April 15, 2004 - Wandering Florida's waterwaysThe Suffolk Times • April 15, 2004
Wandering Florida's
waterways
Clockwise from
left: The brown pelican,
once endangered, is
now a common sight
along the Inland
Waterway; a laughing
gull, probably the most
common bird in the
south; a white ibis prob-
ing for worms with its
specially designed bill.
WE TOLD YOU WE would take you
with us on the Inland Waterway of
Florida on the Niagara Prince, a
unique, small cruise vessel. It holds
only 84 people and draws but six feet
of water, letting it go into many inter-
esting areas that larger cruise vessels
cannot reach. We'll start down along
the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway at
Jacksonville.
We boarded about three o'clock in
the afternoon and settled into our
small but comfortable quarters. After
dinner aboard the ship, we departed ai
midnight while
everyone was
FOCUS asleep. We
ON awoke to a
sparkling day as
NATURE we headed for
by Paul our first stop at
Stoutenbusgh the historic town
of St. Augustine.
We took a tour
of this beautiful city with 428 years of
history behind it, making it the
nation's oldest continuously inhabited
city.
As we entered the harbor, a 40 -foot-
tall gold cross glistened in the sun_
Times /Review
photos by
Paul and
Barbara
Stoutenburgh
marking the spot where the Spaniards
first landed. Later, they would build a
huge fort and defend it against the
French, the English and even the
natives who wanted to control the
area. There still remains the crumbling
monument of the fort, a testament to
the early settlers, of the area.
We could see the early Spanish
influence in the buildings and the later
influence of Henry Flagler, the rail-
road magnate, who built libraries,
churches and even a college, which
dominates the area. Flagler, by the
way, brought his railroad to this part
of the country in hopes of developing
it, and tourism did follow soon after.
Our weather was perfect and the
time passed all too quickly. Our
departure from St. Augustine was at 5
p.m., and we all got back aboard ready
to continue on south. Along the way,
bottle -nosed dolphins greeted us.
Their streamlined bodies arched as
they rose out of the water for a breath
of air. It brought back memories of
when I was in the service. They would
ride the bow wave of our ship for
hours at a time, as they did here.
Our game plan was to continue
along the Intracoastal Waterway, stop-
ping at Titusville, where most of us
took a bus and toured the Kennedy
Space Center at Cape Canaveral. The
whole concept overwhelms you with
the magnitude of the project — shut-
tles and rockets and all the parapher-
nalia that goes with it. We took in the
IMAX theater show, which gave us
the closest approximation to being an
astronaut aboard a shuttle, including
breathtaking shots of the takeoff and
landing, as well as everyday life. It
boggles your mind. Those who visit
this part of Florida should put it on
their agendas.
vur omy disappointment was that
we didn't have time enough to get to
the Merritt Island National Wildlife
Refuge that dominates the whole
peninsula of the space center. Years
ago we had traveled through this grea
area and found it a birder's paradise.
Later, as we waited for the captain
to get the ship turned around and out
of the harbor, we watched manatees
surfacing alongside the ship and peo-
ple fishing along the water's edge. Oui
destination was the St. Lucie Canal
near Stuart, where we would enter the
Okeechobee waterway, which include
Lake Okeechobee and eventually
goes into the Caloosahatchee River,
which feeds into the Gulf of Mexico.
AS-We—Fr—avieled through the St.
Lucie Canal, our binoculars focused
on a wide variety of birds, including
ospreys, egrets, herons, ducks, brown
pelicans and white pelicans. The
brown pelican gets its food by diving
into the water, while the white pelican
scoops its food up while sitting on the
water's surface.
Lake Okeechobee is the largest
freshwater lake within the boundaries
of one state. Once on the lake we felt
the first wave action, as our trip up to
then had been perfectly calm. After
crossing the lake, we began to see
small sand islands that in some cases
were loaded with white pelicans —
quite a sight through our binoculars.
Some of these sand islands had great
clumps of greenery growing on them,
with snowy egrets and wood storks
spotted in many of them There were
also tiny shore birds, too far away to
]J_.. r
Along the lake's edge is a high dike
constructed around the whole of Lake
Okeechobee. This is to prevent flood-
ing, which is controlled by a series of
overflows. Once back in the narrow
waterway after passing over the lake,
we could see, on the side opposite the
Army Corps dike, miles and miles of
standing dead trees, the devastating
effect of water manipulation. It was
here we saw the greatest number of
ospreys and their nests that stood out
in stark contrast against the leafless
dead trees. No manmade platforms
were needed here, as there were plen-
ty of trees for nests.
After crossing the lake, we spent a
quiet night at Moore Haven, a focal
point for fishermen and boaters alike.
In the morning we would head west
through this narrow waterway, seeing
cows, with their attending cattle
egrets, and orange groves on either
side. The channel was so narrow in
some places that the ship took up
most of it, and that let us get good
views of the wildlife and vegetation.
We passed through locks along the
way and under raised railroad bridges.
After slowly cruising the Caloo-
sahatchee River, we arrived at Fort
Myers and tied up for the night. In the
morning we went by bus to visit the
Edison and Ford winter estates. We
wandered through both of the estates
and the botanical gardens and saw
Thomas Edison's laboratory and
museum.
We then entered the Gulf of
Mexico. Here we saw frigate birds
and immature gannets as we moved
out and headed north, up past Sanibel
Island, Captiva, and finally passing
Venice, Sarasota and Bradenton. Our
destination was St. Petersburg, where
we would tie up and dock for the
night. The next day we all departed
for our homes in Germany, Canada,
New Mexico, Maine, Washington and
other places. It was an interesting trip,
with people from many parts of the
country, seeing new as well as familiar
things and exchanging ideas and trav-
el tips of past and future wanderings.
Hugh, a magical old friend of ours,
met us in Tampa and showed us
around his city. He took us to the
Crab Shack, where we ended our trip
with a blackened grouper sandwich,
and then caught our flight back home.