I'm with Ted. It's a nice 2 day trip across from Stuart to Ft Myers, and the ugly green stuff isn't really west of the lake at all, and even the lake is in pretty good shape, and plenty deep right now. It's a long slog around Miami and the everglades, and for 100 miles you are really in the boonies from Florida Bay to Marco Island. Not a casual undertaking (says me, a guy who once had to be towed 8 hours from Little Shark to Marco by TowBoatUS after it took over an hour for anyone, anyone at all, to hear me on the VHF down there.) The Okeechobee ditch is a far better route for anyone with anything less than a 54 foot mast, in my opinion.