Stewart to Clewiston: Having made it through the Roosevelt Bridge we made it through the locks without any issues. I think Belle was just letting me have my way again, but the overall Stuart to St. Lucie canal across the lake and into Clewiston went without a hitch. It was really a beautiful cruise punctuated by the best damn dock master I have ever had the opportunity to meet.
Little Man, as he calls himself, is the dock master at Roland Martin Marina. After making contact with him and getting onto channel 68 he asked me to pull into their area and to make a 180-degree turn in a basin that was completely surrounded with rip-rap and concrete sea wall that seemed hardly big enough for a big girl like Belle to turn around in. For anyone who has not experienced a docking under the guidance of Little Man, let me just say that he needs to start a dock master school. He opened the channel and gave me continual instructions that never allowed the air to go silent. With his “give me a bit of starboard reverse, keep on coming back, come on back, now take starboard to neutral and give me a shot of port forward…” it was unbelievable. When I finally threaded Belle through the needle I was expecting a cheering throng from the on lookers at the resteraunt above. Unknown to me, they all knew it was “zero Bo” and “100 percent Little Man.” None the less, we had a great docking and just about as good a hamburger before getting ready for the next day’s run to Ft. Myers.
