FL: Murphy Creek Conservation Area

 Wednesday 4/11/2018
Depart: Sanford Monroe Harbour Marina 9:50
Arrive: Murphy Creek Conservation Area 6:50
Distance: 68 nm

When we went to bed last night, we still had thunder and lightening storms passing overhead. When we woke this morning, the storms had passed as predicted. The temperatures had dropped following the front, and we were back to long pants and jackets once more.

While staying in Sanford, we met many of the live-aboards on C dock where we docked. One of them has a number of turtles living next to her boat. Each time we left the docks we could look over and see the turtles swimming there.

 Turtles at Monroe Harbour Marina

We decided that we should start our trip north on the river with an empty holding tank, so before we left the marina, we stopped at the pump-out dock to take care of “business”.  Unfortunately, the pump out did not form a very good seal, and it took a long time to get the job done. We finally left the marina at 9:50. This was disappointing with a long day of travel ahead of us.

Crossing Monroe Lake, we came to the Port of Sanford / Monroe Railroad Bridge. This bridge opens “on demand”. Although a train would soon pass over the bridge, the tender told us to keep coming. The train turned out to be a very short one, and she opened for us immediately after the train passed.

 Train on Monroe Railroad Bridge

Some time later, well after we had transited the bridge area, we heard a vessel, Ocean Star, call the same railroad bridge. In response to his call for an opening, the tender replied, “Yes, sir, keep coming until you hit the bridge.” “Yes, mam”, he replied, “I’m on my way.” The tender’s phraseology, and the captain’s response tickled my funny bone.

When we passed through this area on the way to Sanford, we had a cloudy day. The colors and scenes on the river came to life in the bright sun we had today. Not wanting to do a repeat stay at places we visited on the way to Sanford, Clark decided to make it a long day and head for Murphy Creek which was recommended to us by a boater at Sanford. We saw a lot of now familiar sights along the way.

Built-up Side Channel

Cedar Grove

City of DeBary

Colorful Bimini Tops all in a row

Weed-choked waters

Meadow-type area

 

Typical Scene on the River

Arched Foliage overhanging side waterway

Potential anchorage --
one we explored by dinghy and
rejected due to overgrowth of weeds 

Kayaks and Houseboat …
Typical Traffic through the Blue Springs State Park area of the river

Light-struck Lilies

One of the kayak paddlers got way ahead of the others. She seemed to be oblivious to anything on the river including our 50+' boat following her down the center of the river. She finally woke up, saw us,  and moved over to the side in a hurry.

Kayaks (one oblivious person up ahead)

 Oxbow anchorage we explored by dinghy
when we visited Blue Springs State Park

Other end of Oxbow

Kayak Entrance to Blue Springs State Park

Docks near Park

Our Anchorage Site
when we visited the park

Chart picture of Oxbow where we anchored
Oxbow enter / exit indicated by boat shown on chart

Having seen everything on the way to Sanford, Clark passed by the anchorages we used and considered as well as the docks at Hontoon State Park.

Hontoon State Park

Docks at Hontoon State Park

Whitehair Bridge is only 16’ Clearance, so we needed to have it opened for us. Other than the railroad bridges, this bridge has the least clearance allowance on the St. Johns River.

Whitehair Bridge

Because it was out of the wind and in the warm sun, I sat on the upper deck of the boat watching the riverside looking for reptile life. Although I saw more turtles sunning themselves on logs than I could count, I only managed to spot one alligator. I got turtle pictures but was not fast enough on the trigger to capture a shot of the granddaddy-sized alligator I saw sunning himself on a downed tree.

Turtle taking in the sun on log

Turtles sunning themselves on logs

Clark spied a houseboat hidden in a side channel.

Hidden houseboat

Later we saw another hidden boat –
this one on the main channel of the river

River scenery

A splash of color on an otherwise very green river.

Typical river scene

 As we passed under the Buffalo Bluff Railroad Bridge, I tried my hand at getting the “to infinity” track picture.

Buffalo Bluff RR Bridge

“Looking down the tracks” picture
(almost)

Finally, after a very long day on the river, we arrived at Murphy Creek area where we planned to spend the night. We had two choices – a free dock or dropping our anchor. With the size of our vessel, we wondered if the dock would accommodate us, so we were prepared to anchor. Seeing a wrecked boat near the free dock did not invoke confidence in docking here, but the dock itself looked okay. 

As we passed by, fully intending to anchor, we made a last-minute decision to swing by to take a closer look and were surprised to find a good-sized and sturdy dock. We decided to tie up and take a look around the grounds which provide trails for hiking and facilities for camping.

We tied up and went up to explore a bit before we lost daylight. After reading the campground rules and regulations that stipulated that an 8-inch hole must be dug to be used as a latrine by anyone camping here, I found it surprising to see a Port-o-potty on the grounds. How did it get here and who maintains it?

We crossed over a footbridge where we found an interesting collection of items at the campground. Two, not-overly-ripe oranges sat on a picnic table with a fire extinguisher nearby, and a well-used cookpot sat on the other table.

Walkway to Campsite

View of wrecked boat from land

I cooked while underway today, so when we finally got ready to eat, a quick reheat was all that was required to sit down to dinner. The sun set while we ate, so Clark popped up a couple of times to get the sunset picture of the day.

 Sunset at Murphy Creek Conservation Area