Lake Okeechobee Question

[Bear Essentials]

Ahoy!

Have a question for all you South Florida cruisers out there.

We plan on sailing from our homeport in Miami to Tampa. The obvious route is to head north and cut through Lake Okeechobee.

However, we heard that due to the drought, some portions of the waterway were closed to navigation, or if not closed, then it's very shallow. This poses a concern as we draft 40 inches and would hate to get stuck!

Does anyone have an update on the current conditions and/or where I can get updates from the offical source? I would assume it's the Coast Guard (navigatable waterway), but not sure.

Any help anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated. We're not doing the run until after the boat show">Miami Boat Show, so if you don't see this immediately, please feel free to contribute anyway!

Take care and again, thanks.

Regards,

Lee and Terry

[Pblais]

Here is a link:

http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/reports/r-oke.txt

This will give you exact measurements and the report is updated quite regualrly. It's from the Army Corps of Enigeers and they regualte the the water. They are the controlling group. The USCG does not control water level.

Here is the link to the Jacksonville district where you can get more details as well.

Jacksonville District Website

Right now I think there is a 4 ft channel. So that leaves 8 inches for you to play with. The top link is updated with an automated system.

[Latitude9.5]

Also you want to make sure if you do go, you check lock schedules, they have made some once a day now that the water is low and even when it wasn't some were only twice a day if the water level differences are very high.

PS. The trip sucks, water stinks, not much to see. I only do it if i am getting paid to.