Depart: River Forest Anchorage 10:55
Arrive: Blue Springs Anchorage 12:35
Dist: 8 nm
After such a full day yesterday, it felt delightful to have only a short distance to travel today. We slept in and took our time preparing to leave. I had quite a dilemma deciding what to wear however. When I woke, it felt cold in the cabin, so I donned long pants. After moving to the salon and sticking my head out the door, I decided I was way overdressed and returned to my room to put on shorts. Not too much later, we had a reversal where the cabin became warm and "sticky", but we had a heavenly breeze blowing outdoors.
I had read in the Active Captain reviews of this anchorage that alligators frequented the area. As soon as I could I popped out onto our cockpit to have a look around. Looking towards the main channel from our spot, I see an alligator swimming in our direction! I grabbed the camera and snapped a picture. I am glad I took the picture when I did because a short while later he turned and disappeared into the jungle growth nearby.
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| Alligator enjoying a swim where we are anchored |
Since we arrived late in the evening yesterday, we did not have any pictures of the anchorage. I decided to correct that omission since I had my camera in hand. I did not know at that time that Clark had already been out early in the morning to check our anchor holding and positioning.
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| Early morning mist at River Forest Anchorage (SJR) |
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| Misty scene on St Johns River |
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| Mid-morning - fog cleared; skys clear blue! |
We pulled up our anchor just before 11:00. As we raised the anchor, the couple on the small boat shown in the picture above started waving their arms over their heads and yelling to us. We had no idea what they tried to convey as their voices did not carry. Finally we discerned that they wanted to warn us about a manatee in the water. About the same time we figured out what he yelled to us, he decided to call us on the VHF radio. "Florida Fish and Game", he announced, "Manatee in the area!"
I acknowledged his call and thanked him, then walked to each side of the boat to peer over and look - no manatee. We had no intention of speeding out of the anchorage, and by now we had the anchor up, so I spun the boat in a circle and headed out of the anchorage at idle speed. Once underway , at marker R38, we heard him call out on the radio a broadcast to boaters in the area that a "school of manatee" had been seen near R36 (where we had anchored) including some babies. We saw none of them.
We continued to make our way up river checking out the riverside views along the way. Although short, our trip today took longer than an 8 nm trip might take if we did not have to slow down constantly for marinas, fishing boats, and "slow speed, minimum wake" zones.
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| Paddle boat on the river |
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| docked at marina with space for RVs and campers |
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| Slow down for the fishermen! |
We passed some dwellings that appeared to be right on the water's edge. They must flood every time the water rises even if only a little ways.
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| Homes on the water of the St Johns River |
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| Riviera Resort & Marina St Johns River |
The further along the river we travel, the more and more houseboats we see. Some look like floating houses and even have two stories! We passed a marina where practically every dock had a houseboat on it.
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| House and pontoon boats galore! |
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Hontoon Island State Park offers inexpensive, overnight docks for visitors to the area. With our size boat, we could only dock on the end of a T-dock. We would not fit into a slip there. As we passed the park, we saw that both T-dock spaces sat unoccupied, but as we watched, the vessel behind us took one of the two spaces.
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| Hontoon Island State Park |
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| Docks at Hontoon Island State Park |
Clark said that if the other space remained open, we might return for the night, but first we needed to visit Blue Springs for today's activity about three miles further along. He said we would be pulling out the kayaks for our Blue Springs tour. Thinking about the alligator I had seen less than an hour ago made me wince at the idea of getting that close to the water.
We found a spot to drop our anchor across from the Blue Springs state park entrance, pulled out the kayaks, and set off on our adventure for the day.
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| Clark's kayak |
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| Blue Springs entrance on other side of river |
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| Ev contemplating the park entrance |
Given my dismal history of flipping over when trying to climb into or dismount from my kayak, I purchased "outriggers" for my kayak last summer. Definitely not wanting to go swimming with alligators, I could not be happier that I made this purchase when I did.
To get into the park and see the sights, we needed to cross over a barricade intended to keep out motor boats. (Note the orange floats in the picture above.)
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| Bird ... Guardian of the Park Entrance |
I managed to "climb" over the line and the floats by using my paddles to wack the floats out of the way. The view once past the "gate" made the challenge of entering well worthwhile. Although murky at the entrance, the water became crystal clear and it seemed like we were floating over an aquarium filled with fish and turtles. Someone reported a manatee "in there" just as we entered, but we saw none.
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| Fish swimming by our kayaks |
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| Viewing bridge / walkway for those not lucky enough to have a kayak |
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| Turtle directly below the kayak (striped head is easiest to spot - then body) |
We have a waterproof case for our camera that our daughter-in-law, Devon, gave us for Christmas one year. As we struggled to get good pictures of the fish, I told Clark we should be using that. Eventually we returned to the boat to collect it and came back to get some under water pictures. (Of course I had to fight the barricade multiple times going out then in then out once more.)
When I climbed into my kayak and started today's expedition, my arms complained about the abuse of paddling. After working the "kinks" out, I did not want to stop exploring and watching the fish and turtles. Eventually, we had to call it a day and return to Sunset Delight and decide where we planned to spend the night.
After pulling the kayaks up on deck, Clark called Hontoon State Park to inquire about room at their docks for the night. Alas, the second of the two end docks had been taken, and they had "no room at the inn" for us. Given that, Clark launched the dinghy to check out water depths and widths in nearby "oxbows". (An oxbow is a U-shaped bend in a river.)
We need something deep enough and wide enough to accommodate a boat of our size. On our quest for a spot to drop anchor, we got to do some exploring of the area.
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| We saw a large heron. |
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| and an egret in the weeds |
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| and lots of areas where weeds choked out the anchorage opportunities. |
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| We found plenty of trees to view |
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| and even saw an alligator sunning himself on a log. |
Although we had a good time searching the area, we came away "empty-handed" as we could not find anything that felt more accommodating than our current spot. We decided to stay put for the night. Clark's only concern with our spot across from the park was swinging out into the channel if wind / current changed direction.
So now, we had both kayaks out as well as the dinghy, and it was cleanup time. Since the dinghy was out of the way, Clark used the crane to heft my kayak up onto the top deck of the boat. We then carried his kayak to the bow to be secured for travel. Finally he used the crane to pull up the dinghy. Since our next stop is a marina and rain is expected, we secured everything properly in place. All this took a bit of time. Whew! The toys are fun, but they sure are a lot of work!
To address the "potential swinging into the channel" issue, Clark pulled out our spare Danforth anchor to put out on the stern. Before he could drop the anchor, however, he had to assemble it. This anchor is "an anchor in a bag" and is stored disassembled. It required a couple of tools, including a tape measure, and carefully followed instructions for him to assemble the anchor and attach the anchor rode.
I thoroughly enjoyed today's outing. Left to my own devices, however, I would never undertake the adventures that Clark pulls me into. I expect that, if it were not for him, I would find adventures only in the books I read. He regularly pulls me way outside my comfort zone resulting in (mostly) positive rewards for me.
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| Sunset silhouette |
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