Day 97 downstream 21 miles to Hontoon State Park

This morning we said goodbye to Sanford (first picture), and started back down stream toward Jacksonville about 140 miles away. In the photo our marina is on the left and part of the Sanford waterfront on the right.

We travelled along the southern end of Lake Monroe and re-entered the St. Johns River.

We did take one short detour to traverse an old cutoff (abandoned) portion of the river channel. It was somewhat overgrown with water hyacinth and a little shallow due to silting. The depths ranged from 5.8 feet (below the keel) to 0.8 feet, but we never touched. Our only "surprise" was that the channel through the hyacinths did get very narrow.

This picture shows the narrow channel as we are about to re-enter the main river channel. It was not as "scary" as it looks if you remember that all of those water hyacinths are floating on the water. About 4 miles before we reached our destination, we passed the Blue Springs State Park, which was our destination for the afternoon. We docked at the Hontoon State Park about 12:30 pm.

We had lunch on board, change into swim suits and head back to the Blue Springs. Here I am with mask and snorkel headed away from the steps down into the spring. The fresh water springs provide about 1 million gallons of clear fresh water per day. As we walked along a boardwalk toward the springs, we passed a spot where there was a sharp line between the dark red water of the St. Johns River and the crystal clear water flowing out of the springs. Suddenly, we could actually see the bottom! We also saw one manatee, several gar, perch and lots of mullet. The water is 72F year round, and in the Winter the manatee come here for the warmth. Notice that the un-named person who took this picture was well up the steps... It seems that the water was a little cold for her taste

We had brought our sit in inflatable rings so I opted to float down stream to the entrance. About three hours later I finally felt good and warm again. Any way it was fun to actually see the bottom in 5 feet of water with my goggles on.



Here I am at the "helm" as we head back to Lucky Us at Hontoon State Park. After using the dingy yesterday, we left her in the water and towed her behind Lucky Us. We plan to tow her again tomorrow as we plan to visit another spring.

Every day seems to have at least one "incredible" sight. Lucky you! Today we had two sightings... The first one was this art-deco (?) manatee at the Blue Springs. The shape of the manatee looks pretty good, but the multicolor tiles really were???

The second unbelievable sight was this "Do It Yourself" paddle wheel boat. Obviously a work in progress, but the windows were closed, which hopefully meant that the AC was working.



Days 95-6 in Sanford

Day 95 went pretty much as advertised as a day of rest. The restored downtown runs parallel to the south shore of the lake about 2 blocks inland from the marina. We walked downtown to visit some art and antique stores and had lunch in a German restaurant. Somehow the hofbrau house atmosphere was tainted for me with tattoos on some of the waitresses. It just did not seem to fit my image... Anyway, the food was excellent. The marina sits just off the shore on a small man made island along with a motel and nice waterfront restaurant. This make the choice of a dinner location very easy, and I had an excellent Caesar salad topped with grilled fish.

Day 96 began with about a 3 hour dingy trip up the St. Johns River from the southeast corner of Lake Monroe. Lake Monroe is a large lake at 15 square miles, with an average depth of only 8 feet. At this point we are 141 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and evidently mild tidal effects still reach this far. However, there is virtually no salt with 0.2%  as compared with 3.5% for normal sea water. The flow rate is only about 0.5 mph on average, but locally can be higher. The first picture shows the chart for our dingy trip starting at Lake Monroe in the very upper left corner. Like the lake, the river is now only 8 feet deep and is now less than 300 feet wide. The river now also has a lot more marsh and a number of small anastomosing stream channels. This myriad of channels often made navigation confusing (before GPS anyway).

 At this point we were still 80+ miles from the actual headwaters of the river, but it becomes increasingly swampy and finally totally un-navigable. The length of the river is well over 200 miles, but the gradient or drop in topography is only 30 feet over this distance. No wonder it flows so slowly! This is as far up river that we are going on this trip anyway... 

Although the dingy trip was short, there was lots of scenery, including these grazing cattle and horses. The steamboats (and railroad) opened up this interior part of Florida to agriculture as well as tourism. The St. Johns River is known as a "black water" river. To me it looks more like dark red, but the color is due to tannic acid from the rotting organic material in all of the swamps as well as fertilizer from the fields (and lawns).

This is my personal favorite picture of the day -a tree full of vultures...

Meanwhile, back at the dock we were treated to lots of (mainly) mallard ducks. It seems that they enjoyed eating algae that grows on the floating docks. These must be very savvy ducks since there are plenty of alligators in and around the marina. I did not get any pictures, but we did see at least 5 more manatees today.

Just down the dock from Lucky Us is this reproduction paddle wheeler that does dinner cruises, wedding, etc. It was busy today, and the party goers were treated to wonderful weather and glassy calm water. All in all, Sanford has been a very nice stop. We are well rested and ready to start down river in the morning. Obviously we will be following the same route, but we hope to take a couple of side trips. For one, we hope to visit one of the many springs with crystal clear water that help feed the river.

Day 94 Astor to Sanford

Beautiful trip of just under 40 miles from Astor to Sanford. The St. Johns River continues to get narrower. We left about 8:15 am, which fits our pattern of trying to get our trip done by early afternoon to avoid the inevitable rains. Lots of idle speed zones for manatee and then 25 mph zones in the center of the channel.

We saw several manatees, but as you know by now, the sightings are minimal, such as a big swirl with a nose or tail visible. However, we did see a lot more alligators, such as this big one that did not dive under the water until we were quite close. Not too scary, especially when your eye level on the fly bridge is about 15 feet above the water...

This picture of a Great Blue Heron gives you an idea of the kind of jungle like scenery along much of this day's trip.  It may be just my imagination, but the invasive water hyacinth seemed to become less abundant as the day progressed.

Much to my enjoyment, we continued to see lots of osprey. As we neared our destination of Sanford, we paused briefly for a railroad bridge, passed under Interstate 4 and entered into Lake Monroe. It was a short trip along the southern edge of the lake to Sanford. The Interstate(Tampa to Orlando to Daytona), the railroad and a large airport (Orlando-Sanford Airport) show the strategic location of Sanford. The town was the southern terminus of steamship travel up the St. Johns River in the mid 19th century. The steamships were replaced by the railroad, and the town continued to be regionally important with road and air travel.

   We are in Monroe Harbor Marina, which is right downtown. We took a short walk to the Chamber of Commerce to get local information, and then decided that a movie was in order.  The trip to the movie turned into a several hour ordeal, but we did get to see the sci-fi thriller "Elysium".  The movie was pretty good, which is unusual for me to say since I am not a big sci-fi fan. Tomorrow(Day 95) has been declared an official day of rest...

Day 93 Palatka to Astor

We departed Palatka at 8:15 am after, yes we need to do it, a pump out. Beautiful blue sky over Palatka with a park on the left, church and the beginnings of downtown on the right. The St. Johns River has continued to get narrower as we head upstream. In the Jacksonville area it was several miles wide, but by the time we reached Palatka (58 miles) it was down to a half mile. After the 48 miles to Astor today the river is now down to 3-400 feet wide. Near the end of today's trip we crossed Lake George, which is about 10 by 5 miles. The lake is shallow  (about 15' for most of the way), and it could get very nasty in a stiff breeze. However, we were blessed with a light breeze for the whole day. 

This osprey was on the jetty as we left the lake at the south end. Unlike the Intracoastal Waterway, today most of the channel markers on the St. Johns River had osprey nests on them. I guess that there are not enough tall, isolated dead trees around here for the nests. Anyway, we saw LOTS of ospreys today. While we were slowly going past this osprey, the Admiral was standing on the aft end of the fly bridge playing osprey calls on her iPad... This osprey cocked his head at several different angles in response to the calls. This was really quite the scene... No, not the reaction of the osprey. I mean watching the Admiral point the iPad at the osprey...

In one of the more remote areas we saw this small ferry, which was maneuvered by an outboard powered rowboat on the other side. It looked more like an unofficial "do-it-yourself" operation.

Continuing with the theme of "odd sights", we saw this Casita travel trailer that was painted to look like Lego blocks. Fortunately that theme does not seem to have caught on with boat owners -at least not yet.

We got back to more normal sights as we approached our destination of Astor. This lovely old home was one of several along the water in town. Of course, some of the areas must have absolutely no zoning given the mix of shacks, mobile homes and beautiful mansions...

This picture shows Lucky Us at her dock at the Blackwater Inn (restaurant and marina). The "green stuff" in the foreground is water hyacinth that seems to be quite invasive around here. We will need to check the strainers on our raw water inlets since this plant breaks loose and pieces are impossible to avoid as they are floating everywhere.

This is a little different view with just the bow of Lucky Us and the waterfront side of the Blackwater Inn. We went to dinner here, and we both had the "Catch of the Day", which was broiled triggerfish. Wow, chalk up another excellent meal. This is the first time on our adventure that our check at dinner also included the cost of the transient slip for the night. Well, the place does seem a little laid back...

     Tomorrow we are going an additional 40 miles south on the St. Johns River to the town of Sanford. Ever heard of George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin??? Yup, that's the place.  Depending upon water levels, we could go further south, but at that point we will have gone about 170 miles up river from the Atlantic Ocean on the St. Johns River. We plan to have a more leisurely cruise back down the river and hopefully check out some of the interesting spots that we have seen (and NO, the Lego trailer is not one of them!).

Day 92 south/up river to Palatka

Left Ortega Landing in Jacksonville at 8:15 am. We headed south (up river) on the St. Johns River nearly 54 miles to Palatka. At our normal cruising speed we were only making 6.2 mph going up stream and against a falling tide.  About Noon, the tide reversed and we picked up speed to a little over 8 mph, which is our normal cruising speed.  Once we passed under the I-295 ring road bridge, it started to get very remote. There were still some houses along the water, but we were obviously getting out of the metropolitan area. One of the few boats that passed us was a 90 foot yacht that must have been throwing up a 6 foot high bow wave at about 20 mph. He did slow down some while passing us so we did not get waked too bad. There are only a few bridges across the St. Johns River, and even those are like 20 miles apart, which probably contributes to the remoteness of the area. Palatka is a small, county seat. It has lots of historic homes that seem pretty well maintained.

Angel's Diner (first two photos) is the oldest, continuously operated diner in Florida. Like I've said before, every town has at least one gimmick. As the sign says, Angel's is biker friendly so I felt right at home on my electric scooter...

Our marina is small and right downtown

The last picture is a (lousy) photo showing the whole marina and much of the downtown waterfront. Bad quality aside, you really do not see most of the houses, which are generally set back from the water in the trees, and the downtown area is two blocks and more away from the water.

Tomorrow we are headed 48 miles further south along the St. Johns River. At some point it will start to get narrower, but so far we are over 80 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and the river is still 1 to 3 miles wide. Pretty amazing and beautiful trip so far.

Day 91 Busy day in Jacksonville

Today (Monday) was our second full day at Ortega Landing Marina on the southwest edge of Jacksonville.  We made a total of two trips to the pool, but also, the Admiral loves to alternate between the pool and whirlpool. The trip from hot to "cool" water is much easier when the pool is 85+F.

The air temperature got up into the low 90s.

Thus, the pool was jump right in temperature without much/any shock. I could get to like this setting...

The rest of the day consisted of the Admiral cleaning floors and vacuuming while I set out to repair the sump pump for the salon AC. Do you remember "Legionnaire's Disease"? Well, it was ultimately traced to water that had condensed on the AC coils and somehow gotten into the fresh water in the hotel. Thus, on a boat the water that condenses on the AC coils is drained via hose into a plastic sump box down in the engine room. The sump collects the water and a float switch turns on the pump to discharge it out the side of the hull above the water line. This should eliminate the possibility of contamination of the water in the bilge, etc. First, I had to diagnose whether it was the pump or the switch, and then a quick half mile trip to West marine to buy a new pump. Altogether this simple job took 3.5 hours not counting the trip to West Marine.  Not a fun time since the temperature in the engine room must have been over 100F. Oh well, (much) better safe than sorry. Thank goodness for the swimming pool.
     Tomorrow morning, we plan to start about a 7 day trip south (and up) along the St. Johns River. We hope to go about 125 miles in the first three days, and then turn around and take our time exploring on the way back.

Days 89-90 Two more days enjoying Jacksonville -aaargh!

 Yesterday morning (Day 89) we left the city marina and headed across the city to Ortega Landing Marina. It is a favorite stop for "Loopers", and we can definitely understand why. Our trip was only 9 miles, but it took nearly 2 hours. This picture is of the Jacksonville Landing, which is the area where we had dinner on our first night in town (Day 87). If you look at the water you can see the swirls (or turbulent flow). We were headed up river and into an outgoing tide. Our normal cruising speed of 8 mph went down to about 4.5 mph. The St. Johns River is narrow here due to the development along the waterfront. This narrow channel restricts the flow and increases the velocity (and turbulence). We noted water depths of 76 feet in one area. If you restrict the width, the turbulence of the river just deepens or erodes its channel to accommodate the discharge. The downtown waterfront is pretty along both sides so the slow travel gave us plenty of time to enjoy the view. We left the marina at 8:40 am in order to make the opening of the railroad bridge that is undergoing repairs. If we had missed that opening, the next was not going to be until 2:00 pm.

The marina is nearly full since there are lots of live aboards due to the proximity to the city center. The facility is fairly new and has a lovely pool and club house. Once again, our timing was perfect since the marina was hosting their monthly theme party/dinner at 6:00 pm.  It turns out that the "theme" was pirates -aargh! It turns out that hippies from the 1960s make pretty good pirates in costume with their beards and pony tails. This picture taken from Lucky Us shows the club house (upper right) and some of the really nice boats. Sometimes people who live aboard do not take good care of their boats, but most of these people seem to do some serious cruising for extended periods.

Today's highlight was lunch at a Dominican restaurant. The food was great, but the menu was a bit of a challenge for me. I ended up with wonderful broiled Tilapia on a garden salad. The Tilapia had been marinated in a lime or lemon juice, which was an enjoyable but different taste. There is a fairly large shopping center nearby with a Publix grocery, Radio Shack and assorted other stores. At the Shack we bought some new connectors for the coaxial cable to the TV in the master stateroom, which had not been getting good reception. Problem solved! This was a big relief, since replacing the cable would have taken a lot of time. The cable is over 40 feet long and passes under the master stateroom, head and then through the entire engine room. Along the way it passes through 2 bulkheads and is part of bundles of up to 25 other pairs of 12 and 120 volt wires. A "relatively" easy day long job has been avoided at least for now.

Tomorrow or sometime soon, we plan to head south, up the St. Johns River for a week or so of cruising.  Depending upon how good the cruising is, we plan to go 100 or miles south/up river. The St. Johns River is one of the seemingly few major river in North America that flows north, which is why many people find it "odd" to be going south and up stream at the same time...