Sat 9.28.13

This is the last of the rain going thru.

Jim was able to get the weeds cut from the prop. We tried it before we got to the entrance of the Norris Dead River…but sitting sideways to the waves was pretty rough and I could see another gust coming at us.

After the rain we had a pretty sunset.

Around midnight an airboat went flying past. Half hour later they were doing a slow cruise past us. We think they were gator hunting.

It rained off and on after 2am. Nice light rain…good for sleeping. The morning started the same way.

Jim used the bilge pump Larry gave him, to bail out the dingy.

It is a beautiful ride down the Norris Dead River. Some places are fairly wide and others are very narrow.

With the river up it extends back into the woods quite a ways. There are a lot of these white birds wading in the woods and resting in the trees.

When we were almost to the end of the run….there was a spot that was completely weeded in. At least 30’ of floating plants covered the river. Jim made his way thru them. This is looking back at it.

Our souvenir …Most of it was water lettuce…a very invasive plant.

When my sister had her place in FL, she had a beautiful pond. She and her husband spent a lot of time on the St Johns River with their air boat or just out in a small fishing boat. She said she saw some of the water lettuce and thought it was pretty and that it would look good in the pond so she brought some home. At that time she didn’t know what it was. This is just a small piece. They have stems tying them together.

A few years later she and I spent all day with pitch forks and canoes removing all of that beautiful plant from the pond. It was completely taking it over. We would load the canoes and then pull them ashore and dump them.

We are anchored at Drigger Island.

It is still spitting a bit of rain every now and then….and of course, as soon as we got in the dingy for a ride around the island it started again. You can see the patches of water lettuce floating by. When the wind kicks up they move all over.

Jim said we were blanketed in this morning around 4 am….he went to sleep wondering how we would get out of it…by morning it was gone.

Another great day on the water.