Finally, after the good byes are said, we leave St. Petersburg on Tuesday morning, April 13, 1999, shortly after dawn to begin our epic voyage. We see the city brilliantly in the early morning light behind us.
We pass the Sunshine Skyway bridge on our way to the Gulf of Mexico
Our first leg takes us to Ft. Myers, then across the State via the Caloosahatchee River, Lake Okeechobee, and the St. Lucie Waterway. We encounter the first five of more than a hundred locks we'll eventually pass on the trip. This lock is near Stuart in the St. Lucie Waterway and is called the St. Lucie Lock. It dropped Interlude about eight feet to the Atlantic Ocean level.
Our first real destination is Trawlerfest in Melbourne, Tralwerfest is a regional meeting of people interested in long distance cruising.
The were a hundred boats at Trawlerfest; these are but a couple of them. The one on the left is the Cohen's, also from the SPYC.
