St Johns River day 3 10.14.15

We wanted to get an early start across Lake George so Jim got the coffee going while I tidied up.

It was still kind of dark so Jim put the bow lights on. He made this to put in the rail for night running or foul weather running but it has to be removed to raise or lower the anchor.

Trip down the run was pretty while the sun was coming up. Water was like glass.

The Spanish Moss looks pretty in the morning.

Sun is almost over the trees.

I guess you can tell I love sunsets and sunrises….look how beautiful these trees are.

There is a saying: Red at night ..sailors delight..red in the morning sailors take warning. I think this qualifies as red.

Once we were away from the trees and the sun came up this is what it looked like. It was a lumpy ride but not bad because we were not heading directly into the waves…not quite broadside ..just enough to make it easy.

There are a lot of crab pot buoys in the shallower spots…when we got near the gates at the S end they were all decorated with birds.

Bubba’s Island again…

You can see Jim has removed the running lights.

Blue Creek.

This guy looks like he has found a nice soft bed…

I’m ahead of Jim in gator spotting…but he found this one.

Tom Krantz calls this the “Elusive Limpkin”….you do not see many of them and they are hard to spot because they fit right into the background. Just as I was taking pictures a tour boat came toward us. So we moved on to let them see it. They stopped and took pictures. After they left we turned around and came back for another look.

This is Diane’s favorite bird on the river….so this one is for you Diane.

I found another one.

Jim wants to go to Titusville for parts for the ‘57 Chevy so we are heading to Butcher’s Bend at G109 for the night. Back through the canal. This is the pretty end.

Almost missed this little guy..Jim thinks it’s about 3’ long. All the others were over 8’.

I made supper while underway. Not many boats out so no big wakes. We were able to get to Butcher’s Bend before dark.

Had our wine on the rear deck. Went to bed and just as we were dozing off something bumped our boat and made a big splash. We looked out but couldn’t see anything…might have been a manatee or a gator.

The rest of the night was quiet…too quiet..no frogs singing us to sleep.