500 mile round trip to Sarasota
Florida has NOT lived up to its reputation this winter. El Nino has brought us a colder and wetter winter in South Florida this year. And so it was that we started and ended a 12 day cruise across the state and up the GIWW to Sarasota with rain and wind on the front and back end.
The Okeechobee Waterway includes seven locks and covers 149 miles from the AIWW to the GIWW. The transit is roughly from the east coast town of Stuart to the west coast town of Ft Meyers. The rough half way point on the Okeechobee is the town of Clewiston.
We stopped in Clewiston both ways. It is a slice of America. The main industry is the US Sugar operations around the town and the main entertainment is bass fishing on the Lake.
The weather was kinder to us while on the GIWW. We made stops in Ft Meyers, Venice, Sarasota and Punta Gorda in fairly nice and mostly sunny weather.