Jim is usually up first in the morning….I sleep in till he has the generator running to charge the batteries and make coffee.
We are used to working with each other in small spaces. Once he has everything running and can sit out of the way..I get the bed made up.
I roll the sheet, blankets and pillows up in the beach towels. They make good back rests under way. The one hanging over the front door is to keep mosquitos from coming in. The door is not very tight and facing into the wind you get a pretty good draft through it…so it does double duty. All ship shape and ready for coffee on the rear deck.
While I was getting the bed made …Jim bailed the dingy and put some air in it. Need to get some work done on it. It has a water leak and an air leak.
When we got the boat there was no provision for the anchor. Jim cut the bow rail and built an anchor roller for it. When he did that he had to remove the running lights. He put them on a plate that can be bolted into the rail when we need it. Today it was foggy and we wanted to get through the canal before the tour boats started running..so had to run in the fog with lights.
It has to be removed for anchoring but we hardly ever need it anyways so it’s not a problem. It is well worth it. Now we have an anchor roller and much easier to haul the anchor up.
Nope that is not snow….it is spider webs. The woods looked like it had little tuffs of snow all through it.
Years ago in NY I used to do a lot of coon hunting. I ran through the fields at night following the dogs….never realized how many spiders there were till I looked out one foggy morning.
This houseboat was tucked back in a little waterway along the river.
One day several years ago Jim and I beached on an island under a bunch of trees..to walk the dog…when we looked up it was like the Navy Seals rappelling down lines from a helicopter. There were spiders everywhere…it didn’t take us long to got off of there. Have not beached or tied up under a tree since.
Cant say spiders are my favorite insect but as you can tell…the webs fascinate me. So many of these are small flat circular webs. I’m used to the orb weavers and their big webs.
We made it to the entrance to the canal…and with the fog and the early hour we didn’t think we’d meet any other boats….we didn’t.
The canal was loaded with spider webs too..
We’ve been through here several times and it was nice to see it in the fog.
Back on the river we spotted this canoe…it was loaded for an extended camping trip. Don’t know if they were coming or going…
We cruised down to G 109 and anchored…Jim bailed and aired up the dingy and we went for a ride. I had noticed a Blue Heron nesting on the way in.
I always find it hard to believe those big birds would be nesting in tree tops.
The river was busy…boats going every which way and most at a high rate of speed. One put out a big wake and we rode it in with the dingy.
When we got back to the boat we decided we might as well pull out. Took all the screens down, closed and covered the Bimini and stowed everything we could so there would be less to do at the ramp. We try not to tie it up during holidays or weekends but didn’t figure tomorrow would be any better.
We weren’t very long at the dock . Jim had to deflate the dingy. We keep a small vacuum aboard just for that reason. Inflate or deflate. It also works good for sucking mosquitos off the ceiling if we forget to close a window screen. Turn off all the lights…aim one at the ceiling and they all head for it…except the ones trying to bite you.
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While Jim went to get the trailer, I spotted this boat waiting for the bridge to open….Would love to know what it is. Looks like a stretched Albin. Set up the same as ours…but much longer with a lot more room. If anyone knows what it is…let me know. I could live there.
Once Meander is on the trailer we get out of the way and finish tying her down and stowing gear for travel.
All in all it was a great trip. Motor wouldn’t idle very well at first but towards the end when Jim started using high grade marine gas it did better. Weather was perfect the first and last days and was good in between. We got to do some swimming and lots of cruising. We had fair weather for crossing Lake George and the river was up enough for us to get into Salt Springs.
If the river is still up when we come out next time…we will try Lake Dexter, Lake Woodruff and a trip into DeLeon Springs. They have a neat restaurant there. The Old Mill. There are grills in the tables and you can cook your own eggs and pancakes. I used to go there every afternoon when training Harness Horses at Spring Garden Ranch.
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