St Johns River 5.5.15

We had some work done on the motor…..idled great while waiting for the railroad bridge to open….4 mile up the river we slowed down to photograph a gator and it quit!
The white under it’s jaw looks weird…but it is part of the gator…here it is after taking our wake. Look at the size of those teeth.
Jim tried working with the choke…it helped…finally he changed the pilot screws a bit and that made a big difference.
We decided to anchor for the night on the Hontoon River…a nice trip through the canal and we found a spot. Motor has been working great. Made several “U” turns for gator pictures and it idled fine.
Today was a “gator” day…..saw them all over.

Hontoon River…..almost to our anchorage.


Set for the night….taking a dingy ride to check out the wildlife.

While dinkin’ we spotted this Blue Heron on it’s nest.
Nice night….cool breeze…all windows open….great day on the river.
5.6.15
We took our time over coffee…no rushing today….
Look at the size of the fish this Blue Heron has.

Lots of gator just out cruising.
and sunning.

This looks like a Wood Stork rookery…

This one was feeding a baby….I could see it’s wide open beak just before I snapped the picture.

It’s still breeding season….you never see two together like this when it isn’t.

I think this is my favorite picture for the day…

This looks like it is a big one…look at the span of it’s back and head.

I thought this one looked pretty poorly…big head but not much meat on it’s bones.

Looks like some kind of wound on it’s neck.

Good looking gator…


Big gator…lots of meat in that tail.


Some are bashful….

and some look like they are posing….


It was definitely a gator kind of day….

Heading up Blue Creek for our anchorage for the night.

I love these turtles.

When I took this picture I only saw the one in the water…..here are 5 reasons we didn’t go dinking at Blue Creek.


and this one makes 5.  I could see them all at the same time..



Checking us out…..all of them were bigger than our “inflatable” dingy….a few teeth marks and it would be flat. We don’t press our luck when we see this many in one area…stay aboard and enjoy the show.

There are four turtles on this palm.

The sun is starting to set….nice breeze…going to be another nice night on the water.