5.21.10

Nice night at anchor…breeze most of the night…but by morning the water was like glass…not a ripple in sight.

Last night on the way back to the boat we spotted a Yellow Crowned Night Heron with it’s nest. We tried to get pictures but it was too windy. This morning it was perfect. The nest is only about 6’ off the water.

It’s a beautiful bird. But talk about a bad hair day!! Arn’t they darling?

We were drifting up under the branches for the pictures.

They don’t look impressed with us. Something about them makes me think of the movie “Jurassic Park”.

Jim was a good sport trying to keep the dingy in the right spot. There was only one opening where I could see this bird without lots of branches in the way.

I took this shot out of the video. I think it must have been trying to frighten us off. When it realized we meant no harm…it continued with it’s grooming.

Once we finished taking pictures & videos (over 130), we weighed the anchor and headed N to Green Cove Springs city dock to meet Ed.  He took us to lunch and we were joined by Gordon and Susanne. Gordon has an Albin 25 and Susanne has a 44 ft sailboat.  WOW..wouldn't it be great to live on that? Ed just sold his Albin 25 to some nice people…hope we get to cruise with them one of these days. He flew out the same day and we will look forward to several meals at the Shrimp R Us restaurant in Welaka with them next winter when they return.

The city dock at Green Cove Springs is really pretty nice. Floating docks with elec and water for $10 a night. We didn’t spend the night and headed over to check out Trout Creek , it got pretty narrow and Jim picked up a few souvenirs when we made the turn around. I had to drop the antenna to keep it out of the trees. Next was a trip to Six Mill Creek… Outback Crab Shack has a looooooooooooooooong dock that customers can tie up to over night….so we had supper…and did just that. We’re in the middle of the dock.

We did see a gator swimming around just behind us. First one we’ve seen in over a week…so they are here.

5.20.10

We decided to spend the day on Black Creek.

I took these on the way to shore with Raisin. Looks can be deceiving..

The beach is on the other side….and from this side the view isn’t so pretty. I wonder how much water is inside? We see many boats along the river that need a lot of TLC.

It’s 13 mi to the S Fork and N Fork of Black Creek. We took the N fork first.  1.6 mi up the fork you come to the Rt 21 bridge. There is a BP Gas station within walking distance if you need something. We went another 2 miles then turned around…getting shallow. Lots of homes, many on high ground.  It’s not often you get to see a long set of steps down to the water in Florida. I took the pictures from inside…we were closed up with the screens because the deer flies were so bad. Once out of the narrow forks they were gone.

We followed the S fork for a little over 3 miles…much wilder and less expensive homes.

We spotted these ducks sharing a log with a turtle.

Once in the main creek we started seeing the wake boarders.

There’s an island just up the from the entrance and we’ve decided to anchor behind it where we can watch the action. I think this is a hydro-foil….and boy…could he do some tricks!!!

We had a lot of fun watching them…..it got really exciting when we took the dingy around the island to the main river side.  The wake boarder, 2 bass boats and the hydro-foil all criss-crossed in front of us and we got to ride some nice swells in the dingy.