Lady Chateau's Journey: Spring 2022

4/25/22 It's starting to get warm in Ft Lauderdale, and that means that it's time to get going. It's been a good winter, but now we're looking forward to being back in Stillwater and a great summer. As everyone knows, the fuel prices have gone through the roof and we need to be prudent shoppers. We loaded fuel a few weeks ago but didn't fill up. The thought was that the prices would go down. Well, it hasn't. Silly me! So, we'll have to find a spot prior to arriving in Apalachicola, where the pricing is a little more reasonable.

The wind has been blowing for weeks in South Florida, and today is another day of that. So, it'll be the long drudge up the Intracoastal through Stuart and tie to the pilings at the St Lucie Lock. It was after 8:00PM when we shut off the engines, but it'll be a good nights sleep!

4/26 It took a while for the operations, but we departed the St Lucie Lock at 8:30. Although they open at 7:00AM, an eastbound tow took some time to get through, but we're not in a hurry. Todays destination is the dock at Moorehaven. It's on the west side of Lake Okeechobbe, and this is where the shallow water gets our attentions. Plus, if it's windy and rough, the spay gets the boat so very dirty. Today, though, it's a perfect day. Just a slight breeze on our stern and a blue sky. Here, we're entering the Port Mayacca Lock. If the Lake level gets low, the gates on the lock remain open, and we can pass right through ...

It's about 25 miles across the Lake and then around the rim to Moorhaven where there's a great little stop with a great dock ...

There's some cleaning to do and a little straightening up, but there's time for a look at a beautiful monument to fallen members of the services ...

While we're looking around, a relic from the past chugs by on the tracks ...

4/27 Today isn't too long, so it's a reasonable departure time for us. We couldn't leave too early because the first Lock of the day doesn't open 'till 7:00. It's another beautiful day and we arrive just in time to enter with with two sailboats ...

The ride for today takes us through Ft Myers, and over to Cabbage Key for the night. Our Crew looks ecstatic!

There's so much small boat traffic while we're here on the Intracoastal Waterway. It's a ZOO! But, we get to our spot, through the anchor, and see another sunset ...

Here's a few of the dwellings on the Island ...

4/28 After cooking dinner last night, one generator shut down because it had overheated. The Captain took off the Captain hat and put on the Mechanic hat. After a quick inspection it was found that "seaweed" had clogged the raw water intake. The Captain "skillfully" completed the repair, but was worried about a re-occurance. There was much seaweed in the water and the only way to prevent another episode was to not run the generator. That's fine, but there then was no electricity, and no air conditioning ... and little sleep. Be that as it may, the morning was beautiful and off we go for Sarasota as the sun was greeting us for the day ...

Another beautiful day! There was so much small boat traffic as we went through Ft Myers, and we're thankful that today doesn't have so much. The forecast for the jump from Clearwater to Apalachicola looks to be good for Monday, so we'll go slowly on the ICW and save some fuel. Today will find us in Sarasota just by downtown. It's a great spot and we'll get in early enough for some relaxation. This is our view as we approach Sarasota ...

4/29 We're off to Clearwater! We have dock reservations at the City Marina for Saturday night, so we'll find an anchorage for tonight, and then move over. First, though, we need to find fuel. First before that is going through Tampa Bay and the Sunshine Causeway Bridge. That's it, way off in the distance ...

We earlier checked around and found a helpful guy with a truck and a dock, so that was our plan. Unfortunately, his price went up 50 cents in two days, so he suggested looking around. I'm glad that we did. We found a marina that would give a us great (really? A great price?) price and stopped along the way. After fueling, we continued up the ICW right into a storm. This time of the year has the temps high, and the humidity high. This is a good recipe for storms. As the ground heats up, the clouds form and them dump all of the humidity ... along with some wind, too. We were stuck in rain so hard-hat we couldn't see and the anemometer showed 50 knots. Whew! That rinsed off the salt from the boat.

After about 45 minutes of holding position by a bridge for a reference point, we continued up to our spot for the evening. Our Crew seems to be satisfied with our anchoring ...

4/30 We have a little time to spend prior to moving over to the dock, so the captain did a little painting project ... woo hoo! Here's where we're going ...

It's a great spot that's right next to the Gulf Beach. I can get off and run and there's many stores close by for a scooter ride.

5/2 Today, we cross! We've waited a couple days for good weather, and we have it! Because it's going to be a very long day, we were off the dock pretty early. One concern for us is that closer to the shore, there are crab traps. These crab traps have floats with lines on them that if we run over, may get caught in our prop. We don't want that! So we had about an hour of darkness as we were offshore which makes it tougher to see those buggers, but we did well and missed the all. The seas were small and we had a mostly following wind.

There's not much traffic going north, but we did see a few shrimp boats ...

There's an inlet at Apalachicola, but it has shoaled in. That means we have to use the inlet that's about 20 miles to the east. This makes our ride a little longer, but at least we can make passage inland. We reached the Carrabelle marker #1 about 9:00PM, just after the sun set. After the ride to Apalachicola, it was after midnight ... whew!

5/3 Morning in Apalachicola, and it's time for a little more fuel.

We're fortunate to buy from a distributer and get a little better pricing. But still, boy, it's expensive.

We're off to Panama City ...

Eat of Panama City is a good sized shipyard that builds some pretty big hardware ...

Panama City has a fairly good sized port for international commerce ...

There was a hurricane a few years ago that has left its impact on the area. The marina that at which we enjoy staying has been demolished. So, it's a night at anchor ...

5/3 Today, we're off for the Pensacola area. There's a stretch between the bays of the two cities that's long and narrow ...

Of course, we all need to keep up on our nourishment!

This section takes us past the inlet at Destin ...

Riding towards our anchorage for the evening ...

5/4 We're off to Mobile and a transition point. This is where we'll lose one Jim, but gain another. First, we'll travel some canal miles to get to Mobile Bay ...