Ocklawaha River

[jimicliff]

This for a handful of people I have spoken with at the Hontoon Island gathering. My boat the Ocklawaha Queen just passed it's three year anniversery for me April 1st
as its owner. Last year I took the Queen up the ICW to Savannah Ga to see what I REALLY needed to do to the boat for me to travel. I am disabled so traveling with an electric scooter was one of the important issues I had to work out. Everything got worked out this year with the help of a great metal fabrication shop and a kind marina "Mount Dora Boating Center" where I dry store my boat. One of my last little projects was installing little containers around the interior of the cabin to hold stuff that you want NOW like wallet, binoculars, Thermacell mosquito repellent you've got the idea. I took the boat out to move the containers around the cabin to see where the most efficent areas to place them were. It was a windy day and I had left a stern dock line connected to the rear cleat. It was windy you know March, well while moving my containers around the cabin the line blew out still connected to the stearn cleat. I never brought the engine past idel that day and the wind blew the line out and it wrapped around the prop. For long time boat owners you probally know what happened for others I am tellng you what happened so you can avoid this tragedy. The bottom of my outboard where the prop connects was distroyed, my shop got me a factory replacement and I am back in opperation, My stainless prop that came with the boat would not fit so what the Hell. On my Savannah trip the year before I spun out that prop on the St Johns river, so I called SEA TOW and they towed me back 50 miles to my trailer. I was picked up at 4pm and was towed until 2am and the tow driver said I'll come back at 7am and finish the tow. Well the owner of the franchise came by that morning to check on me, he figured out that I had spun out my prop and I could send it to the factory for a rebuild, I told him I brought a spare with me and in 15 min I was back underway. He said come by his place on my way out and he had some other spare props he'd give me. Well a year later when my beautiful rebuilt stainless prop wouldnt fit the new lower unit I tried an aluminum one he gave me. This is when the magic occoured, this aluminum prop had the correct pitch on its blades. Before my engine could only produce 4200 rpms top speed under good conditions 21 to 23 mph. Well now my engine reaches 6000 rpm top speed 27mph so my disaster had a happy ending. Ok back to my Ocklawaha R story, I take off Friday to go down the river from my home which connects to the river. Silver Springs connects with the Ocklawaha in the Ocala forest and just below that about 2 miles a tree had fallen across that would require a crew to remove had been across the river foe 3 years. I usually tie to a tree just above it, well I noticed after a while I was still running, what the hell it turns out the tree had been removed and for the first time in three years the Ocklawaha Queen is in her court the middle of the Ocala forest. I passed several of my camp sights I used when I had a 13ft Whaler before the C Dory so I was oriented to where I was in the forest. As my legs got worse I got the cruiser which saved the day. Ok back to the top of the story where I spoke at Hontoon Island, I was tied up the river is flowing by and all is right. I pour my first and look at the opposite shore and there was a huge cypress stump that had been clearly cut many years before HUGE. Thats when I remembered my story I told about Henery Gray and his french partner in 1840 cleared Star Island 37 miles south of Silver Springs of cedar. The money from this project allowed him to start the first steam boat company to run the Ocklawaha river.

[Sunbeam]

Great story! If I'm ever on the Ocklawaha I hope it's in company with the O. Queen Sounds like you know the territory well; how cool that you could get up to that spot again.

And although it's a big bummer about the lower unit - I bet your engine is happy to be running at the right RPM now, so win/win

[Larry Patrick]

Glad to hear about you enjoying that area,back in Jan we were on St Johns wish we visited the river and silver springs

[smittypaddler]

Two Questions:

1. In 2011 I planned a trip on the Ocklawaha, locking through from the St Johns, hoping to make it as far as Lake Apopka, a trip that would've been about 100 statute miles. But I only got a couple miles beyond Eureka, which is at the top of the flowage. I ran into fallen trees, and logs in the riverbed. It sounds like someone might've done some clearing of the river. Is it now navigable above Eureka?

2. Years ago there was some talk about removing the Rodman Dam, restoring the river to its free state, with more current that might clean out some of the detritus blocking the channel, and also allowing fish to make their spawning runs upriver. Did that proposal die?

[jimicliff]

The river is always in a state of blockage of sorts, the river has a canopy as it runs thru the Ocala forest. Ocklawaha is an indian word for crooked water which it sure is the trees are so dence here because the Ocala forest is sand and a little arid, The trees around the edge being in sandy soil and plenty of water dont have much of a root base. When a common Fl thunder storm blows thru its easy for a tree to fall across. A few years after the civil war the federal Gov cleared the river, 5 years ago the Feds once again with a company out of Miami cleared it again. I did not waist the chance I live a few miles from Lake Apopka, Mt Dora, and with a 13ft Whaler which is well suited for the run I ran it twice. The trick is to idel and be able to see trees just below the surface. After you spot a tree just below the surface you back up approach with more speed shut the engine off and raise the engine as you glide over, after a while its a little ballet. Its actually not difficult if you have a spotter on the bow. A chain saw is also the best idea, I used a hand saw once and I only had to do that one time, its not the same as standing on the ground and cutting wood. I didn't go any further this weekend because I didnt have a spotter or a chain saw. I went as far as I did out of pure excitment, I love the river. You have to tell someone your going because there is little to no cell service, I carry a Wilson phone amp and I have service that way. On a weekend you'll see a few people but during the week you are on your own. Interesting thing I figured out about the handful of custom built steamers that ran the river for 50 yrs. During reconstruction it was the only place in the country that had black pilots, the steamers ran from Palatka on the St Johns to Silver Springs, the boats would leave Palatka at noon and arrive at Silver Springs at noon the next day.
Well someone had to clear the fallen trees in the middle of the night and I dont think some cracker was gonna get in the river in the middle of the night to do that. The steamers were the begining of Fl tourism. Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Toms Cabin wintered outside Palatka and rode the steamers the media of the time were magizines and thats how Harriet made her living so the public got to read about the all night steamer runs thru the middle of the forest. President Grant and Edison were a few of the celebrities who took the trip, europeans also fell in love with it and well so did I. Its not an easy trip but one hell of an adventure, I've met someone who knocked a whole in the family boat in the 50's, and only one other person who ran the whole thing. Our shallow draft is our key, I think again you need a spotter and a saw to pull it off. Having a 16 sure doesn't hurt either. Ok now about the dam "Dam". The Ocklawaha was going to be straightened out and converted into the "Cross Fl Barge Canal". Florida is a glorified sand bar, the state sits on lime stone covered with sand so the lime stone would be cut into to shape the canal.
All of Floridas water is in this lime stone. Well the Ocklawaha runs into the St Johns R which emptys into the Atlantic. Salt water could easily sun into the Fl water table so the project was canceled during the Nixon administration. No money has or appears to be avilable to clean up the unfinished project. Well there you did ask, I named my boat after it, it's my passion thats for sure.

[Sunbeam]