Merry Christmas….from Slow Motion..on the river

We launched at lake Monroe Park on Tuesday morning. Everything went well..the adjustments Jim made to the trailer worked the way they were supposed to.

Jim took the truck and trailer to the house and our friend and neighbor, George, gave him a ride back to the boat. By the time they arrived..I had all the vinyl sides in place and the dingy aired up. Jim had already loaded the bike, gas cans and “grocery dolly” while i was was filling the water tank and jugs.

We only one bike so one will ride and one walk. The bike can tow the dolly. Last time in “No Name Harbor” in Key Biscayne, FL..we had at least a 3 mile hike to get groceries…to the store isn’t bad..but lugging 4 bags each got pretty tiring. ..so we’ll give this a try.

We got underway about 1:30 pm…not much wildlife on the river today. We spotted one Manatee…You can just see it’s nose as it came up for air…

 

and then it’s back as it submerged again.

We spotted the flat wide ripples before we saw it. We just shut down and drifted until it broke the surface. Once we were sure it was completely away from us we continued on.

Did see one nice gator..

We’ll be stopping at Hontoon Island for the night. Going to be cold and we can plug in and run a heater.

New Glow Plugs

The engine was starting a little rough, but smoothed out after 15 seconds of  warm up….Jim figured one of the glow plugs must not be doing its job…. so he pulled them  when we got home. One was in pretty bad shape….and tested no good. (can you guess which one?)

The rest showed a lot of wear so he is replacing them all, even though they tested ok.

Portable dingy running lights

When we were cruising the ICW last year, we didn’t have any bow running lights for the dingy. We did have a white light for the stern.

Jim has a problem sitting still and doing nothing…so he started work on a running light. He used an old 6v flashlight.

My sister, JoAnne, had given us the red/green  light, but we needed a way to hook it to a battery. Since this is a waterproof case he decided to use it.  I normally ride on the port side, near the front and I will be able to turn it on and hold it when we have to run Raisin ashore.

It’s small, lightweight and easily loaded into the dingy when we might need it.

Home again….bummer

Well, we woke up to a beautiful morning on the water. The loading of the boat on the modified trailer went fairly well. Jim has to make a few adjustments to make it easier. But…all in all…it worked OK.

We traveled 352 miles in the two weeks we were out. Not very far, but it was still a lot of fun.

I didn’t get any pictures today…so here is one of the gators we saw yesterday….he looks glad to see us.

And one last look at the beautiful Manatee Mom with the 2 little ones by her side.

I hope they made it safely to Blue Springs.

We are now planning our next trip…..see you then.

Last Day on the River

We were nice and warm last night. Up early for a short walk. Most of the over-nighters were still here.

We had an outside slip. Too shallow for us in any of these.

I spotted this little Blue Heron on the weeds, looking for his breakfast.

It looks like a spray of feathers on it’s back.

We had plenty of time to get to our anchorage at G109 so stopped and dropped the hook just outside of Blue Springs and looked for Manatees. We had seen at least a dozen on the river between Hontoon Island and Blue Springs. It was a busy place. Lots of kayaks (they have canoes and kayaks for rent) and boats of all sizes. Most just nose up to shore. We have a keel so anchor out. Blue Springs is a must stop and see during the winter. There could be 100 Manatees in the springs. I saw a couple nose right up to a kayak..just checking out the visitors.

We took our dingy for a ride and this one looked us over. She might even be saying hello.

Here are some of the others we saw.

 

Unfortunately…they keep track of them by their prop scars. Most have names if they come back each year.

This is the disturbance of the water made by a Manatee. We watch for those…then stop and shut down, if possible. Several times they’ve come over to the boat and looked at us.

These two were in Blue Springs. You can see the difference in the water. Nice and clear where the river is a dark tea color.

We cruised into our anchorage…spotted a nice gator sunning itself. He is currently cruising the area. Guess we are safe….no one will be swimming up on us in the night.

Tomorrow we will see how well the new trailer works for pulling the boat out.

Hontoon Island

We had a nice quiet night behind G3 island. This boat came in later. I believe it’s an American Tug.

We left the anchorage around 10 am and took our time heading up the river. Our plans were to tie up at Hontoon Island….they’ve done a lot of work on the island since our last visit. It should be on your list of places to stop. Be sure to visit the museum and hike to the Indian Shell Mounds. Boat slips with electric and water. 1/2 price for FL seniors over 65.

Since we only had about a 4 hr run we slowed or stopped for every gator we saw. While drifting up on this one…..

Jim spotted a Manatee. So we shut the motor down and drifted. Look what came over to check us out.!!!!

Momma and her twins….at least they look like they are the same age.

They swam over to us….then under us…and moved on up stream. We just kept drifting until we were sure they couldn’t be any where near our prop. I am so thrilled to have gotten a picture of  the 3 of them together.

It was  also a bad day on the river for wildlife. We saw 2 dead turtles floating. And then spotted this dead gator.

Farther up stream we spotted a gator swimming in front of us. I didn’t bother to get the camera since they always dive before we can get close enough. This one didn’t…so we knew something was wrong. We slowed down and looked him over.  It looked like he was having trouble moving…and if you look close…it looks like possible prop marks on his tail…but it could be from fighting with another gator.

He finally made it out of the center of the channel and we continued on our way.

Most of the slips were full when we got to Hontoon Island,  but we were able to get one and tied up for the night. Our hike on the trails brought us to this Barred Owl. What a beauty!!

They are very large owls. I think he’s looking at my little dog with a lot of interest. She’s about the size of a small rabbit….I think Rabbit is on their menu.

Such a handsome bird.

The trails take you through some beautiful country.

 

They also have cabins for rent.

Lots of wildlife here. I even saw a bear last year.

Tomorrow we have another short run, so will anchor near Blue Springs for awhile and watch for Manatees, maybe even go into the springs and talk to the Rangers and see if the Mother and the 2 little ones made it in. Then we’ll anchor behind the island at G109.

It’s Friday and we’re heading S

We picked up Jim’s brother, Carl, in Silver Glen Springs yesterday morning. It took us a little over 3 hrs to get to the Welaka  city dock. A short hike and we were at Shrimp R Us and had a great Thanksgiving dinner. The only bad part….no leftovers. Even the pumpkin pie was homemade.

It was a shorter ride back to the Springs…wind at our backs and we made good time. We got Carl back before the park closed and he was able to head home. It was a fun day.

A very cold night, but we survived. Ran the heater until we went to bed…hot water bottle for the bird..sweater and blanket for the dog. Started the generator about 7 am and cranked up the heater again. Sun didn’t hit the boat until after 9am. Then it was toasty inside. The air outside was so cool we decided to skip the morning swim.

Look how clear the water is…It’s only about 5’ deep here.

We didn’t have a lot of company yesterday…but the boats started coming in this morning. At least 8 showed up fairly early, and we met 3 on our way out.

We are the last boat you can see in the middle of the picture.

While we were dingying around at the upper end…I spotted this “bobber” and line in a tree. Got it out….no bird will get this tangled in its legs. I guess because they are Styrofoam and cheap…they don’t bother to try to get them back..just cut them loose. There’s at least 20’ of line there.

I don’t know how Jim did it….but he spotted this doe on the side of the river after we left Silver Glen .

This one was standing near by.

We are anchored behind the island at G3. It’s going to be in the low 40’s tonight. We have the engine compartment open a bit…making use of all that heat. May have to start the generator before the night is over.

We are slowly making our way up the river (S) and towards home.