2.22.09

We spent the night at Hontoon Island.  Larry spotted a fellow nimble owner and docked next to him. It is a Nimble 20 sailboat. Brent is singlehanding right now, but his girlfriend joins him aboard, when she can. It sounds like he will be traveling the river for awhile so we may see him again.

Next to us is a Sting Ray. They are from Jacksonville and can make it down here in a couple of hours. Top end around 60.

Its a sleek looking  little boat without the canopy on it. Good weekender. Small stove, propane grill, sink and portajohn…it closes up with room enough for sleeping.

The 41 ft DeFerver docked just beyond us at the end of the dock is owned by full time liveaboards. She has 4 or 5 flower boxes on the rear deck for her herb garden. And they have a parrot.

After an easy, relaxing morning of good conversation we headed S. Lots of boats out today.

Or you can unpack the jetski and enjoy lunch on the beach.

The St Johns River has something for everyone. You can go fast ..go slow…paddle with someone, or alone..camp..fish..bird watch or look for gators and Manatees. We saw 8 near the entrance to Blue Springs…so if you are boating in that area ..watch carefully for them. I saw 2 that looked like they had fresh scars from props.

Swimming any place other than Silver Glen Springs or Salt River Springs is definately not  on my list. I was a bit nervous watching these dogs playing in the water. You may not see the gators….but they are in there. Our anchorage for the night, near G109 had 14 boats in it at one time today. Normally we are there alone. We were still able to spot 9 or 10 gators….most were small (4-5 ft) but there were a couple of large ones…and one was comfortable enough to cruise among the boats.

Even the turtles enjoyed the warm sunny afternoon. This will be our last night on the water for a few weeks. We are hauling out tomorrow. It will also be the end of boating with River Nomad and Larry and Diane. They will be heading W in a few days. Perhaps we will be able to meet them on the Arkansas River or the Tenn-Tom sometime late summer. It has been a fun winter with them for company. It will seem strange not to look back and see this little green boat following us….and missed even more when we cant send her ahead in a shallow creek..to see if we can make it also.

We’ve traveled almost 1500 miles together this winter….

Till the next adventure, friends….stay in God’s care.