11.22.08 Welaka, FL

We started the day with a walk to “Shrimp R us”. Everyone had a good breakfast at a reasonable price. I had the BEST sausage gravy & biscuits, that I have ever had.  After good coffee and food we hiked a couple of blocks to the Maritime Museum. You wont believe the boats inside. Andrew’s uncle started this and built all the boats. A couple of them will be in the Steam Boat parade on Dec 13. Andrew makes wooden vases. The technique was taught to him by his Uncle. He made all of these except the ones with a stand. They are made with bits of wood…similar to the way this boat is made. I believe his Uncle used all his left over bits to make the vases.There is one at the entrance, that his Uncle made… that may be the biggest wooden vase. It sat in the Smithsonian Museum for 4 years. His cousin owns the museum and builds boats . It is a talented family. If you like wooden boats…you dont want to miss this one. It’s only a couple of blocks from the Welaka free dock, straight up the road…cross rt 309 and it’s on the L.  A right on 309 will take you to the restaurant.

11.22.08 Chilly morning

It was still pretty windy when we got to the dock last night. Larry got help from a gentleman who was fishing and then they both gave us a hand getting in. Once we were securely in our slips, we cleaned up and headed up to Cafe Bleu. You can see it over the top of River Nomad, Larry’s boat. The green building with the docks. If you want some great food…make sure you stop there. I had “Pasta Basilica w\shrimp”….wonderful!!  You get a personal service from Roxy and Bleu that you just dont get in most places these days. Very nice people. We really enjoyed our time there. We’ll definately be stopping there again.

11.21.08 Silver Glen & crossing Lake George

Cool morning…lots of fog on the springs. I was up about 6 am and rowing Raisin to shore. Dropped her off and got the cameras.  I spent an hour rowing around waiting for the sun to come up and enjoying the wildlife. One spectacular Bald Eagle sat and watched me. If you look close in the next picture , in the trees over the bow rail on our boat, is the Eagle. Once the sun topped the trees the fog lifted and it warmed up. We were anchored in about 3 1/2 ft of water with only a few inches below our keel. The water is so clear.  Only got down to 48 deg last night. Not too bad. We took our time getting things put away and then headed up Lake George to Salt River Run Springs.  The wind was kicking the lake up pretty good and we were headed directly into it…kinda like riding a rocking horse.  Diane was driving and hollered “ridem’ cowgirl”. She was having a blast. We ran aground just past the 2 bouys going into Salt River…With Diane driving and Larry controling the tow line we got pulled off. Guess we wont be doing Salt Springs till the water is back up….so headed to Welaka and the free dock, for the night.