Port Mayaca

1143 nm   N26 59.165  W080 36.896

With the Sun up. we had our coffee and got underway.  Pulling up the anchor revealed that the chain and anchor were coated with a sticky, smelly, black mud that was the equal of anything we have on the Chesapeake!  It clung to the chain tenaciously, requiring repeated blasting from the washdown pump sprayer to remove.  DO NOT try this anchorage unless you have an anchor washdown pump!

Today, we would have three "firsts".  In a few miles, we would enter the first of five locks on the OCWW (the St Lucie Lock).  The OCWW locks are run a little bit differently than the locks we've been through on the ICW in that they operate on demand, and you don't have to provide docklines.  They have lines tied off and hanging down into the lock about every 10 feet.  I'm hoping this makes things easier.

Our second "first" would be the 49 ft RR lift bridge just before Port Mayaca.  This is substantially lower than many sailboat masts.  Our own mast is 45 ft, and carries a 3 ft VHF antenna on top for a total of 48 ft, leaving a theoretical clearance of just one foot.  But we all know about the gap between theory and practice...   I sure hope those bridge measurements are accurate!

And of course, our third "first" would be attempting to tie up between two "Dolphins" and spend the night moored there.  Stay tuned!

Soon, the St Lucie lock came into sight. We called the lockmaster and requested to lock through.

Entering St Lucie Lock

The doors were open, the light was green, and the lockmaster instructed us to enter.

The St Lucie lock has a lift of over 14 feet, the largest single lift in the entire OCWW system!  Entering the "concrete canyon" of the lock chamber is intimidating.

Having an extra crew member, combined with the hanging docklines, really made things a lot easier, as we could pick up the bow and stern lines at the same time.  But with the high concrete wall, and a port side docking, I realized that we had to be careful to keep the stern a bit out from the wall in order to keep the wind generator from striking it!

As soon as we were secure, the doors closed behind us.

Doors Closing...

Waiting...

Suddenly, with a loud clunk the upper doors lurched open a foot, and a mad rushing torrent came noisily gushing in!

The Water Enters

The turbulence gently rocked the boat, and pushed it backwards.  I slipped the transmission into gear and gently gave it some gas, just enough to hold our position.  We rose slowly. 

As the water level in the lock came closer to the level on the other side, the flow would slack off, but the lockmaster kept inching the gates open a little further to restore the flow.

And in no time at all, the level was fully up, the gates were fully open, and the lockmaster signaled us to exit.  We pulled away and continued on our way.

And We Leave

Nothing to it! ;)

Our next challenge came near the end of our day.  The 49 ft RR lift bridge. 
There are no tides here, but the water level can vary a foot or two depending on rainfall or drought. The Army Corp of Engineers releases daily updates on the lake level and bridge clearance, and today's report said 50.70 feet.  We should have nearly two feet of clearance!

How Tall is it, Really?

I slowed the boat to idle, then put it in neutral.  2 knots, 1.5 knots,  1 knot..  I brought us right to the edge of the bridge and inched forward at 0.4 knots, barely enough for steerage. 
I listened carefully for the telltale "tink",  "tink", "tink" of the antenna on the bridge girders, but there was silence.  We made it!

After we started breathing again, the Port Mayaca Lock was coming up next. 
As we came within sight of the dolphins, we saw that there was already one boat strung between two of them, so we proceeded past them to an empty pair.

We had strung together two of our 40 ft lines with two of our 30 ft lines to make a pair of 70 ft lines, as the spacing between the dolphins was quite wide.  My original plan was to nose up to one, attach a line to the cleat, and back to the other one.

But at the last minute I changed my mind, deciding it would be easier to pull alongside one to get the stern line on from amidships, then proceed forward to the other to get the bow line on.

And it almost worked!  We got the stern line on with little trouble, and were inching towards the other dolphin to attach the bow line, when the boat suddenly stopped and lurched to one side.

We had run out of line.  70 ft wasn't enough!

We had to back off a bit and tie on another 30 ft line and try again,  This time, things went (more or less) according to plan and we were safely tied off to the dolphins for the night.

Tied up Forward...

... and Aft

Tomorrow, we go through the lock and cross Lake Okechobee.

Life is good.