The Sterling Lady
Voyager to Nowhere
May 2010
5-25-2010
A not so typical St. Johns River home.
NOTE:
If you following my pages , Favorite Place this page, and then you can come right back to it with one click and NOT have to scroll thru all the pages!
In her day, I am sure, she was an elegant lady!
Now a bit beyond the fix her up state.
We had an overcast morning, with wind about 12 knots on the port quarter for our 12 mile crossing of Lake George. The is the entrance to the Southern St. Johns River, on the South end of the lake.
The Astor Tow Boat US guy has two boats, an inflatable, an airboat , and a million dollar riverfront home. Seems the towboat biz has been good.
Why would you put a perfectly good car on a pontoon??????How do you get it off and on???
There were several of these nets hanging by line from posts, both in remote and populate areas. Anyone know what they catch? We did find out there are shrimp up here in this fresh water river !
Bass fishing from your airboat, with a trolling motor, with a St. Johns River Vista.
The upper St. Johns is better yet!
Did I mention the St. Johns River is one of only 2 rivers that flows from South to North in the United States.
Boat Show Marina, just before the WhiteHair Deland Bridge. 3 years ago It was one of the worst marina's I had ever seen. Didn't look much better today.
A very unusual tree.
Hontoon State Park. Cheap dockage on the St. Johns. Tonites home.
The docks here a floating, but pretty small. We opted for the T head.
Note my earned brown Mustache on the boat.
<<<----------------A totally necessary sign.
If you don't know there are alligators here, you need to go back to your own planet..
5/26/10
Good Morning St. Johns River!
There are just now words to describe the beauty of this magnificent River!
It don't get much better than this. I have some friends doing the loop (and you know who you are) who passed by the St. Johns and kept truckin north. Dang.
About 9 am we entered Lake George, on our way to Monroe Harbor, where we will store the boat for a few days to return to Key Largo for a visiting daughter and grandchildren.
The West Basin harbor entrance is well hidden. Look closley to the right of the building.
As per usual, they put us behind the biggest yacht in the marina, on B dock. But the rates are exellent!
Friday we are headed back to Key Largo by Rental car, and will return on the 7th. So Stay Tuned till then!!
6/3/10
Besides being back in Key Largo this week to see my visiting daughter and grand kids, we also have a closing one of my Tour boats it sold! To celebrate, we went to watch the sunset at the Carribean Club. We will be back cruising Monday.
Today I removed the sideboards from the Bay Princess, and hung it in a place of honor, at Judy's Bar. (home)
Today it was a Happy/Sad day, happy I sold the boat, however sad to see her go away.
I bought this boat new in 1988, and it supported me for 22 years!
This is the new owners taking the Princess up to Coco Beach to run eco tours.
They have lowered the smoke stacks to clear the bridges on the ICW.
The $$ is in the bank.
6-7-2010
We are back!! 5 hours of driving North , we arrived Sanford Fl.
Knew we were back boating as two things happened today.
1. went to Wall Mart and 2. Went to West Marine, as I discovered that when you turn on two a/c units, a ice machine, a microwave, four fans, a hot water heater and a TV, it tends to screw up the 30 amp receptacle. Bought two at West.
Yep , we're defiantly cruising, I.E, fixing your boat in exotic places
6-8-2010
Turned the car in this AM at , which some of them will pick you up like Enterprise.
As we left the marina, we passed a proud mama and her two new babies.
You can tell the babies, they have the white dots on their wings.
The R.R. bridge tender gave us an immediate opening, no waiting.
Felt little guilty going under the bridge with all the workers on their way.
We wittnesses some kind of Manatee Orgie going on under the Cypress trees. Must be something in the water up here.
Count the Flukes,, hey , I just take the pictures, I don't pose em.
wow!
We got a bit of a push from the current , as we traveled NORTH , DOWN the St. Johns River.
Arrived once again at $10 a nite , Hontoon State Park. and yes that's with water and 50 AMP electric.
Boaters note my brown mustache is totally gone!
I have a special spray on cleaner that removed the brown with no scrubbing, no muss no fuss.
Email me off line if you want to know what it is.
Just a bit pricy, don't ya think, hell ya!!
After dinner, had some Cock Tails, and took some Cock Tails on a little dinghy ride up a side creek just north of Hontoon.
Pretty damn Cool!
AND it got better and better.
see!
6/9/2010
Left Hontoon State Park at daybreak, heading north.
Someone took a house right out of Ft. Lauderdale, and stuck it here in Astor. We were planing on staying in Astor, but the Hotel/Dock was on Vacation so we continued up to Silver Glen Springs.
The springs are off Lake George, a shallow , 12 mile long lake.
The Entrance to Silver Glen Springs.
The water in the lake is down about a foot, and it was about 4 feet deep in spots comming in.
It's about a half mile in, and the closer we got to the head of the springs, the clearer the waters.
Almost there.
Lots of rental houseboat here.
This shot was taken from the Bridge of the boat where we anchored, just a few hundred feet from the head of the springs, which is at the end of this cove.
The bow of our boat was in 3 feet of water, our keel was about 6 inches off the bottom.
Not a great place to anchor , as the holding sucks, and rental houseboats were everywhere. Not enough room for enough scope on the anchor line.
Did a quick check of the running gear, walked over to the spring, and then left.
This is our typical Low cal lunch. So why am I fat??
Could be the rum,, I don't know for sure.
Met up with some friends for dinner and refreshments at Shrimp R Us and More, like a little piece of the Keys here in "downtown" Welatka
