And it's a Wrap

 Having survived the East Coast of Florida on a major holiday weekend, yes, we chilled at Sunset Bay Marina for a night. Since we fueled up upon arrival getting out in the morning was easily facilitated. There was nothing in front of us except perhaps weather.
 So after hooking up with a great couple with the same boat over cocktails the night before we motored out of the marina and headed West. But this did not happen without a phone call to the lock master at the St. Lucie Lock. Lake Okeechobee and the waterway is managed by the Federal Government. When the water level gets low or to about 12.5 feet, the lockmasters are ordered to a scheduled opening as opposed to "on demand". "On demand" openings occur when boats approach the lock and call the lock on the radio. Regardless of when the lock was last used by the prior boat the lockmasters will flip the lock around and take you through.
 When we left Stuart the lake was at 12.55 feet. Pretty darn close and it was dropping everyday. Fortunately for us the lake held out as well as the Army Corp of Engineers and none of the lock openings were scheduled. All the way across Florida they all opened for us "On Demand". This was a huge relief because missing a scheduled opening can an quite a bit of time to the day of travel.
 At the Port Mayaka Lock, we were greeted to the fact that both lock doors were open at the same time so I did not have to pull the dink in. We did not have to stop, grab lines on the wall, wait for the doors to close and the lock to fill before the next set of doors opened up. All we had to do was motor on through the lock. Great.
 I am thinking this saved us just enough time to stay on the fringe of a rather strong squall that followed us across the lake. Fortunately there wasn't much wind associated with it but there was a heck of a lot of rain. But this was a good thing because Freedom had a good crust of salt on her from all of the traveling since, yes, Sea Spray Marina in the Abacos!
 With a tie up at the Moore Haven town dock and a quiet night of rest we were ready to move on to the West Coast. The rest of the trip West was uneventful until we passed the rail road bridge prior to entering the Fort Myers area. At that point the water was calm and Deb decided we may as well get ready to dock the boat. Even though we were about an hour away from the dock the chore had to get done and it might as well get started. So she is leaning over the starboard side setting up a fender when someone decided to jump out of the water right under her face.

Yeah, Flipper shows up. But I don't know about it. Deb let's out a scream like there's a body in the water and I am thinking it could be hers.
Deb you ok? Eyaaaahhhhh.......
Deb WTF?
Whooooaaaa!
Ok, HEY! What is going on?
Eventually she was able to calm down enough to fill me in. So I set up the auto pilot since there was no traffic or obstructions and took a moment to fire off a few more shots of the welcoming committee. Now look carefully at this last one. Does it look like it has a wise ass grin on? I think so. I'm convinced it knew full well that it was going to scare the heck out of Deb and it was fully aware that it did.
 Regardless, it was great to have been met, and the dolphin stayed with us for quite a while until we found our way into the marina channel. There's nothing like a natural welcoming committee when you arrive home.