3.29.12 Lungun Island G3 to Monroe Park and loading up.

Captain Jim (of Sailbad The Sinner) was anchored in his favorite spot behind Lungun Island. We had a nice visit last evening. Good to see them again.

We have seen this obstruction near the E bank of the river behind the island, but didn’t realize what it was. Captain Jim told us it is an old sunken barge. When the water is low, the boiler is visible…when it is high…it is not. We didn’t even know there was more to it …but look closely at the picture and you can see the edge of the barge.

There is plenty of room to cruise behind the island and anchor …. just don’t get close to the E bank.

We got an early start…we plan to anchor behind the island at G109, Butcher’s Bend. Usually a good gator spot.

This guy looks like he is doing some traveling on his paddle board.

This looked like a big gator but was in very shallow water and we couldn’t get closer.

Now that is a lot of “gator tail”.  

When we got near Hontoon Island and Blue Springs we talked with a trawler doing the Great Loop. It was headed S to Sanford. Then we met 2 going N. The 3 boats socialized a bit over the VHF. They travel together at times and planned to meet later in the trip. Sure wish we were tagging along. Can you see the gator swimming at the bottom of the photo? Normally with this many boats you wouldn’t even see one.

The markers are a favorite nesting place for Ospreys.

Look at the skoots on this guys back….does he look a little grumpy to you?

We did a slow cruise behind Drigger Island to see if there were any Sandhill Cranes nesting there. We didn’t see any. I did get a picture of a Little Purple Heron. I had to post it….couldn’t get this shot on purpose.

When we got back to the river, a houseboat was cruising past. We waited and dropped in behind. A few minutes later I spotted these Manatees. There were 3 of them. One of them has several prop scars that look fairly new.

I have a video…but you may have to go to youtube.com and put CmyBirds2 in the search…I haven’t been able to attach videos to the blog lately…still haven't figured it out.

Well…this could have been the gator shot of the day….I took this… then switched the camera to video…in the time it took to process the switch….it  slowly turned towards the boat….looked right at us….. stepped towards us and slid into the water.

This can give you an idea how much tail they have…..and there is another ft. or 2 in the water.

Our plans had been to anchor behind the island at Butcher’s Bend….plans change….we saw a boat bobbing in the middle of the river….cruised over to see if they needed help…they did…boat was dead in the water….so we rigged up a tow line and towed them back the to ramp at Lake Monroe. It was only 5 pm and our launch ramp was just the other side of the river…we decided to haul out. So…we ended our trip with a good deed. Hope they will do the same next time they see someone in the same situation. Several boat roared right past them ….not even slowing down.

We covered about 200 miles….put on 40 gal of fuel ….still have 3/4 of a tank.

The boat is all cleaned out…ready for another trip.