St. Johns River, Moving up river

[captd]

Today, a few more things go on the boat this morning, and up the river we go. The shot bags we sowed up to hold lead shot works nicely. The ballast is right now, allowing a couple of people to wander around on the boat with out getting a sore back. Canned goods and other heavy supplys work ok to start, but as they are consumed, soon the scuppers don't work proper when heeled over to far. The 6 bags probably weigh 200-250 lbs.

Our posting should work better as we go up and down the river, at least in places. It works only in the morning here in Astro.

We hope to meet other C-D people throughout the month of January. Tad & Toby should be putting in today. Should see them in a day or two.

captd

[captd]

THE CONTINUING SAGA OF THE TREK UP THE ST. JOHNS RIVER.

The departure from Astro took place close to noon on Friday, the twenty eighth day of Dec, 2008. From that point on , hour after hour, we slaved at the helm, struggling to preserve our strength against the roaring waters of the St. Johns. Struggling in the stinking mist, across shore-side swamps, in the awful eternal smell of rotting vegetation, in the unceasing din of insects chirping, Vulture swooping over head waiting for their chance for a quick meal, trees crashing mightily, and always the river. The ever lasting brutal, roaring currant as it swooshed 100s of miles down to the Atlantic Ocean far away. Sick with malaria, our bowels scored with painful dysentery in need of solid food, we pitted ourselfs against the State of Florida, with only the sailor-mans will to fetch the destination keeping us alive and moving.

A little Tristan Jones and a little bull

Really:

By 5:03 ae arrived at a safe anchorage, on a small loop off the St Johns, here we took a well earned rest and took Poo Bear ashore to potty. It is a tranquil, peaceful, private little spot. I got Mis Dee into the Pudgy to see if it worked with two people, and it did. I offered to let her go potty there to, but she would have no part of that. I'll never understand women.

It is now 5:19 am. Having my morning coffee. My bride is snoring heavily in the v-berth. Poo Bear has taken my warm freshly vacated side of the bed. We put on a grand total of 20.3 miles , Average speed was 5.4 mph.

Yesterday was in the eighties, with a nice breeze from the south. We did meet Tad & Toby as they were proceeding north. We rafted up and had a cool one. Their boat , the Comfy Dory, looked great. Very fortunate to find
one in such great shape. Looked like new. Took some pictures. I will see if I can post them . Signal stength is very low in this location. I was just disconnected. I Hope to save what is written and post a couple pictures.

Captd

[Don Z]

Ah yes, Tristen Jones. Have all his books. Must admit I have to lay down after three chapters. Met him at Newport small boat show in 1984 when he still had both legs. My son and I took him to dinner, a highlight I shall always treasure. Would love to hear his comments about your tug.

Live on the St Johns about 15 miles south of Jax. If I can be of service call me at 904-612-2983.

Don Z

[captd]

Don Z,
Your a lucky man to have met the man. I am sure you have read "Ice" .
Can you believe it? He was a sailer-mans sailer. Who could have done more.

Thank you for your kind offer. Appreciate it.
Captd

[captd]

5:30 am,Sun12......Coffee is on wife & dog are sleeping.

A couple hours before dark a huge rental houseboat came in the anchorage. The guy drops the bow anchor over board they are still moving forward. They only let the chain portion over the side. Killed the engine. He went to the stern and dropped the other 45 lb anchor. He was directly upwind of me. I new sleep would be impossible so, I got in the dink and rowed over to him and said" Would you like me to carry your anchor out for you?" He said:" I would appreciate that." I said " have your done much boating in the past". He said "no None? So I gave him a few tips. I carried out both his anchors. He pulled the stern in very quickly so I took it out again, showed him how to give little tugs until it started catching. Now his is properly anchored and I would be able to sleep.

While doing all this a Manatee fell in love with my bright orange dingy. It had his nose right to my stern as I was dragging the anchor line out. It got caught in the anchor line. It insisted it stay with me.

After all was done the guy says he thinks they better move to another anchorage. I told him he was fine now. But alass, they decided to move. Now it is getting dark. His anchors were set so good he could not pull them up. He is pulling ( by hand ) all he is worth. I said "Start your engine and use the boat." The parting words from me were " you know how to do it now, do it the same way with your boat doing all the work." Reminded him he was liable if he did not do it right.

They must not give any instructions with those rentals . They were a nice couple, they just did not know.


We spent the afternoon yesterday at Blue Springs. Changed a lot in the 15 years or so since me and another fellow scuba ed down to 85 ft. It is about 140 ft to the bottom, but it bends around and gets dark around 90 ft. Lots of people come by car, campers and boats. Course this is a long weekend. We will spend another day or two right here to let some of the traffic die down.
Captd
The

[marvin4239]

Captd I'm enjoying reading the account of your trip. That area of the Saint Johns is really beautiful. I'm 15 miles north of Jax on the ICW at Nassau Sound MM 46 if you need anything give me a shout at 904-219-2675

[captd]

Thank you Marvin.
Appreciate your offer.
captd
,

[Ron Cowan]

captd
As I stated in a post prior to your arrival in Fl., if I can be of any assistance while you are on this end on the river, please give me a call (256)318-4608. I live in Lake Mary a couple of miles from the St. Johns. In fact we were on the river yesterday and at Blue Springs last weekend on our 21' Ranger tug. Our tug stays at Boat Tree Marine on your right just before the railroad bridge and the I-4 bridge. You are on the most beautiful part of the river and will love what you see. Enjoy the trip and maybe our tugs will pass this week. The cool days may be good to just cruise along.
Ron

[captd]

Ron,
We should be in that neck of the woods in a week or so. Come on out and play during the week end. We will keep posting our location.
Thanks for the offer of assistance. I need to look at some road maps to locate some of these mentioned towns.

Quite day yesterday, It was windy and this anchorage showed to be poor holding. The Bruce did a pretty good job. The Fortress would not dig in so I bent on a stainless grapple in front of the danforth.. that did it. The trawler next to me would not stay put. He would leave, and his anchor would drag. He would put out a stern anchor for a second. I have had bad experiences with stern anchors, much prefer Bahamian style with two anchors off the bow. A boat hunting the wind does not get caught in side wind as much as with a stern anchor. To be on the safe side he gave us his cell phone number to call him when his boat was heading for the weeds or my boat. He finally put on a plow and that seemed to do it.

We will head south this morning, where we will stop , no one knows.

Speaking of the Amazon, here are some Tristan stats:

It is about 4000 miles long
It drains an area the whole of USA
1st part is called Apurimac
Ucayali is the next part
Solimoes next
At Manaus it becomes the Amazon
At Manaus it is 80 miles wide and still has a thousand miles to go to the ocean.
At the mouth it is 280 miles wide
It is estimated to carry enough mud every year to create an island 480 miles long and 480 miles wide, 5000 ft high off the sea bed.
current is from 6 knots to 15 depending on the season.
River rises 35 ft during the wet season. Floods an area bigger than the Mediterranean.

People don't putsy around on it like they do on the St. Johns.

captd

[El and Bill]

Capt D -

We have traveled a portion on the Upper Amazon by dugout -- a little tale from those trips -- first year, we swam in a deep stretch below white water -- next year, at same deep hole accompanied by a friend, a fish biologist -- researching, he electrically 'shocked' the deep hole, and the only fish he recovered were Piranha! Urg!

A later trip, on a stretch above Manaus, we did some fishing for evening meal -- yep, you got it -- we caught only and ate (they were delicious) Piranha. How's that for turning the tables?

On that trip, the river was in flood and all the rainforest was six-ten feet deep in standing water. In our dugouts, at night, armed with powerful spotlights, we 'cruised' the forest spotting the trees overhead -- yep -- eyes everywhere. Some belonged to sleepy monkeys, some to lizards, but most were snakes! Vipers! Only one fell into the dugout, and we quickly flipped him with a paddle into the water. While shining on him with the spots, we saw many eyes reflecting back from the water -- mostly Caymans, but some belonged to large water snakes (I'd say Anacondas, but we didn't want to get close enough to identify for sure). We caught some Caymans - our biologist friend wanted to tag them.

Our cruises on the St. Johns were marvelous -- manatees, alligators and zillions of nesting wading birds made it a wildlife treasure. We are with you in spirit.

[captd]

Bill & Ell

Wow, you guys have done it all. You guys were putsying around on the Amazon. When reading his books, you certainly question some of his facts. It totally amazed me at the size, stength and the danger involved with cruising the river. Tell me.........Are those stats true? Tell me about the Pororoca. Which I guess takes place in the Curura Island area. When the wind and tide come up the river raising the water level 40 feet.


I mentioned poor holding in the last post,....... well add another interesting potential problem. We had spent 3 nights in this small loop off the main river. Thinking you could not have any serious problems. Yesterday the wind picked up some from the North east. Opposite from when I set double anchors. It silently moved a massive mat of hycinth(spelling) and blocked off the channel in and out. Probably a 100 yds across. The boat next to us had his dinghy out and had thrown this anchor into the mat trying to clear the channel. He got it to move all right, heading right toward my boat. That big mat would have drug us right to shore and pinned us. Any ideas how a person could get out of that mess? By the time I got both anchors in the boat. I use the side thrusters to moves us out of the way and got out.

We went down river a couple of miles to Hontoon State park where a Regal boat club had a gathering. Looked like all the slips were taken. While we sat there drifting looking at the place, a boat hollered out to us that he was leaving and the slip was paid up for the night. Electric and all. We moved right into that spot, and rung in the new year. Watched a movie on the new fold down tv. ( Bad Santa ) We were in the sack by 10:00 P.M.

The Comfy Dory came by and took the free showers, had a toddy with us and were back going up river and one more night on the river. Than home.

We are going to spend a few nights here and run the Pudgy around the Island. Lots of exploration to be done here. Its a tough job , but somebodys got to do it.

Happy New Year, everyone
I'll see if I can post some pics.

captd

[captd]

The Wallas is worth every cent., must be in the thirtys this morning. Good time to be tied up to the dock, plugged into electricity.

Wed, Jan 2
Run the Pudgy around behind the Hontoon Island yesterday. On the Dead River . Alligators were stretched out on the logs soaking up the sun. Turtles were using the same parking space. Nose to nose. The white Ibis Lite up the roosting trees by the hundreds. Blue Herons, Bald Eagles, Osprey, and the " Elusive Limpkin" as mentioned by Tom Krantz..........forgot to take the camera. Next time.

Met a couple of full time boaters. One had a houseboat about 75 ft. long. The other a 37 ft. Marine Trader. Both put in several years on their boats. One ( the Houseboat) on the St. Johns the other the coast of Florida, the Bahamas and now the St. Johns.

Plan for the day.............stay warm

capt

[dotnmarty]

Today in Libby, MT:A 50 percent chance of snow after 11am. Cloudy, with a high near 26.

[captd]

Tied to a dock at Hontoon State Park setting out the cold front. Might have been below freezing last night. Wallas run on high all night.

Ron drove up from Sanford , took the ferry over to Hontoon Island and brought needed company. Brought charts,maps and Krantz guide book to loan us. We had those items , but sure appreciated the offer and his company. Goes to show you what kind of people the C-Brats are. He even offered to take us for supplies or bring us some on the river.

Paid slip rent for one more night. Cold front should have passed by then.


The mystery of the terrible odor when flushing the toilet has been solved. I could not figure it out. The bilges and all hatches smelled alright. Dee comes up with the answer. The canvas on the stern covers the vent so it is all pushed right into the back cockpit. Effectively closing off the vent until the toilet is flushed. All Ranger should keep that in mind when putting on the canvas. I am going to have a hole cut in the right place and hem it up.
captd

[El and Bill]

Capt D --
Sure enjoy reading of your FL cruise -- we have some fond memories of some times shared cruising on the west side of FL with you. Pororoca? We have never seen it, but sure know it by reputation -- a true tidal wave (unlike a tsunami, which, as you know, is often called a tidal wave). The pororoca occurs at the mouth of the Amazon, where the river water flowing into the Atlantic (miles wide) meets the incoming high tides from the ocean -- this creates a bore, sometimes 4 meters high. We have heard, from surfing friends, that this is a great surfing event -- riding the pororoca. We have see the tidal bores at the Bay of Fundy (and surrounding rivers) and they are impressive!!

Seen it all? Not by a long shot -- not even 1% of all. There are lifetimes worth of 'seeing" and adventure -- we've been fortunate to have taken the time to see a small portion of what this fabulous planet has to offer. And, we firmly believe that Henry David Thoreau was right when he stated that he "had the whole world in his backyard" -- or -- we might add -- on the St. John's River, Continue having a great trip.