And off we went . . .

On April 1st, we pulled out of RPM heavy one crew member.  Our new friend and dockmate Tim is seen here showing us the way.  Tim was nice enough to join us for the first leg of our journey since he had just made the trip across the state through the Lake Okeechobee waterway a few months earlier.  We were sooooo glad to have him aboard for guidance and moral support.  We had spent the last 3 months whipping Phase II into shape that we left no time for "practice cruising".  Honestly, we only had about 3 hours of cruising time under our belt when we left!  What the heck, we figured we'd learn as we went!

Our first stop was in Ft. Myers Beach which on our way we passed several parasailors seen here in the distance.  The waters were blue and calm ~ just like we like them!

Along the way, we passed some awesome boats including this shrimp boat.

We actually spent our first night out of the marina "on the hook" on the other side of the bridge to Ft. Myers Beach. With Tim's help, it was easy grabbing that mooring ball line to hook up to.

It's pretty cool being out in the middle of the bay, but it's a pain in the butt to take Darbi to "do her thing" on shore!  Unfortunately the little bugger wants nothing to do with the outdoor potty patch I bought!

The next day we took off for our next stop, Clewiston, which is a little town on the west side of the lake.  Here we are going through the first of 3 locks for the day.  What a cool experience that was.  We ranged from changing water levels from 6" to 8' in the 5 different locks that we went through.  Again thanks to Tim, going through the locks were a breeze.

The trip was so scenic.  Here's a cattle ranch way out in the middle of nowhere (look closely to see the cattle near the house.)  And the "boat" to the left had about a 20' dinghy on it!

So the plan was we'd make it through the last lock just before sunset with about 2 miles left to go to get to the marina where we would spend the night.  Now it was a "miscalculation" that anyone could have made, but instead of having 2 miles left, we really had 12 miles to go!  So with this view to our stern, we headed through the canal into darkness!  For the next hour and a half, with the assistance of GPS and the distinction of land vs. water as black vs. charcoal grey, we navigated through the canal.  Again, thank you Tim for helping us through this "night time" test!!  And yes it was me that made the "miscalculation", but I am much better at reading nautical charts now!!

After a much needed good night's sleep we headed through a short channel into Lake Okeechobee, which is the 2nd largest lake in the US following Lake Michigan.  We actually got to go through this passage twice, the second time being after we had to turn around and go back to the marina to get my purse that I had left behind in the restuarant.  Yes, another bonehead move by the First Mate!!!  Dave, being the wonderful husband that he is, looked at it as a way to get a little more practice pulling in and out of marina docks!  Luckily it only cost us about 20 minutes of travel time.

After such a hard day on Saturday, we decided not to push it to get all the way to Stuart.  We stopped at a marina in Indiantown, where Florida Dave and Florida Shelly joined us for some good eating and drinking on the back deck.

After another day of scenic cruising . . .

. . . we made it to Sunset Bay Marina in Stuart, where we hung out with David, Shelly, Mackey and Jackie.  It was so great seeing them all !!!