Clewiston

Just a quick "woo hoo" to us -- on this day, a year ago, we started out on our Great Loop voyage.

We'd been here before, Clewiston, over a year ago. Captain Randy brought us here on our first big day across the state to bring Cat-n-Dogs to Palmetto. November of 2018. We didn't stop on our way over during the loop -- we were making long run days to get to Stuart. We're taking a slower pace this time.

After! Spiffy, no?

Not as slow as we'd hoped since we lost a number of days at River Forest. But the timing seems to be working out. We should be able to cross Lake Okeechobee tomorrow morning, and we'll get an early start to make sure we do.

Hectic start to the day. We stayed at the LaBelle Port Inn, which is an odd hotel and convention space smack in the middle of nowhere. It seemed weird when we got there, but it was clean and convenient to the boat. We weren't murdered in our sleep, so, you know, a plus.

These she is, stuck. The carrier broke down!

The plan was to splash (that's boater-speak for "put the boat in the water") first thing in the morning. We also had to return the rental car. So there was a little hustle this morning -- eating, getting to the boat, clean the car a bit, then me and the dog hung out while Russ returned the car. All the while they were taking the boat off it's blocks and putting it on the carrier. 

That's when we hit hitch #1. The carrier stopped working. People milled about, scratched their heads, tried this and that. Then they wired the remote in and managed to get it over the pit. Then it wouldn't lower all the way. Thankfully, it did work (and didn't drop the boat!) and we were underway around 10 am.

Hounded by hounds

This part of the trip is made up of long stretches of canal with little to do including steering. We didn't have far to go, less than 30 miles, so with the exception of a small wait at the Moore Haven Lock, it all went dandy.