Anchor out on Lake Okeechobee?

[FF]

"Roland Martins is an experience, sugarcane farmers with a gun and a Fishing pole singing cowboy songs."

AND 3 or 4 300HP outboards mounted on the stern of a metal flaked 20ft fish boat.

The good news is the boats don't make much wake over 50K.

 

[Steve91T]

Made it across the lake! It was 6-8’ for the most part. Super shallow exiting and entering. Now trying to make St Lucie before she closes.

 

[dhays]

Made it across the lake! It was 6-8’ for the most part. Super shallow exiting and entering. Now trying to make St Lucie before she closes.

I can't imagine! I get serious pucker if depths are below 20'.

 

[twistedtree]

What’s the “normal” depth available through the lake and canals? I’m wondering what the draft cut off would be before there is no hope of ever crossing.

 

[Steve91T]

What’s the “normal” depth available through the lake and canals? I’m wondering what the draft cut off would be before there is no hope of ever crossing.

Can’t be much lower than it is now.....I had inches to spare coming into the Port Mayaca lock. And the dock master told me to hug the green side. I swear I felt it touch once.

 

[Keysdisease]

Skinny water is a way of life here in Florida, the Keys and the Bahamas, you might never get off the dock

Hell, Florida Bay and the Keys are so shallow you can see the bottom from space

I can't imagine! I get serious pucker if depths are below 20'.

 

[Sailor of Fortune]

I can't imagine! I get serious pucker if depths are below 20'.

Its all good. Not many hard bottom groundings in Lake O...Mud

 

[Nomad Willy]

Speaking of bottoms what’s it like anchoring in lakes down there?

 

[O C Diver]

Speaking of bottoms what’s it like anchoring in lakes down there?

Mud is great to anchor in, more cleanup when pulling the anchor.

Ted

 

[Rossland]

What’s the “normal” depth available through the lake and canals? I’m wondering what the draft cut off would be before there is no hope of ever crossing.

Lake water level is here: USACE Jacksonville District
Lake O is fed by rainfall in central Fla. Water level is controlled by dams, and is lowered in the spring and early summer. Summer rain, (hurricane) will bring the lake back up.

The lake is unusually low right now. Your new boat would not make it today. However, we crossed the lake twice in Jan and Feb and had no problem.

 

[O C Diver]

SW Florida is just starting into the rainy season now. Fort Myers forecast for the next 10 days is afternoon showers each day. At 70 miles West of Lake Okeechobee, this pattern will be dumping water on the area surrounding the lake. It takes a few days, but then the ground gets saturated and much of the water runs off, eventually into the lake. The Lake rises faster than it can be drained, necessitating the lowering of the Lake level before the rainy season. After the rainy season, it takes months for the land to stop draining into the Lake.

Ted

 

[Nomad Willy]

Mud is great to anchor in, more cleanup when pulling the anchor.

Ted

Interesting Ted,
I imagined the substrate would be a high content old rotting tree and bush material making the lake floor far less dense and not capable of holding much w an anchor. Had visions of hooking small trees and bushes too. Need to be careful around river mouths in Alaska.
I have notions of going through the locks into Lake Washington behind Seattle but worry the bottom would be littered w old logs and human garbage. Perhaps Lake Washington is’nt so bad either. And there’s always trip lines.