Disney World, touring SW Florida, Christmas
Trip Start
Jul 21, 2001
1
34
45
Trip End
Apr 22, 2002
Turkey Creek,
Florida,
United States
Tuesday, December 4, 2001
Leaving Stuart, we entered the narrow canals of the Okeechobee Waterway. The waterway which bisects the lower third of Florida was opened in 1937 to provide mariners with an opportunity to transit across the state from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico.
Lake Okeechobee is the second largest freshwater lake in the continental United States (after Lake Michigan). The lake is completely enclosed by a levee system officially named the Herbert Hoover Dike. Entry to and exit from the lake is controlled by locks at Port Mayaca, Clewiston and Moore Haven. Like the Dismal Swamp, in low water years, the locks can be closed to traffic so it is important to always check with the Army Corps of Engineers for up-to-date information on lake depths and in our case, the bridge height at Port Mayaca.
All fixed bridges on the ICW have a minimum height of 65 feet but the bridge at Port Mayaca has a height of only 49 feet. Our mast with lights and antenna is about 48 feet 6 inches so it would be close but we should be okay. We still called the Corps of Engineers to make sure of the height as it is affected by the water level of Lake Okeechobee. They told us that the minimum height was 49 feet two inches and that Route 1, across the lake, had a minimum depth of 8 feet. Let's go!
We spent the night at Indiantown Marina where we had hoped to leave our boat when we returned in the spring. This is a very popular boat yard with a 20+ acre field storage area but unfortunately they had a waiting list of 60 boats and were not taking any more reservations. We hadn't been checking storage yards on the way down as we had counted on staying here but an article in Cruising World about the excellence of the Indiantown facilities led to a great increase in reservations this year.
Dec. 14
Mike and Joan Tilston arrived to welcome us to South Florida. Mike came aboard to sail with us for the day and to show us the way to their dock in Turkey Creek. It has been a long time since Mike (a trawler owner) piloted a sailboat but he soon remembered his old days of sailing and was quite at home behind the helm. In our honour, he even wore his Manitoulin Island T-shirt to make us feel at home.
We were able to sail once we entered Lake Okeechobee but far too soon we were back to motor sailing. The lake is roughly circular running 32 miles from north to south and 27 miles east to west. This huge lake is very shallow with depths ranging from 6 feet to 14 feet. It felt strange to be on such a large body of water and watch the depth sounder stay constantly around 10 feet.
After the 22 mile crossing, we entered a protected canal behind a bank of islands that lead from Clewiston to Moore Haven. What an interesting part of the waterway. In this area, one would never know that Ospreys are an endangered species as we counted over twenty in an eight mile section between the towns. On the land side of the canal are the high sculptured banks of the dikes which surround the lake. On the water side are miles of dead and rotting melaluka trees, swamps and incredible bird life.
About three miles from Turkey Creek is Glades Boat Storage. As you come down the river, in the distance one sees a forest of masts rising above the banks of the canal. There is no marina at Glades just acres of dry land storage space. Since we couldn't stay at Indiantown, we will have to investigate this noted boat yard.
Finally, in the dark, we slowly maneuvered our way into the narrow canal off the waterway and tied off in front of the Tilston's boat - the SANDI C.
Dec. 15 - Dec. 20
Turkey Creek is one of those communities in which each home has a dock on a canal. There is one main channel leading from the waterway and then 5 canals off this channel. Mike and Joan were on the first canal. We soon found that we shared this area with a resident 6 foot alligator which would sun itself on the other bank each afternoon. An interesting neighbour!
Turkey Creek is a wonderful little community and we are surrounded with orange, banana, grapefruit and lemon trees.
Each morning when Joan returned from her walk, she would leave on our deck freshly picked fruit for our morning breakfast. One of the strangest gifts was a huge lemon from a Ponderosa Lemon tree.
Mike and Joan are fabulous hosts and eagerly took us sightseeing throughout the area. We intended on using our time here to provision the boat for the crossing to the Bahamas and shopping was a priority. We will be gone for about 3 months and it is essential that all equipment is in good repair and any spare parts are bought in advance as it is very expensive to import them later.
One day, they took us to Fort Myers beach so I could buy needed marine equipment. We found both a Boat U.S. and a West Marine store. WOW!!! One of the many pieces of equipment which had developed problems was our head (toilet to landlubbers). The repair kit would have cost$110. Since a new head costs $140, I said no thanks. When we went to the area where they were kept we found the same head that I was trying to repair on sale for $99. Great deal.
We also took time from shopping to see the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico where Margaret enjoyed one of her favourite pastimes, walking in the warm, afternoon surf. We can't wait to get to the Bahamas and do this every day.
When we returned to our boat, I thought I'd see if I could fix the head since, if I made a mess of the job, we had the new one to replace it. To make a smelly story short, I did fix it, for now at least. We'll just have to see how long it holds up. All the cruising books advise carrying spare parts; we've gone one better and have a complete new head safely stored far aft in the cockpit locker.
Dec. 21-23
We rented a car for the weekend and drove to Orlando to meet our friends from Manitoulin, the Cunninghams. Jan had arranged for rooms at a Days Inn in Kissimmee at a great rate of $39 U.S. just ten minutes from the turnoff to Disney World. It was so great to see them and the kids. They had arrived the previous day and had gone to a Time Share presentation and saved about $80 on family tickets for a week at the four Disney World theme parks so we decided we would try and take advantage of the offer also. They took us out to an excellent dinner and while there we signed up for a different presentation from their previous one. We chose Magic Kingdom as our enticement (we would get $60 off the $100 entry fee). Since they already had tickets for all the parks they chose Sea World and will visit there when they return after Christmas.
The Westgate Resorts presentation included a free breakfast buffet and was a much better offer than the one we listened to in Charleston. If we hadn't tied up all our money in the boat and were facing a number of major costs depending on what we do next year, we probably would have bought the time share. Not only was it a beautiful place, in a great location but you could switch weeks on a cruise line like the Royal Caribbean. Valerie Boland had arranged three different cruises on this line for us in the past and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves on their outstanding ships.
Anyway, both families were soon on their way to enjoy a day of fantasy. The main street picture of us shows from left to right Margaret, Miss Cool Carol, Roy, Paula and Laura all set for a day's fantasy adventure.Over the years we have seen many TV shows of the Magic Kingdoms events but none of these can compare with being there. I know that many of you who follow this web site have been to Disney World yourselves, so Ill just list some of the attractions we packed into the day so hopefully it will bring back great memories of your time there.
Frontierland:
Splash Mountain on a hollow log through Brier Rabbits Laughin Place with a 5-story drop into the Briar Patch(voted best ride by Laura, Paula, Bruce and Roy)
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad on a runaway mine train (See picture of Bruce and Laura) Country Bear jamboree
Liberty Square:
The Hall of Presidents
The Diamond Horseshoe Saloon Revue
Fantasyland: (Carol, Jan and Margaret went on these rides)
its a small world magical indoor boat ride
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (see picture of Margaret and Carol aboard the hunny pot This was Carols, Jan and Margaret's vote for best ride)
Peter Pans Flight (they flew above Never Neverland aboard a pirate ship)
Tomorrowland (Laura, Paula, Bruce and Roy went here)
The ExtraTERRORestial Alien Encounter (an experiment goes awry and brings an angry alien within a claws reach of you. I didn't enjoy this one and certainly you shouldn't take small children to it unless you want them to have nightmares afterwards)
Space Mountain (zipping through the blackness of space on a high-speed roller coaster)
We also enjoyed a wonderful Christmas parade and it was made very special for us because of the presence and the infectious excitement shown by Carol, Laura and Paula. In addition to all of the above, in the evening we enjoyed the Spectro Magic Parade of lights and an awesome fireworks display. This year a number of their special events and parades honoured the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney's birth. He certainly was an incredible man with a brilliant vision of creating a magical world for people of all ages. Bruce, Jan, Carol, Laura and Paula, thank you for your presence during a wonderful day. It was a special treat to share our time in the Magic Kingdom with a such a great family.
Dec. 23 - 27
"We bought a new home!"
When we returned from our weekend excursion, Mike and Joan greeted us with these words. Originally they had planned to cruise the Bahamas with us aboard their 40 foot trawler, In the last month, they decided they had enough of cruising and put the boat up for sale. When we left for Disney World, the plan was that they would be renting a small trailer in the subdivision and take one last short cruise to accompany us to Lake Worth before our crossing to the Bahamas. Now a few days later, they were the proud owners of a new home and content to give up their traveling ways forever. How people's plans can quickly change.
Their home is the property adjacent to the Vicki and Lloyd Hennum who were providing us and the Tilstons with the use of their dock. Now Mike and Joan would own two docks of their own as well as a home on a large corner property.
Their property contains numerous palms, an excellent grapefruit tree, flowers and shrubs and Mike's favourite - a cactus, just up from his new dock. Of course, by selling his boat he won't need it anymore but a number of people in this subdivision earn a good income by renting out their docks.
When the Cunninghams came to Florida, they brought our mail for the last month along with very special curling tapes. John Hodder had taped the Skins Competition and the Canadian Olympic playdowns. We spent the several days watching these great games. In fact, on Christmas when we were invited over to the Tilstons new home to celebrate we four Canadians spent the evening watching one of our national pastimes. John - thank you so much for all your work, we truly enjoyed the tapes. We have saved the finals of the Olympic trails to watch in the New Year and remind us what were missing back home on TSN.
Dec. 26
The day finally came to say goodbye and start the two day trip back across the Okeechobee Waterway to meet NICOU in Stuart before heading together to West Palm Beach and Lake Worth. It would not be a good day. Unfortunately, the engine wouldn't start. I spent an hour trying to get it going with no luck. In past years, we have always had problems starting it but the addition of a preheater had helped. It wasn't working and, finally, I used the propane heater we carry to warm up the engine until it started.
We were all set to cast off when Mike came out with an email he just received, the railway bridge which we have to pass under at Port Mayaca was closed . We then phoned the Corps of Engineers and found out that this very reliable bridge was closed for repairs and wouldn't open until possibly JANUARY 4!
Next, while working on the engine I noticed that the water pump was leaking and not from the little plate you take off to change the impeller, which would have meant just a new gasket to fix the problem. Instead there is either a small crack in the cast portion of the pump or a seal inside is gone. Not my week for pumps as yesterday I just finished installing a new bilge pump as the old one died. We ordered a new pump and since it is a Volvo product of course it is very expensive. In addition, I will have to pay for overnight delivery to the dealer as he didn't have one in stock. After lunch I decided to check the water levels in the batteries and yes they were low. Our batteries are in a very confined area and difficult to work on but finally each cell was filled. Feeling I had at least accomplished one thing that day, I decided to celebrate with a beer. When I opened the can, foam spewed all over. Rushing to put it in the sink, I stepped on the cat's tail. Now everyone on the boat had something to complain about. What a day!
Dec. 27
Mike and Joan wanted to show us Naples previously so we took advantage of a rather dreary day to head to Naples and then pick up the water pump in Fort Myers. What a beautiful drive. Naples obviously is the home of many very wealthy people and the views of the numerous gated communities was breathtakingly beautiful. What homes, what landscaping surrounding man-made lakes with huge water fountains in the middle of these lakes. Quite a place to live. Next year, we may cruise this area so they took us to the Municipal Marina to see where they had stayed three years previously. It was here that I finally got my closeup of a pelican as he/she? waited to be fed by a fisherman cleaning his catch on the dock.
Since entering the Carolinas, pelicans have accompanied us throughout our cruise. They present so many different faces: comical, graceful, contemplative, smug, etc. South of Charleston two pelicans played with our boat for about 3 miles as we cruised a narrow waterway. They would fly up the waterway from behind the boat and then so effortlessly and gracefully glide past our boat only 5 - 10 feet away, with wing tips just skimming the top of the water. When they saw a fish they would scoop down with their bills, catch one and then float to the side as we motored by. Once, the fish must have been too large because we watched as the pelican took an abrupt nose dive into the water and tumbled end over end with a huge splash. So much for grace and beauty! While at anchor in the bay at Camp Lejeune, we watched two pelican fish in a different manner. They would fly over the water about 20 feet in the air. When they saw their catch they seemed to just drop from the sky and crash, not dive, into the water. Almost like someone doing a belly flop. In Indian River, we saw a third type of fishing that we had read about but in talking with other people few have seen. There is a small white bird which immediately flies down on top of the pelican's head after it catches something. Apparently, it is hoping the pelican will drop its catch and the white bird will be able to retrieve it. We saw this a number of times that day but the pelican never lost its catch.
As we entered so many swing bridges, we would be watched by very smug looking pelicans. It seemed they were all intent on seeing if the passing boats would be caught by the cross currents and provide some entertainment for the day.
Dec. 28
Two days ago wasn't a very good day but this was a great day. I installed the new raw water pump on the engine, getting all the gears and clogs inserted correctly the first time and there were no leaks afterwards!!! Mike, a former electronics teacher at Manitoulin Secondary School, helped troubleshoot the problem with the preheater. The Ohm meter showed the unit was working fine and he traced the cause to a short in one of the wires leading from the engine. Easily fixed and the engine started fine once again. The engine is an 18 hp Volvo diesel and after 17 years needs the help of being warm to aid its compression difficulties. It shouldn't need it in these warm waters, but it does. Once its warm, it has always started fine.
Then the best news of all came when I phoned the man in charge of the bridge repairs. He said the work was going well and they hoped to have it fully operational the next day. In the afternoon, we said a sad farewell to two superb hosts and headed back up the Okeechobee Waterway with 93 miles to go until we could exit this system. We motored till dark and,fighting off hordes of mosquitoes, anchored bow and stern in the canal.
