Passage Note Florida

[riggear]

Originally Posted by AnsleyS

I am actually looking forward to sailing on the lake. The Krogen 38 draws 38 inches with the boards up so reaching across the lake seems like a great way to spend a day or two. It is a great boat and if you run aground you can hop overboard and push her off!

BEWARE........A lot of Gators in the Lake, not to mention snakes

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by riggear

BEWARE........A lot of Gators in the Lake, not to mention snakes

In Florida you have to assume that anywhere there's fresh water, there's 'gators. Not just gators, either ... they recently caught an 11' Florida crocodile in Tampa! Okeechobee is loaded with gators.

The snakes will swim away from you if they can. Not the gators.

[Cheechako]

Even the newly introduced 20-30 ft python's?

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Even the newly introduced 20-30 ft python's?

If you'll pardon the pun, 30' is a stretch (grin!)

As far as I know the pythons have stayed in the Everglades. 'Gators have done a much better job of adapting to civilization -- sort of water-going coyotes.

I'm visiting Hollywood, FL right now. In fact my car is parked in the parking garage built on the property I lived on for 6 months as a child! LOL!

When we first moved to Fort Lauderdale, we were on the western edge of the city. Across Davie Blvd, a secondary street artery at the time, was farm lands and the edge of the Everglades. We were on the western edge of this subdivision, a couple of blocks from a drainage ditch, and my dad warned us not to play there.

There was a chicken farm just on the other side of the ditch, and every night we heard dogs barking. Then over several nights the dogs stopped barking, and we could hear the chickens in an uproar at night.

Then the County Agent came out, and took a 9' 'gator out of that drainage ditch.

There were a lot fewer gators then than there are now. i HOPE no one from here would get out to push their boat in any lake in Florida. Don't jump over the side for a swim, either.

[haw1961]

I caught the tail end of a story on the news today about an alligator wrestler in Hollywood. Seems he screwed up and got chewed up pretty bad.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by haw1961

I caught the tail end of a story on the news today about an alligator wrestler in Hollywood. Seems he screwed up and got chewed up pretty bad.

I went ziplining at a place between Orlando and Melbourne. At one point it went over a swampy pond. That gator had a large pond to swim around in, but when people were ziplining, he came over to that part of the lake and watched each person as they passed over his head.

You could just see him thinking "Tastes like chicken ..."

[SecondBase]

Indiantown, Okeechobee - packed with gators. I was glad to leave that area with my crew members intact.
No underwater or waterline repairs/activity in thst region.

Ask me how I know.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by SecondBase

Indiantown, Okeechobee - packed with gators. I was glad to leave that area with my crew members intact.
No underwater or waterline repairs/activity in thst region.

Ask me how I know.

OK -- how do you know? (You weren't wrestling alligators in Hollywood recently, were you?)

[SecondBase]

Nothing so glamourous. This skipper had the autopilot and hydraulic steering system fight it out underway. Oopsy-daisy. Autopilot won. They say that problems at sea compound one atop the next. And so it goes.

Pulled in to inspect the damage. One crew hung off the swim ladder to remove / look inside the transom plate. Baby (?) 4' gator brushed his leg. You know, we didn't put that transom plate back on until Melbourne.

Okeechobee is a beautiful trip. Mind the gators and the afternoon thunderstorms. There was more depth than expected but we departed from the buoyed route. Navionics ipad served well. Be ready to anchor out overnight if the locks aren't working.