03/07 - 03/09 - 2023 Hontoon Island Gathering

Thanks for the “heads up” James.

Just a reminder that temperatures can run from 30 to 90 degrees Fahrenheit this time of year. Mosquitoes have not been bad so far but that can change. Plan accordingly.

We do plan on holding the 50-50 raffle this year to raise some money for the park.

Schedule….as we see it now.

Tuesday….Meet and Greet in the morning. Boat round table discussions after lunch for an hour or so. We can discuss anything boating related. Bring your questions. What we don’t finish then we’ll cover at 9am on Wednesday. Remember park is only open from 8am to 4pm.

Wednesday…. 9am Gulfcoast John will be on deck to go over questions about C-Dorys and at 10 am Dr. Bob will go over adhesives and fiberglass. You will not want to miss this. After lunch we will hold a short memorial for Larry Krabach. Larry and his wife Wendy attended many of our gatherings. Colby advised me of his passing.

Thursday……you wouldn’t want to miss our boat and galley gadgets competition. If your in need of finding more things to buy for your boat….you’ll find them here! C-Brats are always looking for ways to improve and accessorize. We will vote on favorites. Everyone attending can enter one item. Will start at 10 am. Thursday afternoon will be departure day although anyone who wants to return Friday is welcome to do so.

There will be no printed schedule this year. The group is expected to be much smaller this year but that will make it easier to connect with one another.

Please be sure to look over all the previous posts so that have everything you need.

I will be cruising after the gathering for 5 to 7 days. If anyone wants to join the cruise they are welcome. Joyce and I normally anchor out and with the damaged marina’s, this will surely be the case. If anyone has any questions call or personal message me.

Not sure when I’ll launch but certainly not later than Monday the 6th.

See you at Hontoon. Tom
 
Hi Folks!

We plan on staying across the river at Hontoon Landing resort, arriving Monday Mar 6 PM (by car, no boat). I had the two week post-op visit today, 36 staples removed and ready to start to resume ‘normal activities’ such as falling off boats and tripping over dock lines. No long walks yet. Hope to see you next week!

John
 
Howdy everyone,

I made it back to Hontoon last week to finish up a few projects I had started while I was here in January. It looks as if the River has dropped 2 feet since when I arrived January 1st. I don’t remember seeing it this low.

Servpro has been here for the last few weeks and has finished removing all the damaged wallboard from walls and ceilings along with flooring where ever there was damage from the flooding and mold. They removed most of the ozone machines and dehumidifiers today. There is asbestos removal in the two Ranger residences that still has to happen. I don’t believe they have a date yet for when the reconstruction contractors will be starting.

The volunteers have the docks, day use area, playground, roads, campground and a few other things looking as good as they ever have.

I know a few of you still had a few questions. I was able to talk to Devin the Park manager today and he said it would be ok for anyone that needs to charge their boat batteries during the day to use the power on the docks at no charge. (They are not set up to collect any money.) There is potable water on the docks now. The men’s and lady’s restrooms and showers are usable. All the slips are open from 8:00am to 4:00pm except for the furthest west ones. You will see yellow caution tape closing them off. There still is no ferry service.

I will try and get answers to any questions you still have.
See you all in a week.
 
Good to hear all that Bill. Rosanne and I are in Mattoon Il tonight, working our way to Ed Stone. We're going to spend one more day than planned with her Uncle in Trenton KY and go to a big Mennonite Fish Fry Friday night. Plan now to launch on Sunday. See yah soon. Colby
 
For those traveling the St Johns in Georgetown(just north of Lake George) , a new restaurant has opened called Idle Awhile River Resort(formally Porky’s). They have a dock for day use. Not sure about overnight. Next door is Port Cove RV Resort. They also have a dock. Not sure about over night or electric and water at the dock. See you on the river. Jay
 
Those attending the Hontoon Hoot should know that if any mechanical breakdown forces you onto the shoulder of any FL Interstate, Parkway or Toll Road…make your first call to *357 and request Road Ranger assistance. This is a free service funded by car insurance companies that is amazingly prompt and efficient. They will likely have a big truck with lighted signs and many more red pylons than you could ever carry behind your disabled rig within minutes.

https://www.fdot.gov/traffic/roadrangers/home.htm

Coverage map is here:

https://fdot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webap ... 4a4b79716e


We prefer to get off the Interstate at the next exit, but some in FL are 30 miles apart and some wheel bearings may melt long before that.

Safe Travels!

John
 
Greetings to my fellow C-Brats… wishing you all the best of times and weather. Still resolving trailer brake issues after replacing calipers and refacing rotors. Hope to make some Gulf barrier island trips in the next couple of weeks.
Hope to rally at one of the flotilla trips
 
The 2023 St. John's River gathering at Hontoon Island State Park is officially underway.

013LaunchPrep.jpg
Colby prepping C-Traveler for launch.

019EdStonePark.jpg
C-Traveler in the water. While this area was flooded from Hurricane Ian, the current conditions are quite low. I think they are saying the river is 1' below normal. Many say it's the lowest they've seen it.

035HontoonCBrats.jpg
Not as many boats this year, however we've still got about a dozen on the docks, and a few new comers without their boats that came to check things out.

037CBratMeeting.jpg
Out host Tom from C-Otter leading our meet and greet session.
 
We’ll, shoot!! I was really looking forward to the best coffee around. We had a lively discussion about trailering and potential trailering issues yesterday. I trust things will work out for you. If your in the SW Florida area in your travels let me know and I’ll launch and come meet for a visit. Good luck,
James
 
Several folks have asked Rosanne or I about our screen on our cabin door. This is the screen:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B074TWKVQB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

We (Rosanne) simply cut the length to fit our door, and then hemmed the sides to fit the width. (Since there is already a nice trim material around the edges, worked better to leave that on and then sew the extra material together.) She sewed some velcro around the top and sides, and I used some 4200 or 5200 to glue some small strips of wood along the sides of the door to make a flush mount. Putting velcro up along that and the top of the door to install the screen against. I did mount it high enough above the top of the door, to allow enough screen width where it opens to walk through. The nice thing about the magnetic closing is that we just push it open to walk in, and barring any big breezes, it just closes back up behind us. Colby
 
It was around 9:30 by the time everyone was back on the docks, so the first meeting/seminar of the day with Dr. Bob talking about Fiberglass, epoxies, etc, didn't get started until around 10. After that we broke for lunch, and then John and Eileen from Cat-o-Mine talked about boating locations and travel. We also had several visitors interested in the C-Dory and a few more that have a new C-Dory to them, but not with them and just came to see different modifications and learn more about their boat. Several of us gave them tours on our boats and answered any questions. Some more photos I took today.

040Alligator.jpg
One of the local alligators patrolling the river :mrgreen:

042HontoonSunrise.jpg
Sunrise over Hontoon

043HontoonCabins.jpg
One of the cabins back in the campground. You can see the Hurricane Ian Flood level on the trees. The water was just over the cabin floors. Unfortunately, in the park admin building up front, it was about 3 or 4 feet over the floor. Currently they have all the drywall ripped out, and just the studs left. No contractors currently, but perhaps they are staying away with all the C-Brats this week, or maybe to let everything dry out completely, before installing new drywall.

044HurricaneFloodLevel.jpg
Just a view of trees back in the campground where you can really see the flood lines.

045CatfishonGrill.jpg
Water (wild) Bill found the catfish and placed it where he thought appropriate! :mrgreen:

047DrBobSeminar.jpg
Dr. Bob giving a seminar on Fiberglass repair and epoxies.

049JohnSeminar.jpg
John and Eileen from Cat-o-Mine giving a talk on boating travel and locations.
 
Today ended another great gathering on the St. John's River at Hontoon Island State Park. Tom and Joyce from C-Otter are excellent hosts and even with the hurricane flood damage, pulled off a nice gathering. Sadly though, we lost another C-Brat this year, Larry Krabach from the Odyssey. We took a couple minutes after lunch to honor him with a small memorial. A bench that overlooks the river with plaques of those that have passed. A few will follow Tom and Joyce tomorrow as they cruise down river on the St. John's. Bill (Mystery Girl), Mike (Miss Jill), and Rosanne and I on C-Traveler will pull out tomorrow, trailer up to Jacksonville, launch again, and then cruise down the ICW. Regarding the coloring book in the photo below, that is a book I won at an auction at the first Hontoon gathering I attended. This is the 10th gathering here, I've been to the last 8. Colby

051HontoonSun_riseWithRowers.jpg
Sunrise over some rowers from a rowing club nearby.

052CBrats.jpg
Tom passing out some cookies before we start are first meeting of the day, sharing of galley gadgets. (Favorite items that C-Brats have purchased or made to make life a little easier on our boats.)

054CBratsGalleyGadgets.jpg
One of the C-Brats showing off their galley gadget.

065BillAlaskaTrip.jpg
Bill sharing about their Alaska trip last summer

066ColoringBook.jpg
And that's a wrap for this year's Hontoon gathering.

The remaining photos are of the short memorial we held for Larry.


057LarryKrabachMemorial.jpg

061LarryKrabachMemorial.jpg

062LarryKrabachMemorial.jpg

063LarryKrabachMemorial.jpg

064LarryKrabachMemorial.jpg
 
Another C-Brat gathering has come to a close way too soon. Thanks to all that attended and helped out this year. It was more than a little different with the hurricane damage but went well. The park staff were amazing with getting the docks open, the laundry up and running along with the showers. Everything we needed. Most of us were able to work on our anchoring skills and all of us practiced docking maneuvers daily.

With donations and proceeds from our 50/50 auctions we raised over $600 for park projects. I’ll post more on this later. Colby knows how much I dislike typing on my iPhone so I’m glad he gave the activity report and posted great photos. 😊

Looking forward to seeing everyone again next year at Hontoon and hopefully the island will return to normal operations.

Safe journeys….Tom and Joyce
 
We had a great time, even without a C Dory. A lot of credit to "new" C Dory 25 owners: Peter and Becky Clay. They traveled with us in their RoadTrek. They helped with launching and retrieving the boat, and with all around camping and boating issues. Peter and Becky are very experienced boaters, and their knowledge shows! We were able to introduce them to several "new" bird sightings for them on a tour around Hontoon Island and thru Blue Creek in the days before the gathering.

There was a great group at Hontoon, and they certainly made the best use of the limits of the facility post flood. But the most credit most go to Tom and Joyce of Sea Otter, and their wonderful skills in hosting events and working with people. As Tom said, we have never had a "personality" issue at any of the Hontoon Gatherings! It takes a Train Conductor!!!

Our road trip home was from Hell. We stopped in Gainesville to have lunch with a friend. (We have a Winnie VIA 25T, -Mercedes Sprinter Chassis, and tow our Caracal 18' center console cat.). As we got on I 10, we had very heavy rain--enough to keep our speed at 20 mph with flashers on. Then Tornado Warnings (tornado on the ground). We were at a dead stop and then a crawl for almost an hour. A Tornado and some straight-line winds, and blown trees across I 10 blocking the West bound lanes--several vehicles were badly damaged. More rain. Then none of the RV parks near Tallahassee had any RV openings, so we decided to run all of the way home. This meant the last hour after dark. Only 4 miles from our Turnoff in Pensacola, a truck 3 vehicles ahead of us lost steering and control, and fishtailed back and forth across I 10 almost rolling as it came to a stop on the side of I 10. I always allow good space ahead, but at 65 MPH I had to stand on the brakes and pull to the shoulder as the freeway came to another dead stop.

We normally back our boat in and unhitch, but it was late, so we decided to pull the RV and boat up onto our circular drive. My mistake. As we made a turn to the right to park the RV, it pushed the boat trailer right side wheel and tire over the edge of our drive, and high centered the axle. This morning with hydraulic jacks, a farm jack and lots of cribbing, we got the boat trailer back on level ground.

I'll get my photos up in the next few days,

If I ever see Colby stand on a bar stool again to take a picture, I will shoot him on the spot! (Left over from a time when I was the OSHA medical officer at a University.)

Thanks to all of the wonderful C Brat community who made this another wonderful gathering. We hope to be around next near to attend another!
 
If I ever see Colby stand on a bar stool again to take a picture, I will shoot him on the spot! (Left over from a time when I was the OSHA medical officer at a University.)
Click to expand...

Ha, that thing was more solid/sturdy than some step ladders I've used! Glad to hear you finally made it home. With hopefully no damage. We had some good rain later Friday evening on the Jacksonville Free Dock. However, at 1 am Saturday morning, Rosanne woke me to say someone was on our boat. I then heard what sounded like some birds on the roof, but Rosanne said she could hear people talking. I looked out the back window to see some guy in my cockpit. I opened the door to holler what the hell are you doing! Apparently three guys decided to go fishing, and managed to wrap their hook around my bimini frame. They have the entire dock ahead of our three boats and chose to fish here? And how you'd get a line over the top of my boat and wrapped around the water side (away from the dock) only makes me wonder. The entire time, the guy in broken English kept apologizing, "sorry friend".... while working to get the hook/line untangled. A few minutes later he was off and I strongly suggested they go fish somewhere else! Colby
 
We were hoping to participate but the park said the sites were full. Disappointed since it looks there was some open dock space. In any case, glad to see those of you who were there had a good time.
 
Back
Top