After retrieving George's Buick, we dropped John off at Palm Beach Airport, drove across state back to Fort Myers Beach to Peter's Suburban then to Orlando. Peter drove home to Hampstead, N.C. on Saturday the 21st.
After crossing Okeechobee, the waterway mostly looks like this with sugar cane to the south and cattle/citrus to the north - on left. On this trip, there was a 13 foot 'lock down' at the Saint Lucie Locks.
Peter and George
Peter at helm and John on deck - St. Lucie River, approaching Stuart.
George
John
George on Bow - St. Lucie River
We will leave tomorrow for the 60 statute mile trip to Stuart, Florida where ALEXANDRA will be docked for a week or so while we return home to do our end of month "shore chores".
The mouth of the Caloosahatchee River at San Carlos Bay - heading eastward towards Fort Myers.
South Cape Coral
Fort Myers at "the bridges"
Approaching Franklin Locks - the first of 3 "lock ups" totaling 13 feet on the way to Lake Okeechobee
Departing Franklin Lock
Looking aft, westward, this channel of the Okeechobee Waterway is bordered by the dike that runs all the way around the lake (on left) and marsh grass (like the Everglades) on the right.
Approaching Clewiston, headquarters of U.S. Sugar, with the dike on right and some solid ground on left. 10 years ago, when we passed through here, the land was covered with trees. We are doing 14 knots here -- she rides really smooth and quiet on this calm water.
Departing Cabbage Key ... North Captiva and Captiva Islands on the right.
Looking back on North Pine Island Sound towards Charlotte Harbor.
Approaching Sanibel Island Bridge.
Sanibel Island Welcome Committee
Heading across the mouth of San Carlos Bay towards Fort Myers Beach (Estero Island) in the distance.
Lunch at Cabbage Key - Peter, John, George. The walls and ceilings of the entire restaurant are covered with dollar bills that customers have signed and taped to the surfaces - some estimates are over 1 million dollar bills!
On board, relaxing, before the trip back to Snook Bight some 26 nm to the South...
Brandy, Peter and John returning from walking the nature paths on Cabbage Key.
Scenes from life on the Key ...
We all agreed that it would NOT be difficult to live here for the cooler months of the year --
The natural vegetation that exists on the 1,000's of Keys in Southwest Florida.
I don't know how often I will post this coming week because we will be underway much of the time:
Notice how the Palms are yellowish from the record cold weather from 2 weeks ago -- mid 80's today!
This is looking North midway on the Pier. On the distant left hand horizon, you can see Sanibel Island with thick fog on Gulf Coast and sunny on the inside waterway. Left click on photos to view larger size ---
In the center of photo, you can see numerous boats at anchor doing the raft-up party thing. Parasailing, 'banana' boat rides and other water activities are available at the many beach concessions. There seemed to be a very "liberal" beach party policy -- a 3 day weekend was at full speed ahead!
Peter, Dave MacFarlane and Cookie Boyd and his girls on way to The Dock for lunch -- 
The very northerly end of Fort Myers Beach, FL.
I didn't get many photos because was first time kayaking for George and did not want to put the new camera in danger of 'swiming' ... oh well --- It was a great time and we hope to do it again before crossing the state.
