Welcome to Part 5 of my adventure to the Bahamas!

During my two weeks of island hopping throughout the Bahama islands, I saw so many beautiful sights. Besides just soaking up the sun, sea and sand, I also gained a new appreciation for the Bahamas. I had traveled here twice before, only to stay pretty much in tourist areas.

But traveling through the islands gave me a chance to see the Bahamas in its full beauty and uniqueness. I was particularly struck with wonder and awe over these abandoned lighthouses.

After being gone for a month, it was time to head home. Of course, our journey was far from over... we still had a week on the boat to make it back where we started - Mobile Bay, off the Gulf of Mexico.

We pretty much went back the same way we came except we took the Okeechobee-Inter-coastal Waterway in Florida all the way into the Gulf of Mexico. What a wild experience that was!

Riding the Okeechobee Inter-coastal Waterway

We had to pass through several locks and dams on the Okeechobee. This was a first for me!

Every time we came to the lock and dam, we had to wait our turn. It was the equivalent of sitting at a red light...a very longggg red light! Sometimes we had to wait 20 minutes for our turn. And since we passed through about 4 or 5, we quickly grew unamused with these locks and dams, to say the least =)

While we waited I noticed the seabirds perched on the moorings. Notice how they turn into the wind. (This is how sailors know which direction the wind is blowing without a wind vane.)

Only one vessel at a time is allowed inside for safety precautions. After the vessel in front of us had passed through, they closed the front door. Now, it was was our turn, so we would pull inside, and then they would lock the door behind us.

The first time we did this, I was pretty scared! I mean, here we were, closed in by large metal doors in the front and back of us, with no way to escape until the operator opened them.

To secure the boat from drifting to and fro inside, we had to grab ropes on the side of the walls. An operator took the ropes and secured them on cleats attached to the wall.

Depending upon which part of the river we were on, sometimes water was let into the lock and other times, water was drained out of it. It's all about depth. Since rivers have varying degrees of depths, locks and dams are built to allow vessels, particular large vessels, to pass through safely. A small vessel like the one we were on could probably have traveled on the river just fine but we couldn't exactly just go around them.

After quite a ways down the Okeechobee, we finally made it through all the locks and dams!

(The view behind us, leaving the lock)

For some reason, a flock of seagulls followed us for miles!

The river itself was very peaceful

This is pretty much what we saw the entire time we rode the Inter-coastal Waterway.

After continuing to follow the Okeechobee, we reached the Gulf. At this point, we rode the Florida coast around to Apalachicola where we took the Inter-coastal Waterway all the way to Mobile Bay, Alabama. My 38-day journey to the Bahamas had reached its end.

Home sweet home, at last!

Part 1 of My Adventure to the Bahamas - Getting there
Part 2 of My Adventure to the Bahamas - Cat Cay
Part 3 of My Adventure to the Bahamas - Atlantis
Part 4 of My Adventure to the Bahamas - Sampson Cay