October 16, 2015

St Johns River, FL 1st day 10.12.15

Jim is between parts for the ‘57 Chevy so we are going to spend a few days on the river….we both have jobs…he parks the truck and trailer and I get the bimini open, flag out and the solar lights on the top. Then we are off.

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It’s fall on the St Johns…we don’t have the beautiful reds and golds of VT and NH…but we do get a little color.

 

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You can tell the river is up….many of the branches are in the water…normally we can get under the RR bridge at Lake Monroe but now we have to wait for an opening.

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It’s a beautiful day to be on the water…but then I think any day is a great day on the water.

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It looks like he’s thinking “dang .. another boat load of tourists”..

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The river is so high there are places where the water goes back through the trees as far as you can see. This is one of the side creeks we take.

With this much water it is a good thing the hurricane missed us.

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Sky and clouds are beautiful ..

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First gator of the trip….looks like it just got out of the water.  Look at those claws.

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It was pretty going through the canal…not as much clearance since the water is high…

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Lots of turtles out sunning. The little one is really stretched out…you wonder how they can stay balanced.

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Our second gator

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We circled around and came back for more pictures…Is that a gator’s idea of a smile? Or is he thinking “dinner”.

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We decided to check on the progress of an aluminum pontoon boat.

This little houseboat has been a favorite of ours…and were sad to see it like this. Looks like the pontoon is leaking. Didn’t see anyone around it…hope they come back soon or it will be on it’s side and sinking.

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Blinds are closed…it also has a solar panel on the top. Didn’t see any new work on the other boat.

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We tried going up the Norris Dead River but it was weeded in about half way up…too many weeds to try and plow through so we turned around and headed back to the St. Johns.

We almost missed this one…Jim is sure getting good at “U” turns in tight spots. A lot of gator there and we cant even see it’s tail.

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From a distance Jim thought this was a gator….they are the fattest turtles I have ever seen…look at those legs.

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Jim spotted this one…so far I am one up on him…

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Our anchorage for the night will be at Shell Island (Lungun).