Feb 26, 2023 Morrison Island to River Forest Loop

 Sunday Feb 26, 2023  Morrison Island to River Forest Loop - 20 miles

The day started leisurely.  A minor amount of fog wisped across the water but soon dissipated.  Waffles and sausage for a late Sunday morning treat.  Then a bit of frustration as one of our navigation programs - Aqua Maps - had been acting up.  Freezing up and requiring constant reboots.   Finally decided to just uninstall it.  Which of course means it and all the maps needed to be reinstalled. Just a time-consuming bother.  What was odd is the program is still running perfectly on our old redundant tablet.  Once done we got a later start than intended, bur since only a 2 hour cruise no worries.  

Airboats have start to be a thing around here - quite the noise nuisance.

Martha did the heavy driving again to start the day taking us under the Astor bridge after calling for an opening and past the 4 plus miles of canals that makes every home here waterfront property. And of course each with a boater who wants to be out on the water on this splendid sunny warm weekend day. 

 Once sufficiently past Astor the landscape turned into the narrow meandering St. Johns backwoods and swamps.  This area experienced major flooding last fall after receiving record rainfalls from hurricanes Ian and Nicole.  The water has finally receded, but the high-level marks are still visible along the shorelines.  The river at Astor is a narrow bottleneck before it enters Lake George so the lands to the south had even higher water and more extensive flooding.

High water marks from the flood still visible on the trees

We stop for the day in River Forest Loop and drop anchor early afternoon.  After settling in we splash the dingy and head south to explore.  There's a houseboat rental industry in this area so we pass several marinas with them lined up.  Pass under the Whitehair Bridge and make our way to Hontoon Island State Park.  We have been unable to get any definitive answers regarding staying at their docks and upon arriving we learn it is open for day visits. No overnight stays.  They experienced significant damage from the flooding and are still recovering.  The day was waning so we headed the 4 miles back to our anchorage.  We'll use tomorrow as another day for exploring.  

Hontoon Island State Park docks

Sweet picture of As You Wish in the late afternoon sun upon our return

Clouds catching the last rays of sunshine to end our day

Mon. Feb 27, 2023

We had gotten up at 1:15 AM to watch the manned SpaceX launch only to have it scrubbed 2 minutes before ignition.  Back to bed.  In the morning I dropped the kayak to do a little exploring.  Found one nice 8-10 foot gator laying in some water lily's. Took a picture from afar but when I tried cinching up a bit closer, he violently protested with a massive thrashing of his tail and disappeared into the water.  Needless to say, I did some quick paddling back to the boat. 

He's in between the yellow arrows

Secured the kayak on the boat then took the dingy and retraced our trip down to Hontoon Island for some hiking.  Talked with the ranger and learned of the extensive damage they received.  Ranger station, ranger house, bathrooms and all the cabins had water intrusion. Much of the grounds have been cleaned up and insides of buildings gutted. Waiting now on contractors to refurbish all the buildings.  The more interesting wetlands trail was closed as the boardwalks need fixed or replaced so we took the uplands trail.  Probably better for us - wider, flatter, more open. They had done a controlled burn last June and amazing how quickly underbrush has come back.  Made it easier to keep an eye out for the snakes. 

Good to know we only needed to worry about 3 types of venomous snakes.

Upland trail not the most scenic, but still good exercise getting off the boat

Once done we stopped at  Hontoon Marina across the river for some gas for the dingy then back towards the boat and a stop at St Johns River Grille for late lunch/dinner before returning to the boat.   Today's rocket launch was at 6:15pm. Another SpaceX rocket. This one with 22 more Starlink satellites. Interesting to see the rocket going up but then also watching the stage 1 rocket contrail returning to land successfully on their offshore barge.

SpaceX delivering another 22 Starlink satellites.

Yet another peaceful evening at anchor

Journey for Feb. 26, 20203

Feb. 25, 2023 Silver Glen Spring to Morrison Island

 Sat. Feb. 25, 2023  Silver Glen Spring to Morrison Island - 7 miles

We watch as a multitude of boats head for the entrance to Silver Glen Spring throughout the morning as we go about our normal rituals of coffee, checking emails, weather reports, route planning and finally breakfast.  These unseasonably warm days, even by central Florida standards, seem to have everyone with a boat out and about today.  We finally hoist anchor around 11 and begin the short trip across the bottom third of Lake George and back onto the river. Martha takes control of the boat for the entire trip - anchor up until anchor down.  This area is the start of numerous no wake manatee zones, and we duck into one where an oxbow forms Morrison Island just short of the town of Astor. Not quite as natural a setting as we had hoped. Plenty of boats speeding by in the main channel. Several homes and docks on the oxbow but supposedly none further back. It's just too shallow for us to anchor back there.  We'll just spend the day here chilling and out of the way of all the weekend warriors zooming by.

Martha threads the needle thru the narrow channel and armada of boaters

Morrison Island - we heard gator grunting all night from the bank

Sunset over the homes and canals of Astor

Fun facts about Astor - Timucuan Indian settled land originally, then early 1800 was a sugar cane and orange plantation that failed.   Finally, William Backhouse Astor Jr. of the NY Astor family bought up about 12,000 acres and developed the town of Manhattan.  Served by steamboat. Logging became an industry. He built a railroad, hotel, church, school, etc.   When William died it passed to his son and the town was renamed Astor to honor his father.  Williams son - John Jacob Astor - was a victim of the Titanic sinking leaving the property to his son - William Vincent Astor.  He had no interest in this venture and sold it off.  It survives today on tourism, local vacation property, hunting and fishing, and winter visitors.

Journey for Feb. 25, 2023

Feb. 24, 2023 Welaka to Silver Glen Spring

 Fri.  Feb. 24, 2023  Welaka to Silver Glen Spring - 19 miles

Been over a week and so about time for a pumpout.  Had planned to stop at Georgetown marina at the northern entrance to Lake George but called and got response "Nope. Broken".  They recommended Welaka Lodge.  Fine - except I could find no mention of a Welaka Lodge in our cruising guides or charts.  Internet was my friend, and we found their website. Small lodge with a small dock but yes, they had a working pumpout.  So up anchor, and sure enough, just past the town wharf was Welaka Lodge's dock. Very nice folks.   Will probably stop there again on our way back north.  

That done we headed out.  Down a bit of meandering river and then out onto Lake George.  Very hot humid and hazy day with just a slight breeze to keep things comfortable on the flybridge.  Lake George is big open shallow water.  A sustained wind will whip seas into an uncomfortable chop.  Pretty placid today which worked to our advantage since we would be anchored overnight a good half mile offshore of the spring entrance to stay in a suitable water depth.   Anchor down. Dingy down. Off we went.

 

Passing fellow Loopers on their Endeavour Cat

Ft. Gates ferry crosses nearby - in operation since 1853

Beyond the opening is wide open Lake Goerge

Silver Glen Spring was our destination.  One of the bigger springs in Florida.   A class one spring pumping 65 million gallons a day of constant 73-degree water out a 200' diameter springhead.  The crystal clear water flows down a 3300' sandy spring run that provides anchoring space for everything from houseboats to paddleboards as long as you can get over the 3' depth entrance.  Good crowd in here today we thought. We stop amongst several boats, drop the dingy anchor and jump into the thigh high water to chat with some locals.  They said if you want to see a sight - come back Sat afternoon. The place will be wall to wall boats and people with stereo music fights going late into the night.   We decide we're more into wildlife than the wild life so make other plans for tomorrow.

The spring run on a less crowded Friday afternoon

Crystal clear waters verify its only a branch - no manatees or gators here today

Looking down the spring run out to Lake George

Sunset over Lake George

Journey for Feb. 24, 2023

Feb. 23, 2023 7 Sisters Anchorage to Welaka

 Thurs.  Feb. 23, 2023  Seven Sisters Anchorage to Welaka - 7 miles

Just a few miles down (or is it up?) river today.   The St. Johns River is one of only a handful of rivers in the world that flows from South to North.  Hence it always seems like our terminology is wrong.  We hoisted the dingy, fired up the engines, hauled up anchor and headed out by 10.  Uneventful trip with nothing of note. Dropped anchor behind Turkey Island by 11:15 just short of Welaka proper in a nice spot with 10' of water.   

Gonna be a busy day.  We unloaded the dingy and checked out the Welaka Spring to see its crystal-clear water.  Apparently not the nicest, biggest, fanciest spring but the first of several we'll visit during our trip.  During the winter it's supposedly a good manatee viewing area but none here today. 

Turtle Island is aptly named

Welaka Spring.  The gushing water was clear and warm. 
Unfortunately, it soon disappears after mixing with the dark brown waters of the St. Johns

Then we headed to Welaka's free dingy dock at Bryant's Landing, tied up and headed into "town".  Grabbed a late lunch at Shrimp-R-Us, a local restaurant known for it's good seafood.  It was pretty awesome.  A plateful of 17 huge butterflied fried shrimp, baked potato and fried okra for just $13.95 Back to the dingy and a ride of a mile or so south to the western shore to explore the natural surroundings of Oklawaha River and its abundance of wildlife.

Entrance to the Oklawaha River - raw and natural Old Florida 

Plenty of assorted waterbirds 

The first of numerous gators we saw on land and in the water

A side channel we explored for a bit

Found another gator lurking.

Taking a picture of the white heron and egrets. Duck photobombed us.

Back at the boat with sun setting over Turkey Island

 

Journey for Feb. 23, 2023

Feb. 21, 2023 Corky Bells to 7 Sisters Anchorage

 Tues. Feb 21, 2023  Corky Bells to 7 Sisters Anchorage - 13 miles

After a scrumptious dinner at Corky Bells we watched 2 small gators waiting for someone - anyone - to disobey the signs that say "Do Not Feed The Gators".   Interesting location here as the land is known as Gator Landing (for obvious reasons) although the water is called the Devil's Elbow because it makes a significant 90-degree turn.   With full bellies we retired to the boat.  A nice breeze kept the bugs at bay but also generated waves slapping on the side of the hull.  Waves on the bow we never hear, but on the sides, they seem to resonate into the mid ship master berth.  They finally calmed down during the night allowing a few hours of fitful sleep.  

The dock at Corky Bells

No hurry in the morning as we were only going about an hour's ride south.  That provided time for a walk to Dunkin for a few fresh donuts.  Finally, unleashed the lines and headed out around 10.  At one point we thought about anchoring behind Murphy Island but just a bit further were some highly rated anchorages behind a series of 7 islands - hence the name - 7 Sisters.   

Passed this bad boy going north - looks like we'll have plenty of depth for our little boat

Since we had plenty of time we took the long slow idling route behind Murphy Island just to check the anchorages.  There are 3 marked on the charts that would all be fine to use on our return trip.   Coming back out onto the St. Johns we were greeted by the CSX railroad bridge that crosses over from Buffalo Bluff.  Bluff is a bit of a misnomer here.  The land IS a bit higher with houses built on a crest that is at best 10' higher than the water level.  Our travel guide calls out a 7' bridge clearance but states it's normally in the up position.  Not today.  We called the bridge tender and she advised there was a train coming and as soon as it passed she would open.   After 10-15 minutes an Amtrac passenger train went by and up it went. 

Checking some anchorages behind Murphy Island 

Amtrac train passing over the Buffalo Bluff  Bridge.
A tongue twister hailing them on the radio 3 times quick

A little further and we were tucked between a couple of the Sisters.  Still breezy but nothing uncomfortable and at least on the hook the bow pointed into the wind.  A relaxing afternoon followed by steaks on the grill for dinner and a colorful end to the day.

Colorful sunset from 7 Sisters anchorage

Wed. we stayed at anchor and decided to drop the dingy and do some exploring.  First stop was heading down river and turning up the Cross Florida Barge Canal.  This leads to the Buckman Lock that can put you in Rodman Reservoir.  It's as far as this canal goes on the east coast.  There's another small section of canal and a lock on the west coast just north of Tampa.  This canal project to join the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic was started on the west coast side back in the 30's then languished.   This portion was completed in the 60's. Then the entire project was scrapped in the early 70's due to environmental concerns and ultimately it's become the Cross Florida Greenway. The lock operates on a fixed schedule for transit into the reservoir, but Wed. is one of the down days for "maintenance".   No place to land the dingy, so back out the canal we went.  

Heading out on our dingy trip

The Buckman Lock on the Cross Florida Barge Canal

Cruised around Stokes Island to see Stokes Landing and the St. Johns Shipyard.  Our guidebook said it was out of business but we couldn't tell. Looked like something was going on there with a couple of touristy paddle-wheelers with a Portsmouth, VA hailing port.   More intriguing was a huge aluminum catamaran.  Floating but obviously incomplete.  Not sure if the yard or a buyer ran out of money before it got finished. It's final fate unknown.

Big unfinished catamaran  at the shipyard

Paddle-wheelers Elizabethtown Ferry VI and VII at the shipyard

Then up to Murphy Island looking for the dock at the state park. Running too close to shore we found ourselves stirring up mud on a shallow before thankfully getting back into the channel without the need to send anyone overboard to pull us off.  We found the dock, snapped a picture of the trail system on the island and set off for the back side of the island. Decided we had walked enough in the mid 80-degree heat of the day before reaching our destination and turning back.  Noticed a couple of orange trees growing wild amongst the live oaks and palms trees by the dock. Nice sized and ripe fruit attached but beyond our reach.  Managed to knock 2 of them off the tree to try at breakfast.

A Gopher Tortoise was the only wildlife we saw on Murphy Island

The dock at Murphy Island State Park

From there back under the RR bridge and a slow troll around the back sides of the islands that make up this anchorage.  Quite a pleasant location.  Couple of fishermen passing through but otherwise very peaceful. 

Feb. 20, 2023 Black Creek to Corky Bells

 Mon. Feb 20, 2023  Black Creek to Corky Bells

We wound up spending 4 nights at anchor in Black Creek.  Weather picked up a bit as expected overnight on Thursday into Friday.  Forecast was rain and a significant drop in temps as a front passed through. We had less rain than expected but pretty constant SW winds.  Then it swapped to the NW, N, and NE as we spent a cool day bundled up just chillin.  Winds continued blowing Sat. so decided to stay put another day.   Sunday finally was a nice day with temps into the 80's and sunshine so we decided to hang another day and get some exercise with the kayak.  Seems everybody with a boat or jet ski had decided it was a good day to go out too.   Our quiet little anchorage was rocked until dusk.  

Peaceful anchorage on Black Creek

Paddling along looking for - and finding - gators

Nice view while out kayaking

Monday we finally headed out towards Palatka.  We had options here.  Possibly go into town and head for The Ravines State Park for a walk about.  Either use the free city dock to tie up or possibly anchor out and dingy to the dock.  Another option was to go across the river to East Palatka and tie up at Corky Bells Seafood.  They have a long dock that's pretty protected and they allow you to stay overnight as long as you eat at the restaurant.  The trip from Black Creek to Palatka is pretty underwhelming.   The river is wide so little to see on either side.  We let Otto do most of the work.  The river will start narrowing after Palatka.  Still - just a nice day to be boating.  Virtually no traffic and warm enough that we operated from the flybridge. 

Martha taking a turn at the helm while John does engine checks below.

Got to Palatka and American Cruise Lines had their ship tied to the city docks, so that option was out.  Unobstructed wind was blowing a steady 15 with higher gusts making anchoring less feasible - especially if we would need to launch the dingy for a shore excursion. Best option was to head around the bend to the dock at Corky Bells. A little better protection and we had the dock entirely to ourselves. Good drinks and food and we even got in a quick walk to a local grocery store for a few more fresh veggies.  

Checking out As You Wish from our table on the patio

Sunset was to our back behind a tree line but still cast nice colors on the clouds.

Journey for Feb. 20, 2023