November 17, 2013

Drigger Island to Blue Creek 11.12.13

It was a bit foggy when we woke up this morning.

Jim and I took the dingy for a short cruise. We really like pushing it around with the trolling motor. No loud motor…nothing to pull…just a nice peaceful ride.

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Bud and Michaelle were getting Avi-toon ready for travel. Kind of looks like we’re rafted up with the “ducks” but we’re not. They are much bigger than Meander.

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There is a lot of room below deck on these boats. I think both have bunk beds as well as a table that makes into a double bed….and lots of head room.

That is Sue aboard Big Duck (gold).

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When rafted like this there is a lot of deck space for socializing.

Jerry and Terry aboard The Ugly Duckling.

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One of the floating mascots.…..Merlin. He keeps Jeff and Sue safe. What a great dog.

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Penny, Bud and Michaelle’s little poodle is another great boating dog. She runs around Avi-Toon’s decks and spends a lot of time in the extra chair. Keeping Michaelle company while Bud drives.

Big Duck had a problem and The Ugly Duckling stayed behind till it was solved.

Bud, Michaelle, Jim and I anchored along the river and waited. I think Bud is working on supper. Penny is asleep in the chair. Michaelle’s probably wondering who gets to clean it if he actually catches something.

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Jim and I took the dingy for a spin.

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We’ve been seeing a lot of these flowers along the river. It looks like a climbing Aster. Bee food? Don’t know… it was pretty cold and I didn’t see any bees on it but we gathered some seeds and a few plants. I like to find stuff that grows wild for the honey bees.

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Here come the “ducks”. I think they can go over 20 mph.

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Merlin is enjoying the trip.

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We are exploring Blue Creek today.

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Another place we enjoy traveling. It is slow going, but interesting.

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There are stretches with homes and then it is wild again.

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Cool and windy so there were not a lot of gators out sunning today. This Anhinga was drying it’s wings with a couple of turtles for company.

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We were going to anchor near the island the local gator, Bubba, hangs out on, but it was starting to fill up with weeds. The weather forecast is for winds around 25 – 30 mph and strong gusts. We were afraid we’d get “weeded” in.

On the other side of the St Johns is another jug handle. Jim wanted to show everyone this boat.  It was floating the last time we were here. What a shame…a very unique motorsailer.

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Here’s Merlin again….maybe he’s scouting out a place to get ashore.

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We started back South on the St Johns River to find a place to anchor for the night. We spotted Captain Jim aboard “Sailbad the Sinner” and decided to anchor there. Had trouble getting the anchors set. Big Duck got his down solid, Jerry and Terry tied a line to a tree …backed out and had Jim dingy the stern anchor out as far as he could. Bud and Michaelle did the same thing.

We finally got our anchor set and we rode out the night. It was windy and Meander really sails back and forth with the wind. I think Jerry and Terry had the best spot…Bud released his line to the tree and put both anchors out on the stern around mid-night.

Everyone made it through the night….though none of us got much sleep after being on anchor duty all night.

 

 

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