One month in a 310 Sundancer

[RonF]

I know that a lot of CSR members are planning their 2009 cruises, but we just finished our big one for the year. We wanted to beat the Florida summer heat, but we still encountered unseasonably hot weather for much of the time. This was our first retirement cruise, everything before this was a week or less.

We took the boat from North Palm Beach, through the Okeechobee waterway, and up the west coast.

On the way out we stayed at:
River Forest, Stuart
River Forest, LaBelle
Legacy Harbor, Ft. Myers
Tween Waters, Captiva
Palm Island, Cape Haze
Marina Jack, Sarasota
Bradenton Beach, Bradenton Beach (Ana Maria Island)

On the way back:
Boca Grande, Gasparilla Island
Cape Harbor, Cape Coral
Rialto Harbor, Alva
Roland Martin, Clewiston
Harborage, Stuart

WHAT A BLAST

 

[osd9]

I'm jealous!!!!

Curious....any reason you didn't go south to the Keys? Next year?

enjoy retirement!!!!

 

[barryg]

sounds wonderful. Any photos you can post, or a link to your photos?

Enjoy retirement.

 

[Kurt]

I hate you right now.

I am so envious. After I finish grad school I hope to move back to the Florida/Gulf of Mexico.

 

[RonF]

I'm jealous!!!!

Curious....any reason you didn't go south to the Keys? Next year?

enjoy retirement!!!!

In the past we have made two 10-day trips to the Keys, each time getting as far as Duck Key. Also, we have been to Key West a couple of times by car. So we wanted to do something completely different. Next year we'd like to get up to St. Augustine or Jacksonville

 

[Turtlesboat]

This thread is pointless without pics.

 

[berth control]

This thread is pointless without pics.

OSD, Kurt, and myself openly admit we are jealous. Some of us haven't made it that far yet...........

 

[my3sons]

Congrats on what sounds like a great trip! I know I am looking forward to being able to shove off for more than a week or 10 days at a time someday. When you get a chance, post some pics and give some stats like how long it took, highs, lows, won't do that agains, etc :thumbsup:

 

[RonF]

I'm working on a selection of pictures, and I'll have to resize them for posting.

My post was mostly meant to show that the 310 is a capable and comfortable boat for trips.

 

[berth control]

I'm working on a selection of pictures, and I'll have to resize them for posting.

My post was mostly meant to show that the 310 is a capable and comfortable boat for trips.

Good point - it's all perspective. Four Sunns said a while ago that he wanted a bigger boat for the space when on trips.

I spent 18 straight days on the 270 last year with my wife, it was actually pretty comfortable - as long as you stay at a marina with facilities. We ate on the boat about 80% of the time too.

 

[Tail Chaser 661]

Curious as to how many miles is a round trip like that.?

I'm on the west coast

 

[RonF]

Curious as to how many miles is a round trip like that.?

I'm on the west coast

I just did a rough estimate using the distance function in Google Earth, and it looks like 250 miles each way.

We used 640 gallons of gas.

 

[Uplate]

I'm working on a selection of pictures, and I'll have to resize them for posting.

My post was mostly meant to show that the 310 is a capable and comfortable boat for trips.

Great Story Ron. I also have a 310 and spend some weekends onboard. We are most comfortable. I am jealous of your trip as I am land locked. I could always drop over to the TN river and get down to the Gulf. I always thought a 380 would be a good starter size for this kind of trip. Nice to hear the 310 is serving you well.

 

[Tail Chaser 661]

I just did a rough estimate using the distance function in Google Earth, and it looks like 250 miles each way.

We used 640 gallons of gas.

Thanks,
Thats some good running.
Nice trip :thumbsup:

 

[RonF]

Come to think about it, that's less than 1 mile per gallon, and we certainly didn't travel at cruise speed for the whole trip. So I have probably underestimated the miles. I did clock the engine hours at 50.1, and there were a lot of slow zones and idling.

 

[RonF]

I'm starting to add some pictures. this will take several posts.

Here we are in the St. Lucie lock westbound. Locking through took 1 3/4 hrs, counting the wait, eight boats entering, and about 8 foot rise.

They raise the level in the lock by opening the gates a little to let the water pour in

Here's my wife, tending to one of the lines along the lock wall.

And away we go into the river

The river was wide and smooth, but it's a long way to the Lake

Here is a swing bridge along the way

Here we are entering Lake Okeechobee from the Port Mayaca lock. We are going southwest, and exiting through the lock approach channel. Can't see the bottom of the lake from here. The lake channel does not go directly accross westbound.

At the bottom we enter the Clewiston approach channel

There is another lock at the bottom of Lake Okeechobee, for exiting the lake at Clewiston. The lock was open at this time of year. Beyond the lock is Roland Martin marina where we picked up gas on this leg and stayed overnight on the return. A right turn just before the lock gets into the western side of the rim canal on the way to Moore Haven and the Caloosahachee river.

More pix in next post

 

[chuck1]

Thanks for Sharing.

 

[RonF]

Next installment

From the Lake Okeechobee western rim canal, we turned left (west) and went through the Moore Haven lock, into the Caloosahachee river. There are two more locks to get through, Ortona and Franklin, before arriving at Ft Myers. It's a pretty long run, and much of the Canlloshachee is straight.

In Ft Myers we stayed at the Legacy Harbor marina. This is a big city marina, with several docks, captain's lounge, pool, cable TV, and nice showers. We had a couple of great dinners at Joe's Crab Shack. There were a lot of live-aboards on B dock, so we joined them daily at 5:00 for "doctails" and the Thursday pot-luck dinner at the tiki bar. Publix was a 10 minute walk. We planned to stay for three days, but added two for windy weather and another for a replacement battery charger.

We moved on to Tween Waters on Captiva Island. This is an all-inclusive resort, that also has around 40 transient slips. The casual Crow's Nest restaurant was good, and there is an up-scale plantation style dining room. The facilities and pool were nice, and they have a Gulf beach accross the street. We stayed for three days.

The pelicans and egrets really own the place, they just put up with the boaters.

We walked about a mile to Captiva town, and rented a three-wheeled scooter for a couple of hours.

More pix later.

 

[SearayPaul]

Great trip. My favorite picture so far is the egret on the swim platform.

Thank you for taking the time to post these

 

[my3sons]

Great pictures, thanks for taking the time to allow us a look.