PALATKA to DRAYTON ISLAND (Anchorage) to HONTOON ISLAND, Back to PALATKA / Wednesday to Friday, March 2-4 (Day 41-43)

Admiral's Log:    9 am, Wed., 3/2/16

                          Temp:   65

                          Wind:  12 mph

                          Speed:   7.5 knots

I drove most the way today. Mike wanted me to learn, to give him a break once in a while. I steered and used the auto pilot. I have to keep reminding myself...RRR, red, right, returning from sea, or going inland. We were going south on the St. John's River, which runs south to north, very rare!  I had to constantly watch for crab pots. They can do a number on props! Also made it thorough my first bridge opening with no issue. 

We anchored at 1:30 in a nice little cove off Drayton Island. We dropped the dinghy, drove around and threw out a couple of fishing lines for something to do. 

While we were enjoying the peace and quiet we saw four Air Force A-10's or Wart Hogs; going through maneuvers, pretty impressive. Then a little later, two helicopters flew over our boat while we were fishing.

We had scallops and a salad for dinner. Pretty slow day, but a nice change.

Admiral's Log:    9:10 am, Thrs. 3/3/16

                          Temp:  66
                          Winds:   calm
                          Speed:   7 knots

                        

                       Sunrise from our anchorage

                    

Thursday we were planning to anchor out another night but the river got so narrow that we we afraid we could not turn around and the current was pretty swift. We arrived at 2:45 at Hontoon Landings Resort near Deland (not much of a resort, mainly rent pontoon boats and house boats). But they had room so we were happy. The current was so strong, it took Mike three tries to get into our slip, and he's pretty proficient at docking, so it must have been pretty rough.

House Boats quite popular on St. John's River

Notice the collapsing balcony!

The St. John's is well known for it's bass fishing. There were fishing camps all along the way. Some pretty nice, others no so much.

We towed the dinghy from the day before, knowing we were going to try to fish a little and we had heard this was a pretty area and we wanted to see it up close. It was quite and peaceful with Spanish moss hanging from limbs, turtles and alligators basking on downed trees, herons, osprey and an eagle here and there. I had another driving lesson; the dinghy. It was really pretty easy and kinda fun.

Mini Croppie

Gators everywhere!

Osprey nest

At the Hontoon National Park Docks across the water from us, there was a C-Dory gathering.  Dory's are cute little boats. Remember "Salty" with the dog? That's a dory. We even saw his boat, but did not see the captain or his dog.

We had soup and a sandwich, and watched the Lightning beat Ottawa. 

Admiral's Log:   7:10 am, Fri. 3/4/16
                         Temp:   59
                         Winds:   8 mph
                         Speed:   9 knots

We had a pretty strong current so we could go a little faster today and still save fuel. Today was pretty uneventful. We had already been this way down river. It was actually very cloudy so it was pretty cool on the flybridge. We moved inside since we had seen most of this area a couple of days ago. 

Bald Eagle

Lots of Osprey

We did have one issue. There is a train bridge that's suppose to stay open but it was closed. So we honked our horn and tried to raise the tender on the radio, to no avail. For 20 minutes we sat there. We were about to call the Sheriff's office, when this older, stove up man starts sauntering across the bridge. No hurry at all. We were quite perturbed needless to say.
 He never did acknowledge us, and neither did we. But it takes all kinds, just part of the experience, although one we could do with out. 

We made it back to the Boat House Marina in Palatka at 3:30. Mike had a craving for pizza, so we found a local Italian restaurant called Pizzaboyz, which had good reviews. I'm not a big fan of pizza, but Mike liked it.