We left Sweet Water Landing Marina this morning at 0715... leaving just before us were 2 other boats.

200 feet from the marina was the Wilson Piggott Bridge... we do not need an opening but do have to lower the mast and VHF antennas... was a great sunrise photo.

We picked up another boat in our pack at the Franklin lock... so we had 3 boats now ahead of us... and just after the lock we picked up 2 more boats behind us... total of 6 boats now all heading east... never have been across the Okeechobee Waterway and had this many boats traveling in very close proximity of each other... the lead boat was about 1 mile ahead of us and the 2 trailing were about the same distance behind us... and all of them were large cruising boats... we were the smallest one at 45ft... largest was 65 feet.

Our initial plan for the say was to stop in Clewiston and Roland and Martin Marina... calling them we were told they were booked full... we tried Riverhouse Marina in Moore Haven... also full...tried Moore Haven Town Docks... they were closed due to a boat file on the docks... that left nothing but to anchor... and there are not a lot of places to anchor in this area.... We opted to continue on across Lake Okeechobee to the Port Mayaca Lock... the lock stops operation at 1700 so we anchored just off the lock to the Northwest.... we will take the first locking at 0700 tomorrow.

We were secure on the hook at 2000... our position for the night N26°59.120', W080°37.508’. We traveled today for 6.75 hours covering 42.4 nautical miles averaging 6.8 knots.