Travels of the Confetti

3/1/11  We left Fort Myers at the same time as new friends Steve and Marty.  We were on the Caloosahatchee River for about 55 miles.  It's a lovely quiet area.  We went through the Franklin Lock and the Ortona Lock.  We passed more fragrant orange groves and jasmine.  We passed more beautiful estates and one property had cattle and a camel.  We docked at Moore Haven City Dock.
3/2/11   The town is little with a cafe and a library.  We walked the whole square mile that was "town".
3/3-3/4  Dick took pictures of the tiny restaurant that had hurricane damage.  In the corner of the cafe about six men met daily under a sign that said "Liars Corner" and that group included the sheriff. We went to the best rodeo ever.  We were close enough to have dust in our faces.  We went with cruising friends Nancy and Barry, and Elizabeth and Shay.  We had quite a surprise to have Terry and Lauren knock on our door.  This time they were in a truck and they checked the marina to see if we were there.
3/5/11 A very nice parade came past our boat.  Marching bands.  Nice floats.  They were celebrating the spawning of the bass.  We left Moore Haven at 12:30 after 5 days waiting for the wind to settle down.  We went through the MooreHaven Lock.  Then for the next 10 miles the grass was tall and we saw 4 alligators, beautiful water birds, osprey, herons, and egret.  We tied between two 20' dolphins (a swimming mammal and a bundle of 7 vertical pilings).  It took 30 min to tie securely.
3/6/11  At 6:45 AM we left to cross Lake Okeechobee.  We went through the Port Mayorca Lock.  Went past 2 Bald Eagles.  We got into some smoke from the large wild fires that Florida is having.  We even had a little ash on board.  We were in it for about an hour.  We went through the St Lucie Lock.  It only opens at 1 & 3 - we arrived at 2 so tied to a dolphin for an hour.  The locked dropped us 12' down.  We anchored in the exact spot we were in on Jan. 5, 2010 South Fork of the St Lucie River.
3/7/11 Elizabeth and Shay were at the same anchorage with us and they dingied over for a visit.  Steve and Marty have a home here and they picked us up and took us grocery shopping and out to lunch.  We were in Stuart Florida.
3/8/11 We had a beautiful travel day to Ft Pierce.  The water is aqua again.  The dolphins were with us and at the marina where we stayed several Manatees were playing.  They don't take a good picture - mostly look like giant logs, but we were very close and enjoyed them.