September 27, 2013

Wed 9.25.13 Launch at Lake Monroe Park

The weather didn’t look good. We had decided to wait and launch on Thursday….most of our stuff was loaded but not all.

I checked the weather map on the computer www.wftv.com  and the storm we were waiting for had dipped a little south and was going to miss us. Last minute change of plans aren’t always the best.

We did get on the water Wed afternoon…but…we forgot the folding chairs. Not a big problem ..there is a battery box on one side in the back and a step on the other. A couple of float cushions and we were all set.

Come morning…we realized we had also forgotten the coffee maker. So we used our “Yankee Ingenuity” and put the coffee and water in a pan and heated it up…then used a filter in the top of the steamer to strain it. Good coffee….a bit stronger than we normally make but still good.

A few more missing items…toaster…bird treats…you know how it goes.

But the weather has been great.

Wed night we anchored in Butchers Bend. Windy and no gators. Not that they aren’t in there…just not where we could see them.

This boat was tied to a tree….but almost full of water.

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Meander looks much better on the water….

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This boat came by…looks like a “classic?”

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Little sticky at night but the air was comfortable.

Thursday we headed N. Still no gators but did spot this big turtle sunning.

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You never know what you will see along the river. These cows were enjoying the water.

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Made the trip up Blue Creek hoping to see “Bubba” the BIG resident gator but his island is almost underwater and did not see him anywhere.

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We anchored just in front of it….had a great breeze all night…even had to close the windows a bit toward morning when it cooled down.

Friday morning it was pretty windy but thought we’d stick our nose out into Lake George …decided not to head to Silver Glen Springs. We’d have had to take the waves head on and decided not to take the pounding. Always another day.

We wanted to see how high the water was on Shell Island and as we headed behind it we spotted this Anhinga trying to swallow it’s catch. It did.

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The look on this one’s face is pure joy…enjoying the sunshine.

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With the water up we decided to make a side trip thru Lake Dexter to Lake Woodruff and then up the Spring Garden River to DeLeon Springs.

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The last time we went thru the connecting river…Tick Island Creek…we had our Adventure Craft and Larry and Diane were aboard their Nimble Nomad. We beached for the night on the river. A storm was coming in and the lightening was going sideways. We had no problem all night. The next morning friends from OK called to see if we were alright since they knew we were on the water. A tornado went thru the area just missing our anchorage…but with tornados….a miss is as good as a mile.

The river has been too low to make the trip across either lake until now.

We had a late lunch at the Old Sugar Mill.

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The water flowing over the rocks is all coming from the underground spring. It is so deep scuba divers dive the cave. Kind of an eerie feeling when swimming and all of a sudden a head with a snorkel appears from no where.

A little storm blew up while crossing Lake Woodruff and we picked up a lot of weeds on the prop. Anchored at the entrance of Norris Dead River (S end of Lake Woodruff). Waiting for the rain to let up then Jim can clean the prop. Both lakes were only 5’ and 6’ deep…down to 1’.

Nice breeze. Should be good sleeping.