Sailing Adventures On Sanctuary: Port Mayaca Bridge and on to Clewiston

We finally have met our nemesis, the Port Mayaca RR Bridge and we were triumphant. We didn't realize how tense we both were about the upcoming encounter until it was safely behind us. You have to trust that the latest reports on bridge height/water level are accurate. If the water had been too high, the clearance would have been too low and we would have had to turn around and go back to the keys then up the west coast, about a 250 mile misjudgement! As it turns out, the boat had about 8 degrees of heel with David's ingenious leaning method and it was enough, just barely. Our VHF antenna still deflected about 6 inches going under. After that, locks and Okeechobee were a piece of cake. One nice thing at the Port Mayaca lock was going through with a manatee. The water is so murky that we could only see it when it surfaced. Still a treat. It was fun to see the area that we covered on our bicycle ride around the lake. It looks very different from the water. The lake is very shallow and as we approached Clewiston you can really see how shallow. If the channel were not dredged constantly, this trip would have a different story for sure.

The narrowness of the opening was a big a concern as the clearance considering our method of leaning the boat.

You can see how far out of the water we managed to get the dingy and how far out on the boom.

The moment of truth coming up as we approach the fender boards of the bridge.

This is the dike around the lake. The bike path is still paved at this point in the route.

That was us a few years back.

Finally, we're sailing again. The constant drone of the engine is wearing after a while.

The major agricultural product around the area is sugar cane. They burn off the old cane in preparation for the next crop to be put in. We saw fires like this all over the horizon. We also had ash on the boat.