WE CROSSED LAKE OKEECHOBEE on Friday the 26th of February even though we had decided it was too windy to cross (we never listen to ourselves).  The trip from Labelle to Clewiston was pretty with lots of farm land and the waterway is fairly wide and deep.

Bee hives along the way

The town of Moore Haven is a center for the sugarcane industry.  From the boaters point of view the sugarcane fields are a mixed blessing.  As part of the cutting process the fields are burned and your boat may end up covered in sooty black flakes. 

.  The former beauty of this stretch has been destroyed by the Corps of Engineers project to eradicate the exotic casuarina trees along the shoreline. 

The waterway heading out to the lake  - the lake is actually on the other side of the tall grass on the left side of the pic.

Last stop before going out onto the lake - we decided to poke our nose out into the lake and see if the waves were as bad as "they" were predicting. This place reminded us of Bobby's Fish Camp on the Tennessee River (minus the fish camp). 

Poking out into the lake - maybe we will go - maybe we won't

By the time we got to the lake and found out it was bumpy it would have taken us at least 45 minutes to go back to Clewiston Marina and we were looking at a 3 hour crossing so once again we talked ourselves into doing a crossing that probably shouldn't have happened.  The lake is the second larget freshwater lake located wholly in the continental United States.  However, it is a very shallow lake with normal depts from 11 to 17 feet and "they" say never cross in a north wind - oh well it was only 3 hours

.    

When we got to the other side of the lake the Port Mayaca Lock was wide open - unfortunately this mean't trying to manuever a single screw boat with a high, wind catching bow, surfing on 3 foot waves thru a 40 foot space.  One of us screamed all the way thru - and not joyful screams. 

Stopped at Indiantown Marina for the night and some old friends from our Marathon Marina days were there on "Norseman"  always amazing when your paths cross again.