bridge in background is Hwy 27 which goes through Clermont where Mom and Dad live. 

Another sunset pic in Moorehaven.  Such a sleepy and peaceful little town..

Our first airboat sighting.

We discovered that there are sugar cane fields south of the lake.  When burning the fields to harvest the cane both the smell and the ashes are obnoxious.  Brings back memories of when I was a kid in Hawaii but still obnoxious.

Clewiston - Another sleepy town.  Spent the day iguana watching.  They sunned on the seawall, there is one on the right and one on the left.  I will say they were having no luck with girl iguanas.  :(

Only excitement in Clewiston other than the iguanas was when a mega yacht came in for the night and docked in front of us and we weren't sure they were going to fit.  Not only did they fit, it was a thing of beauty to watch the perfection them gliding into the dock.  In last pic, Ken helped to tie her off.

We hit the east coast of Florida with a 3 day stop in Vero Beach.  We visited with Captain Chris Caldwell and went to a great Mexican restaurant, Taco Dive.  One of his favorites haunts.  Alyse was out of town and was sorry to have missed her but I am sure we will meet again in our boating travels.

Vero Beach - White sands, blue skies and the Atlantic Ocean.  I feel close to home. 

Vero Beach - This was a new one for us.  Crabs holes?  

March 1st we celebrated 10 months into our loop adventure and stayed in Cocoa Beach.  To our surprise and delight we also got to see a Atlas V rocket launch from Cape Canaveral.  It was the GOES-S mission to place a weather satellite in orbit for NOAA.  Just too cool!!!

Going, Going, Gone.............

The next day we spend a night in Daytona Beach.  As we left the next morning we were followed by a flock of seagulls seeking their morning breakfast.  I believe they ate well based on the number of times they swooped down into the water.

PS from Roofus:

Awww....a perfect afternoon.  I have my blanky, my Mom human's blanky, my favorite chew toy (a blue doggie) and a pillow shading me.  I got to enjoy a lot of these the last few days and looking forward to many more.

Life is good!