Sunday, January 27th

So we are off once more. Today, we will travel back up the St John's to Palatka, spend the night and continue on the St. John's tomorrow. We do not plan on stopping anywhere as we have a deadline. I found out on a wed site that NASA is launching a TDRS satellite on Wednesday morning from Cape Canaveral and we are hoping to arrive in time to see it. It is approx 259 miles by water so we have our work cut out for us. If we make it in time let us hope the weather is OK as any signs of bad weather and these launches are cancelled/canceled.

We spent the night in a creek north of Palatka so were not disturbed by vehicles crossing a draw bridge like we were in Astor. We left before sunrise this morning and saw a wonderful sight. A bald eagle flew low over the water towards the boat, stuck out his talons and missed his catch. He did this 3 times and on the third try we saw him catch a good size fish and take off with it. Gary took a couple of photos but unfortunately we had the wide angle lens on not the telephoto. We will try tonight to zoom in on the eagle to show you a little on what we saw.

Well, today was uneventful perhaps even boring. The weather was cool and over cast and very little wildlife to be seen. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.


Monday, January 28th

"Oh, what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day"

Oh boy, you could not have wished for a better sunrise. Yes, I have got up twice now to see sunrise. Does that surprise you, cos it sure surprises me?

The sunrise was absolutely spectacular. It compared with seeing the sunrise over Grand Canyon. The moon was still in the west so I even took photos of moon set. The only drawback was the millions of midgies causing me to have to wear a coat. I sat just outside of the cabin on the starboard side just enthralled with the lovely colours/colors. It is funny, many times in my marriage I have asked myself how I have been so luckly to lead the life I lead. I was never the prettiest, cleverest or slimmest girl growing up so how was I lucky enough to "snag" Gary? Who would ever believe I would be taking a trip like this?  Oh my gosh, I think I am having a "Hallmark" moment. I cannot wait until tonight to look at my photos.

The day continues to be an exciting one because we saw two pairs of dolphins. I took a picture of one pair/couple!! but it was not the best of shots. I think we should see more and I will be better prepared next time.

 You are probably sick of bird photos but here I go again with some of my favourites/favorites from today.

Just a little tidbit about pelicans: there are two types brown and white. They differ not only in their colour/color but the way they fish. The brown pelican dives whilst the white pelican works as a group rounding the fish up on the water until they are collected in the middle of the pelican ring, then they feast.


The next photo made me laugh. I had always heard that if a bird poops on you it is a sign of good luck. Well, this family have enough luck for everyone in their town!!!!! Mind you, I do not think they are very lucky when it comes to cleaning up their pier or should I say "poop deck" ha. ha. ha!!!!

Passing St Augustine was interesting. St. Augustine is the oldest occupied city(1565 by the Spanish) in the US. There was an old fort and a very pretty harbour/harbor. There was also a replica of one of the ships used by the immigrants in the early 1600s. Due to our deadline to meet the launch at Cape Canaveral we did not have time to stop but hope to do so on the way back home.

Well, all good plans go astray. We were stuck for 2 hours at a bridge that was being worked on. When we finally got to go under it, the bridge master told us to go through very slowly due to all of the equipment underneath the bridge and in the water. We made it through without any problem but it put us 2 hours behind schedule.

We spent the night at Daytona and had a wonderful sunset to welcome us.

To finish this blog I would like to say happy birthday to my good friend, Julie and her daughter Lindsey. I hope you both had fun filled days. I would also like to say a big thank you for the feed back I have been getting about my blog especially from my Mother-in-Law. She has kept me on my toes to keep me current with my writings.

Good news, we are on the water again. The generator is working OK and the dinghy engine is no longer leaking. Yippee.

Today, we travelled/traveled south  on the St. John's River. The weather was much cooler than the 80s we have had for the last week. We also have had a very strong wind making it feel even colder. I started the day wearing shorts and sleeveless top and ended up with jeans and long sleeved shirt.  Gary said "there is no pleasing some people".

We saw an abundance of birds - American Wood Stork (was on endangered list but no longer),  Black Crowned Night Heron, Great Blue Heron, Common Egret, Anhinga, Bald Eagle, Cormorant, Kingfisher, Ibis and Coots. The storks were all roosting in a tree (maybe they were storking each other!!). OK, so that joke was for the birds!! Or, it was nothing to crow about!!

We passed a couple of men fishing. Between them they had eight fishing rods. My Dad would be envious as he likes to fish. Many, many years ago I played a joke on him when he and I went fishing. My boss at the time told me if I was his daughter he would have killed me if I had played the joke on him. My Dad nearly did kill me (only joking). He was very, very angry with me though. I will tell that story another time.

We are moored just up the river from where we saw the manatees. We are hoping that some of them will come this way in the morning. No such luck. We did see one but he never completely surfaced so all the photo shows is a shadow beneath the water.

For those of you who are interested our coordinates are N  28 degrees, 56 minutes w 81 degrees, 20 minutes. That may help you find where we are moored for the night.

We spent a pleasant day on the St John's. Not as much wild life to see but still very peaceful. I love to see the Cypress Trees in the water with their roots sticking out. Many of them are covered with Spanish Moss. The moss (it actually is not of the moss family, it is an epiphyte (feeds from nutrients in the air and water)) does not kill the trees, so they say. Well, it sure looks like it kills some trees. We have even seen it growing on telephone wires.

We spent three nights in Sanford. We had only planned on staying two nights but Gary wanted to stay in a place with good TV reception so that he could watch the Ravens beat the Patriots, which they did. Sanford was a quaint town with quite a few antique shops. Gary particularly liked the name of one of them!! Sanford is the first place we have seen parking spaces for electric cars only. They have their own battery  chargers next to the space for you to plug your car in. The local theatre/theater had a group from Maryland playing that night, at least I think they are from Maryland - The Fabulous Hub Caps. They are a great group playing music from the 50s, 60s and 70s with comedy thrown in. We have seen them twice so did not bother a third time. 

Sanford had a paddle steamer that was used for dinner cruises. I found it interesting that it had two paddles at the back to make turning easier.

We stayed the night an Hontoon Island State Park and rode our bicycles along the paths around the  island. Unfortunately, nothing exciting was spotted.

We arrived back at the Astor Marina 2 says ago and plan on leaving here after our mail has been forwarded by David. He plans on joining us in the Keys around the end of March. We are looking forward to that as he has never been on the boat with us.

The cat has found her land paws. At the last three places we have moored she has jumped off the boat and gone "walkabout". This morning, at the marina we could not find her so had to go looking for her. When we did find her she was on a boat 4 piers away noseying around (cos she's female!!!). She returned to our boat by leaping from boat to pier to boat. I am not sure it is a good thing she has found the courage to leave the boat as we now have to keep an extra eye on her.

The weather has been cooler the last couple of days - 60s which makes for nice sleeping weather.

Our plan is to leave here in a couple of days and go North on the St John's. We will return to the Intra Coastal Waterway and then make our way South to the Keys.

I thought you might like to see a picture of the blogger and the set-up Gary has made for me so the last photo is of moi, me, myself,  and I.

January 14th, 2013

We are still stuck in the marina but have now had the generator fixed. All we are waiting for now is the return of the engine to the dinghy and we are on the road or should I say water again.

I have been asked an interesting question about how I cook on the boat. Well, I purchased a used 2 burner electric grill which works better than the propane burners that came with the boat (I cannot get the propane stove to work). I also make great use of my crock pot especially when we are on the move. McCormick have several seasonings for crock pots so I have brought them with me. The biggest problem in the galley (my, I really am becoming a boating gal!!) is the lighting which is very poor. My microwave is quite low down and I sometimes have to use a flashlight/torch to see the controls. The first time I cooked fried eggs in the microwave I forgot to break the yolks so the eggs exploded knocking the cover I had over them off and distributing egg yolk all over my microwave. Gary had scrambled eggs for breakfast that day and I had the job of cleaning up my microwave.

We have done very little sightseeing but I have driven myself to a wildlife sanctuary. I went for sunset and sunrise. For those of you who know me well since retiring I do not rise early. So, having to get up before 6 to drive to the refuge in the dark and fog was not quite my cup of tea. Unfortunately, there were no birds taking off en mass, in fact there were very few birds to be seen. What was nice was hearing the dawn chorus and the wonderful sense of being alone with nature (Gary stayed at home in his warm bed!!). Sunrise was disappointing because of the fog and the mist hung around for quite a while. Now, sunset was spectacular. However, still very few birds to be seen.

Today, after Gary has over hauled my bicycle we are going to visit a heritage center to learn more about Florida and it's early history. We have yet to visit St Augustine, where America was first settled. I have heard that it is well worth visiting.

We did not visit the heritage sight. Instead, we went for a bike ride together. This is the first time in 12 years I have been on a bicycle. I had forgotten how uncomfortable the seat/saddle can be.  On leaving the marina we came across a wild fire on the embankment next to the road. It measured approx 5 sq ft. We tried to find something to beat it with but could not find anything long enough to keep us away from the fire. A man passed us in his truck so I asked him to call 911/999 and ask for the fire department. By now the fire was spreading quickly. The managers of the marina arrived with fire extinguishers and managed to douse the fire which was now approx 20' x 20'. Luckily, no-one was hurt and the fire was contained. We think it may have been started by someone throwing a cigarette out of their car window.

Last night (Sunday) we had a magnificent sunset. I took many photos which really did not do it justice.

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Today was laundry, shopping day. I did the laundry at the Laundromat and then went shopping whilst Gary tidied up the boat ready for my return. The plan was upon my return I would clean the floors, countertops etc in preparation for our leaving the marina on Wednesday. When I got back to the boat Gary had made a good job of tidying it up for me. If he had not made a good job I would have told him he needed more practice and could clean it next week. However, because he did a good job I complimented him and said because he did such a good job he could do it next time also!! How is that for women's logic?

I thought today I would end with a saying I saw in the restaurant we ate at last night - "Good men are like parking spots, there are not many around and those that are left are handicapped". Sorry, guys that just tickled my funny bone.

Oh, I have included what I think was a humerous/humerus photo.  If I transfer them correctly it should be the last one I display. I hope you get a giggle out of it.

 
Gary may be right, it seems to be easier to blog daily rather than weekly. Howevetr, I am not going to let him know that.

January 10, 2013

We are sailing, we are sailing - NOT.

We are still stuck in the marina at Astor due to a broken generator. We drove to Jacksonville yesterday (90  miles each way) to purchase a new one and the mechanic is now trying to put it back into the boat. So, maybe, just maybe we may be on the water within a few days.  When we left Astor the temperature was in the 70s so I donned shorts and sleeveless t shirt. That was not a good idea because Jacksonville is on the ocean and the ocean is always cooler than the temps inland. In fact, Jacksonville was very cool 64 degrees and quite foggy in places which meant I was very under dressed. In fact, I stood out like a sore thumb because everyone else was wearing jeans and long sleeved shirts. There was an author (female) signing books and she smiled sympathetically at me and said "you must be a tourist!!" Now, how do you think she realised that?

Because of boat problems we have done very little sight seeing but did manage to go and see many "many - e - tees" (manatees) on Saturday. Because manatees cannot exist in water of 60 degrees F or less they are  congregating at a spring not too far from where the boat is docked. The water in the spring, which gushes out 100,000,000 gallons per day at approx 73 degrees was so clear you could see both fish and manatee quite easily. We must have seen at least 50 of them, most of them with injuries to their hides from boat props. I took what I thought was an interesting photo of a close up of the manatee's hide. See what you think.

Today, it is a balmy, very humid 80 degrees. Combine that with my hot flashes and I am one very hot babe leaking from every pore in my body!!! In fact, I am typing this inside the boat with the air conditioner on set at 66 degrees.

I am hoping to visit Woodruff Lake Wildlife Refuge this afternoon to see the migrating birds return to their nightly roost. The refuge is supposed to have manatees and alligators, too. When we first arrived in Florida the waterways would have warnings to keep dogs away from the water's edge due to alligators.
Does that mean alligators do not like to eat cats??? Are they just partial to dogs? If the refuge is worth visiting I will go back for sunrise tomorrow morning to see the birds leave.      


OK, let's get this thing published before I lose it.