St. Johns River, Florida - March 2006
We left Holland Marine on March 28 and headed south on the St. Johns River for a few days.
We had a spectacular fly-by of a P3 Orion our first day heading south. The second picture below is the view over the bow on our first evening out after launching from the yard.
Day 2 on the St. Johns found us tugging our way down past Palatka to the lovely little town of Welaka.
On the way, we passed another American Tug - Freedom, hull #11 - who started the loop in Tennessee. We look forward to seeing them again along the way.
We saw lots and lots of houses with neat boathouses. I especially liked the Victorian house below.
We saw lots of 'Slow Speed' signs on the river like the one shown below. We can't do 25-30MPH if we wanted to, and I don't know how you can go that fast and not put up a wake! I guess the manatees better watch out.... We also saw a seaplane land behind us on the river - maybe the Slow Speed sign is meant for him???
We saw lots a lots of birds along the way including this heron and bald eagle.
I was surprised to see several bald eagles along the St. Johns.
We took the dink over to the town of Welaka and found this interesting building when wandering through town . Check out the sign on the building!
Sunset over Tardis at anchor nearWelaka:
Hontoon State Park is a lovely area located south of Lake George on the St. Johns River. When we passed Freedom a few days earlier, they suggested that we head down there for a few days - well worth the visit. We had our first sighting of a Florida alligator here. This picture was taken with max zoom. We were standing up on the docks - probably about 10 ft away. He (She??) was sunning himself in amongst the water lilies down in the mud.
We went exploring on the island - 'Jeremy The Explorer' sometimes has a hard time with 'End of the Trail'...
Sunset in Hontoon State Park
Two more sunset pictures. This is our favorite time of the day... when it finally cools off a bit.
Tugging along in the St. Johns River. Notice the water hyacinth encroaching on the river.
Last updated April 6, 2006.