Our Great Loop Adventure began officially at 1050 on Wednesday, September 19, 2012, when we entered the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Red Marker #20 just south of the Gasparilla Island bridge, as we left the Gasparilla Marina channel. This is the point where we will "cross our wake" and complete the Loop.
Our first "landfall" was Fort Myers.
We stayed a couple of days here, refuelling and catching our breath. Also dined at The Verandah, which we had discovered during an earlier visit last spring. We love the Gulf Coast!
Then it was on to the Okeechobee Waterway, which crosses Florida from the Gulf coast to the east coast through a series of rivers and canals and nearly 40 miles across Lake Okeechobee.
Here we are approaching Clewiston, on the western shore of the lake.
We thought we'd left construction delays behind us, but apparently not! We managed to squeeze through here without a scratch.
Clewiston, Friday, September 21, 2012.
Here, we're heading out of Clewiston into Lake Okeechobee, for our first "crossing".
During which, we discovered the magic of the auto pilot. Look, no hands!
Saturday night, September 22, we stayed at Indiantown - one of those unplanned, unexpected delights. Had a wonderful meal in the local Italian restaurant, which sent a car to pick us up and then drove us back to the marina
"Wealth" is very visible all along the waterfront that we have seen in Florida, but apparently not everyone could keep up the payments - there were quite a few abandoned vessels along the way.
We saw only one alligator - dead and flat on its back.
And, finally, the end of Stage 1 of our Great Loop Adventure, at the Hinckley Yard at Stuart, where TOSCA II will stay until mid-November.
It was great to be back in Stuart, where we had spent several weeks in the Spring at the Chapman School of Seamanship (see Journey to the Loop) and to catch up with some of our instructors. This is Captain Russ, who came to check out our new boat and gave her his seal of approval. He taught us "weather" and we can't look at a cloud now without wondering about "vertical development"!
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