Labelle

Labelle, FL is a medium size town on the Okeechobee waterway.  The town has recently built a waterfront park and slips for transient boaters, like us.  The docks are nice, but too narrow for our beam-15’6”.  So we came in bow first, and wedged into the slip!  The sailboat next to us is owned by two Brits, on a 10 week holiday in the US.  He is ex-military, and they are quite adventurous, having visited all states in the continental US by motorcycle.  Too bad Ken (my Brit brother-in-law) did not make the trip.  He would have liked these people. 

We had a long day today, and have gone through just one of the five Okeechobee locks.  The waterway is a short cut across Florida, and is maintained by the Corps.  The locks are almost exclusively used by pleasure boaters, so are much easier (and the lock-masters friendlier) than on the rivers, where commercial traffic rules.  This is link to a map of the waterway: http://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/images/webcams/owwmap.pdf

Tomorrow we continue east.  Happy New Year to all! Note-click on a picture to enlarge it.

Live bait boat

Fort Myers

Locking through

Okeechobee home

Labelle

Wedged in!