Mullet Lake State Park, FL to Lake Harney, FL

There are several lakes along the St Johns River. Most of them we’ve been in or across…but it was done with boats with much less draft. The lakes in FL are shallow lakes to start with. That is why Lake George is so hazardous to small boats when the weather is bad.

The launching area at Mullet Lake is small so we decided to anchor in the river. A lot of fishing boats and air boats launch here and we didn’t want to be in their way. Since there was a pretty good current we both put out anchors when rafted up.

The weather is much warmer.

We were blessed with a beautiful sunrise.

Warm nights bring lots of bugs that are attracted to our anchor lights and the solar light I keep on the deck to see by, when I take Raisin out on the bow to do her business after dark.

Jim was up early and playing “swabbie”.

as was Larry….

This Blue Heron was standing in a tree top stretching it’s neck to get as much sunshine as possible. I think he was enjoying the sunrise as much as we were.

The sunrise striking the opposite side of the river really brought out the colors…….Jim is still “swabbing” down the boat.

Here’s a shot of the park. It has showers. Nothing fancy…but the water is hot.

Larry is still “swabbing” also. This is looking S.  Isn’t the scenery beautiful?

We didn’t see a lot of boats…but several were taking advantage of a beautiful day.

The is the view as he headed up the river. (the St Johns River runs N)

It is so beautiful out…no one is in a rush to get moving.

After the chores were done I think we spent an hour on deck just having coffee and talking. It was a perfect way to start the day.

They use airboats to spray to weeds on the waterway. 2 launched and headed S….an hour or so later we overtook them. It was interesting watching them work.

Jim found these trees intriguing.

Another big one….It’s nice to see there are still some  left.

Does it get any better than this?

This a brilliant idea for a section of the river that floods often during hurricanes or tropical storms. It is built on a pontoon barge and secured to 4 solid pillars that hold it in place while allowing it to float up and down with the river. They’ve added a floating dock and even the shed out back is on pontoons.    I could live here!!

Looking at the entrance to Lake Harney. We were told by a member of the boating club at the Boatworks Marina that it has a shallow bar at the entrance….we’ll pass on it this time. Jim and I have been already been aground once on this trip.

We turned around and headed up to the area where we saw the cows. We’ll anchor there tonight and hope to catch them coming down in the morning for a drink.

I know I have posted a lot of pictures…but it was such a beautiful day and I love this section of the river. I spent a lot of the day sitting on the foredeck.

Anchored for the night.  We only covered about 10 miles today. We dallied over coffee this morning and stopped early this afternoon.

We’re cruising around in the dingys looking for cows.

 

We did spot the white Brahma . I also saw deer tracks in the sand at the water’s edge. Hope they come down in the evening.

This has been the best day of the trip.

Blue Spring, FL to Mullet Lake, FL

We had a nice evening on the water.

Having anchored near the side of the creek to allow for boat traffic, Slow Motion ended up sitting in the lily pads. Larry had his anchor down and we were rafted up so he towed us to the middle of the creek. That way we wouldn’t have to start the engine and suck up some leaves etc. Worked like a charm.

We took the side creek back to the river. It’s a beautiful ride…slow Manatee zone but so is the river at this section.

Guess it really wasn’t interested in a picture.

Diane at the wheel while Larry takes a picture of me taking a picture of them.

This is a big one…you can’t see any of it’s tail and that head is huge. Is that a scowl on it’s face?

This tree gives you an idea how shallow it is where the St Johns River enters Lake Monroe…boats with drafts like ours need to follow the markers. Once in Governor's Cut there is plenty of depth.

Sanford Boatworks Marina is just S of the cut and fuel and slips are available here. There is also a good restaurant with room for both A 27’s at the dock. We’ll stop on our way back. We’re headed to Mullet Lake Park. This park has a boat ramp but no long term secure parking. So even though it is much closer to our home we launch at the W end of Lake Monroe.

You have to look closely at the one below. You can see only the gators head…and it’s another big one. It’s looking almost directly at us…you can see the eyes and the teeth. This one was in Governor's Cut…

The river S of Lake Monroe is beautiful. This is our favorite area. The river is up now so we are able to get over the shallow areas.

We reached Mullet Lake and decided to anchor in the river. Since there was so much current we used both anchors when we rafted up.

Another beautiful night on the water.

 

G3 Lungun Island to Blue Springs, FL

 We spent the night at anchor behind Lungun Island. There was still plenty of traffic on the river….everyone heading back to their homes or marina after the boat parade.
Larry called this morning. They were ready to leave whenever we got there. We upped anchor and headed their way.
Decided to go to Blue Springs and see the Manatees. There is a side creek just past the springs where we can anchor and dingy to the Springs.
The weather has been warm the last few days so there wasn’t a great number of Manatees in today. As the temperatures drop the numbers will increase. It was still fun to see the ones that were in.


The grey along the edge is a clay bank. The Manatees were enjoying rolling around in it. Made the water cloudy…but still beautiful.


The babies are the most popular and get a lot of “ooohs and aaahhs”.


They now show a video explaining why and how they track the Manatees. I only saw the last part but it would be worth watching.
Larry’s dingy motor quit on the way to the Springs so we towed them down and back.
Did I finally get a smile out of Jim? I was holding the tow rope and this is what happens when you zig when you should have zagged.

Diane and Larry enjoying their tow. Turns out it was a faulty spark plug. Once he replaced it ….it ran like a top.

Didn’t see any Manatees on our way back. Several swirls in the water but nothing surfaced.
We closed up against the bugs and watched a movie…..then off to bed.  A nice night. Not cold…not hot..not muggy. It just can’t get much better than this.

Aground

This should have been in the last post. I was going to add it to it…but then everyone who had already read it…wouldn’t see it.

After Larry and Diane left Silver Glen Springs….Jim and I were swinging on our own anchor. One thing never changes when boating…things can always change and you have to be on top of it. We Weren’t.

When we anchored…we were nose to a sand bar…we never gave it a thought after Larry left. The wind swung us around and we were still crossways of the anchorage.  But it wasn’t the wind against the current that was keeping us that way.

Jim was scrubbing the dirt off the boat and I had finished cleaning inside…and decided to go snorkeling…I looked under the boat to check the prop and realized the keel was on the sand bar….we were “aground”.

I was walking in waste deep water…pushing, pulling, tugging…nothing.  Jim put the anchor in the dingy and took it way out into deep water. I pulled on the anchor and he pushed with the dingy…didn’t work.  We could move it sideways…but not forward….let all the anchor rode out and both got on the bow and shoved…It worked!!! We were in the channel…let it drift into deeper water…hauled in the anchor and moved to another spot.

Guess that’s what we get for laughing at Larry and Diane’s “Christmas Wreath”.

 

Silver Glen Springs, FL

There was a pretty sunrise, but by the time I got my camera, dog, coffee and Jim into the dingy most of it was gone. I still got a picture of the pair of Bald Eagles in the top of the tree.

This is the highest tree in our anchorage….the sun came up and stayed behind it all the way to the top….now if we tried to anchor in the summer to have shade….it wouldn’t happen.

Larry and Diane are leaving this morning. We’ll hang out most of the day. Larry is getting ready to loose the lines and haul his anchor and leave.

We anchored bow to stern with each putting out an anchor to keep us crossways of the creek and out of the channel.

And there they go…..

 

Jim had to mess with Larry so we nosed up behind them and gave them a push….then pulled alongside to say “so long”.

Good thing we did. Larry forgot to push that “magic” button and the anchor was still down. Normally when we raft up, only one of us puts an anchor out….he knew ours was….and forgot about his.

So we gave him a shout….

When the anchor came up we laughed our heads off.

He had a huge ball of weeds on the anchor. We told him he should put a big red bow on it and tell everyone it was a Christmas Wreath.

Just in case you didn’t get a good look….

I tried to stop laughing long enough to take some pictures….then Jim rowed over and pulled all the stuff off. Some people will do anything to amuse their friends. Thanks guys!!!!

We followed them down the run until they went thru the entrance.

They called us when they got to the gate at the S end of Lake George. Said they had a lumpy ride.

This is the gate. It is so shallow at this end of the lake that these are needed to funnel traffic into the channel.

Here are some scenes from our day….

Buzzards

Hawk

Turtles…

and more turtles…..the first 2 look like they are ready for take-off.

Blue Heron catching rays….nature’s solar panels.

A bit of color…

This car has been on this pontoon for several years…. I guess this is what you do if you have a boat house….instead of a garage?

.

As we were coming into Astor, FL….we started noticing a lot of people gathering along the river and on their docks….then this boat came out of a side channel….

Here’s another….

We had forgotten Astor was having a Christmas Boat Parade. So we found a spot to drop the anchor and hung out for awhile to watch the parade. It was much bigger than we thought it would be and everyone sounded like they were having a great time.  After all the boats had gone by we hauled anchor and headed to Lungun Island to anchor for the night.

Another great day on the water.

 

Seven Sisters to Silver Glen Springs, FL

A little after 8 the sun started shining and we headed out. We had rafted up to Larry and Diane so just had to loose the lines and motor away. Larry hit that magic button and up his anchor came… Sure would be nice to have one of those. I keep telling myself we need the exercise. 

Jim had his heart set on Biscuits ‘n Gravy so we stopped at Welaka and hiked to Shrimp R Us.  By the time we got there we were all ready for some.

A few hours later we stopped at Georgetown Marina for fuel.

The fuel is Marine fuel and treated with Biocide so we decided to fill up.  Took about 40 gallons. (this included our last trip out…we were not full when we launched.) So far, we’ve traveled 238 miles. I think Jim figured we are using .56 gallons an hour. The price wasn’t too bad….until you realize there is a 7% tax added to it. Nice to see diesel cheaper than gas for a change.

This Great Blue Heron looks like a statue for advertising.

There were a few men cleaning some nice sized fish. This White Heron was standing nearby. If you look closely at the photo you will see it only has one foot.

They told Larry it was about 20 years old…and if you aren’t careful when cleaning your fish….it will take it

Guess it was a day for birds at the dock….this hawk flew in and watched us for awhile.

When we got there the attendant had gone for lunch. While we waited,  Diane fixed everyone a snack of beef stick and crackers….even Raisin had a few bites.

We had a lumpy ride across Lake George to Silver Glen Springs. Not a rough ride…we were not quite broadside to the waves and every now and then one would push the back of the boat around a bit. You had to stay alert to remain on course. Larry said his auto pilot was having fits so he finally shut it off.

Once we got into Silver Glen, we dropped the dingys in the water and did a short cruise. There are a few boats in here…but no one aboard, so we have the place to ourselves.

Jim and I check for fishing line and bobbers. Got 2 and a long piece of line.

Imagine….I’ve had to put the curtains up to keep the cold out and this afternoon at the Glen I had to put one up because the sun was so warm….I almost missed this sunset.

Larry and Diane have some business to take care of so will leave in the morning and head to Astor, FL where their truck and trailer are. We’ll hang out here till later in the day..(time to go swimming) and we’ll meet them by G3, Lungun Island tomorrow night or the next morning.

Deep Creek

Another cold night…but the open engine compartment provided enough heat to enjoy the cockpit until bedtime…then it’s just a matter of getting up to use the head or to heat the water in the thermos that I use to keep the bird warm.

Looking back into the mist rising off Deep Creek.

Here come Larry and Diane aboard “A Dollar More”.

Once the sun is up….it is warm inside.

We cruised S to Corkey Bell’s floating dock. After tying up we hiked up to the grocery store. There is also a Family Dollar there. Not a long walk…I believe there is a parts store within a mile. Jim had to walk it a year or so ago for an alternator.

After stowing the groceries, we had lunch at Corkey Bell’s.

We took  a side trip down Murphy Creek. Saw a few gators. One was pretty big but as soon as Jim slowed the engine down he disappeared.

We decided to anchor at Seven Sisters, just S of the Buffalo Bluff Railroad Bridge. There is a nice wide spot that should give us early morning sunshine.

A nice evening at anchor….and not as cold as last night. Again, the engine compartment threw off enough heat to keep us comfortable in the cockpit. So far, we’ve only run the generator and heater for an hour or so on a couple of mornings.