Sunday, June
2; Monday, June 3; and Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Sunday was
another “kick-back” day – we decided in the beginning of our journey that we
would most likely not travel on the weekends simply to avoid any heavy weekend
boating traffic. So we took an easy day
today – Ron did a little fishing but didn’t even get a bite. I stayed boatside – some storms in the area
negated trips in the dingy, but we sure enjoyed the thunder and lightening
show!
Pulled the dinghy for the first time today - worked great!
Lots of little ones EVERYWHERE 
There are many small villages along the river
On Monday,
we decided to cruise in Spirit Journey up the St. John’s River (which is
actually ‘down’ the river heading southbound from our Turkey Island anchorage
but like Ron’s and my good ‘Mars/Venus’ moments, the ‘opposite thinking’ prevails).
We travelled
another two hours to get to a creek named Salt Springs Creek. We anchored out in the lake and took the
dingy in. Ron had been told that were
lots of manatees throughout this somewhat untouched area, and while we didn’t
see any manatees during this creek’s (6 mile one way) dingy ride, we did see
turtles over two foot in length, some red-crested ducks, herons, water
hyacinths, and other flora and fauna. We
also passed several families in rented pontoon boats doing a little fishing,
some other bass fisherman (some were spear fishing and some were using bow and
arrows), and canoeists. After this
creek diversion trip, we headed back to the boat and decided to return to the
Turkey Island anchorage – it was a beautiful anchorage.
On
Tuesday…we left anchorage and decided to head back down the St. John’s River
(which is actually ‘up’ heading north back toward Jacksonville). Captaining from the flybridge: we had lunch (see my ‘plate windshield’ which
helps protect lunch items like chips and Cheetos from blowing away) and after
circumventing some nasty-looking clouds, our luck didn’t quite hold and we
cruised for about 8 miles in our first official ‘rainstorm’! With thunder!
And, with lightening! Now, it
wasn’t quite like The Deadliest Catch episodes, but nevertheless I felt like I
should put on a life jacket, even though Ron smiled at this line of
thinking. Yes, it would have made me
feel better if our center windshield wiper would have worked properly! Ron was great, and the auto-pilot was great,
and we made it into the Green Cove Springs area to anchor.
Unfortunately,
I didn’t tighten a hatch window tight enough and some rain ran in and managed
to wet quite a few books we had on the shelf.
But the fortunate flip side is: the storms that have passed through have cooled
the temps and decreased humidity, and we might actually sleep without the
air-conditioning tonight! Learned
technique of the day: lightly wet a
small towel, and throw it in the freezer (for 15 – 20 minutes). Take out and
place around your neck for some ‘cool’ relief.
By-the-way, “Happy Birthday” to grandson, Ben, today (he spent part of
his special day at Driver’s Ed we’re told) !!!
ed to the marina office to pick up repair parts for the non-working guest head, and a very quick trip to the grocery store (after all, I had gone almost an entire day without a Diet Coke)! The marina personnel are friendly and very helpful! As usual we had hoped to eat earlier and get to bed earlier, but it seems like we’ve been on our usual pre-boating schedules of eating late – but the good news is: we are again a ‘two potty family’! .... yes, Ron got to work in the Sanitation Department AGAIN but this time he got the fix 'right'! J Rain, rain go away – a tropical storm is on its way.
