St Johns River FL....testing mods

We left Lake Monroe Park for 6 days on the water....trip up the river was beautiful....we decided right away we could get around the loss of the seating that the new fridge took up....nice not to have to pay for ice...plenty of room for food..milk..cold water...plus a small tray of ice for our nightly wine-cooler....the solar shower worked very well...even on an overcast day with only a few hours of sunshine ..we had enough warm water for showers.

Our first stop was on the backside of Hoontoon Island. There are hiking trails to the Indian Shell Mounds..They also have a nice dock with elec. and water hookups, campsites and showers, on the riverside....the museum and video are worth the stop. After a hike...supper and a good nights sleep we headed N on the river to Silver Glen Springs....One of our favorite spots...crystal clear water with a year round temp of 72 deg...feels very cold in the summer and warm in the winter....there are gators so you dont swim after dark...and they usually arnt seen in the anchorage...but they are out there...We see these two each trip...3-4 fter on the log and the one in the water behind him is 5-6 ft...the turtle is pretty good sized and seeing them sun themselves with smaller gators is pretty common..I like the way they balance themselves and spread their feet to catch all the rays they can...We had a beautiful sunset.

The next morning was pretty cool and we were beached in the shade...so we decided to head to Salt River Springs and get out into the sunshine instead of running the generator and heater...Once the sun hit us we warmed up nicely....Salt River Springs has a nice river to run to get to it...lots of gators and birds...Anhingas, White Herons, Blue Herons, Bald Eagles I havnt seen any gators in the spring area but with all the vegetation in the water I dont spend a lot of time in it....quick dip and out....We beached in a side creek. It has a nicely mowed bank for bank fishing...good place to walk the dogs..... Both of these Springs are off the W side of Lake George....Silver Glen Springs seems to be the most popular...weekends and holidays are very crowded...party time....Salt River has more fishing boats.....and is quieter with a nice fresh spring for filling your water jugs...if you dont mind a mile or so walk you can get to a grocery store.....they have a small marina and campground...but no supplies other than charts and icecream, ice and souveniers. We have a few more changes to make...nothing major...just to make things handier...still trying to figure out where we are going to stow all the charts, clothes, books etc..

Finding our way to "Lingerawhile"

Nov 29, 2007

Our first boat was a 22' Catalina sailboat....lots of fun and banged shins and heads.....we needed to move up to a larger boat...but as Owner-Operators..we needed one that could get us back to the dock in a short time if a good paying load became available...MacGregor 26X with a 50hp motor on it did that right well. We spent most of our off time on "Idletime".....Once we retired and knew we wanted to spend extended periods of time aboard.....we decided to find a trailerable houseboat...something we could use as a camper when on the way to the next lake or river...We looked at a 1997 Adventure Craft and felt it was just what we needed.....We travel with 2 dogs and a bird...The AC will beach very nicely and it's very easy to step on and off for a walk with the dogs...We carry 2 2000 watt generators....need two if we want to run the air-conditioner....but normally only use one to top off batteries if we've been at anchor or on the beach for a day or two...

I didnt get this blog set up in time to cover the beginning of our travels aboard Lingerawhile...the first year we spent 3 weeks on the Tenn-Tom Waterway and most of the winter on and off the St Johns River in FL.....each time out we would have a bit of a remodel to test....by doing a little at a time and then going out for a few weeks...we were able to make the boat pretty comfortable and get some more storage space...28' isnt a very big boat...

In June '07 we left FL and headed to NY & VT...we camped in our boat, getting plenty of exercise climbing up and down the ladder....after a month of visiting relatives and a week at the Morris Fair, we headed west to Joplin MO for a visit with friends. From there we went to Grand Lake, OK for a great 3 weeks on the water.

We hauled out and headed for Lake Powell...camping with relatives in AZ & NM on the way. Lake Powell should be on every trailer-sailors list...

It was fantastic...wish we had more time to spend but we wanted to be in Albuquerque NM or the Balloon Fiesta, so we were happy with the 3 + weeks we spent there...

After the Balloon Fiesta we headed to the Black Warrior River in AL..We met our friend Larry, and his Nimble Nomad there...we spent 3 weeks running the river and had a great time...Larry has been a boating buddy for several years. He and 2 friends trailered from OK and did the small loop around the tip of Florida . They had a Chrysler 26 and we had our 26X. He swapped his sailboat for a Nimble Nomad..a trailerable trawler. We've done part of the Tenn-Tom together, the Black Warrior and many miles gunkholing the St Johns River together...

The 4 + months and 8000 miles(land) and 1700 miles (water) that we spent on the boat helped us realize we still had a few more changes to make...but also showed us we could be pretty comfortable aboard.

We've just finished a couple of those changes....a larger fridge(so we can do away with the cooler and the hunt and expense of ice) and a solar shower that is plumbed into the head( so we dont have to shower on the back deck with the mosquitos.) A few more days and we'll be heading up the St Johns River to see how we like the new conveniences.