A lazy cruise on the St. Johns River Florida

[Herschel]

I truly appreciate the responses to my "digression"! I thought I would include that because this trip is more than just another vacation. It was intended to give us a chance to see what it felt like to be away from home and more active. Fortunately, autumn, winter and spring, are the best sailing time in Florida for us. Only a handful of days are too cold for boating. Our homeport marina, Monroe Harbor, in Sanford is a pretty easy place to social distance. There are good public ramps adjacent to that marina. The resort where we are staying this week, Hontoon Landing, has been a pretty good place to social distance, as well. The weekends are a little crowded since they rent pontoon boats. But we just stayed away from other folks keeping to our room or our boat. The resort gave me a complimentary slip for the boat for the week as long as I didn't use electricity. I can't say much about the logistics of coming south for you northerners, but there are opportunities available around the state once you get here. One word of caution about this resort, the ramp here has an aerial support wire about twenty feet high over it. It would not be possible to launch a Mac or any sailboat here unless it was done with the mast unstepped. And, of course, there are always the pontoon boats you can rent.

[Tomfoolery]

One word of caution about this resort, the ramp here has an aerial support wire about twenty feet high over it. It would not be possible to launch a Mac or any sailboat here unless it was done with the mast unstepped.

But since Roger had the foresight to make baby stays and an MRS, it's not ever an issue unless the water is really rough, which has never happened so far. There's always a place, somewhere, to hide if necessary to raise or lower the mast.

[Herschel]

We took a spell on the river again, turning up stream on a nearby tributary suitable for Halloween, named "Dead River". I have no idea how it got its name; I suspect it had to do with a typical slow flow of water. Today it was flowing quite nicely despite its name. It is not marked with a channel so it helps to have a good chart plotter with accurate soundings and a good "fathometer" to use an old Navy term, for which our Garmin qualified. You do get the occasional tree that has fallen in toward the river and forms a potential snag. The Dead River branches off the main channel of the St. Johns at channel marker 50. We discovered a pontoon boat skipper who apparently didn't know the "red right returning" mnemonic. He caught up with us about three miles up Dead River and was asking directions. We got him back on the main channel.



The Admiral continues to do a yeoman's job crewing for me. She prefers not to be on the helm in these tight quarters. Happy Admiral, happy skipper!

[Herschel]

A footnote to the day. We have really enjoyed coming back to the resort from our adventures on the river and swimming laps in the swimming pool. The temperature has been just right. Probably around 80 degrees. I did want to point out an interesting pool rule I have never seen at a public pool. Note rule 7. I don't even want to know how that rule made it to the top seven of pool rules. You can rest assured that the pool at this resort is very clean.

[Tomfoolery]

It is not marked with a channel so it helps to have a good chart plotter with accurate soundings and a good "fathometer" to use an old Navy term, for which our Garmin qualified.

The Admiral continues to do a yeoman's job crewing for me. She prefers not to be on the helm in these tight quarters. Happy Admiral, happy skipper!

Well then, put her to work at the bow “casting the lead”, to use an even older Navy term for taking soundings while under way.

[Herschel]

It is not marked with a channel so it helps to have a good chart plotter with accurate soundings and a good "fathometer" to use an old Navy term, for which our Garmin qualified.

The Admiral continues to do a yeoman's job crewing for me. She prefers not to be on the helm in these tight quarters. Happy Admiral, happy skipper!

Well then, put her to work at the bow “casting the lead”, to use an even older Navy term for taking soundings while under way.

I ran the idea past the Admiral. She laughed heartily. Then said, "RIGHT..." This is the same woman who remarked when I told her I had been promoted to Admiral on the forum for 1000 posts, "Does that make you a wife, too?" She has an unusual sense of humor.

[Herschel]

OK, guys and gals, today is the wrap up. We spent the day steaming up river from Hontoon Landing near Deland to our homeport/marina in Sanford where we tied up American Spirit after she took us all over the middle St. Johns for a week safely and reliably. Job well done, good boat. I don't try to anthropomorphize my boat, but after 17 years of reliable and safe passage, one must give her a "love pat" on the stern once and awhile! If I had to organize the day in chapters or phases, it would include (1) joy of being homeward bound, (2) attractions along the way, (3) flora, (4) emerging into Lake Monroe, and, oddly enough, (5) aviation. Taking them in order: joy of returning to homeport.

[Herschel]

Part 2 of the day's post: Attractions along the way. Across from Hontoon Landing is Hontoon Island State Park. It has dockage for boats with electric and water, showers ashore, little store, kayaks to rent, trails to hike. You can even rustic camp there in shelters back in the woods. https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks ... state-park
Secondly, Blue Springs State Park is about 45 minutes up river. In the winter it is an amazing place to go and see manatees that take refuge from the cooler waters in the the springs toasty 72 degrees. We did not stop this time due to high water, but I'll throw in a pic for a previous visit. https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks ... state-park

My third "attraction" for you is a riverside restaurant and grill, Swamphouse Grill, in Debary, which is about an hour upriver from Hontoon. They have dockage for refueling that you can usually use for staying for a while in the restaurant. It is an interesting hang out for a both bikers and boaters. Gator bites and key lime pie are musts for your first visit.

[Herschel]

Part 3: The flora of the river cam seem a little...what should I say...similar, but that can be misleading. The changes are often subtle, but if you look for them, they can be interesting. We like the palm trees that seem to doing their imitation of the "plank" exercise.



And the wild flowers can sneak up on you. We did a U turn to take these beauties in. And the Spanish moss ain't too bad neither!

[Herschel]

Part 4: Coming down the homestretch. The railroad bridge I mentioned earlier in the thread is the "gateway" from the river to Lake Monroe. With commuter rail moving along the tracks along with Amtrak and the odd freight, it can get dicey to get through on some days. Here we exaggerated the meaning of "minimum wake" and punched on through after the bridge tender opened for us. The "iron genny" comes in handy for multiple missions!



After you negotiate your passage through the bridge on Channel 9 and get the usual boost in your ego from having a bridge actually open for you, "bingo" you are in Lake Monroe. The lake is a good sailing lake; it is about 5 miles wide, nearly round, little current, uniform depth 8-10 feet...and it never ices up!

[Herschel]

Part 5: Addendum. We were totally taken aback by two flyovers of aircraft today. The first occurred down river shortly after we left the lake Beresford area near Hontoon. A sea plane was on final approach for a landing in the lake and flew right over us...LOW!



Then as we were about half way across Lake Monroe coming toward our marina, we stumbled on to an air show with four fighter jets doing all kinds of close fly overs near the Sanford airport which is, incidentally, on an old Naval Air Station site.



So, folks, accept for some notes about possible anchoring sites I promised, which I will get to in a few days, this will just about wrap thing up for this trip. I know that river trips are somewhat of an "acquired taste" due to limited sailing opportunities, but our boats with "split personalities" are really ideally suited for such trips. I hope some of you will give it a go sometime in the future. I'll go to my thesaurus one more time to make my humble congee.

[Jimmyt]

Great pics and write up Herschel. Thanks for posting! Looks like a fun trip, and the scenery looked outstanding.

[NiceAft]

And thanks for the lexicon lessons. anthropomorphize, You're showing off again.

[Herschel]

Great pics and write up Herschel. Thanks for posting! Looks like a fun trip, and the scenery looked outstanding.

and Ray said:
And thanks for the lexicon lessons. anthropomorphize, You're showing off again.
I appreciate your interest and the fun we had with vocabulary. It will probably not surprise you that my mother was a high school English teacher who expected good diction, a broad vocabulary, and grades/SAT scores to match! Anyway, I was asked about anchorages on the St. Johns River in the area where my Admiral I were cruising last week. I strongly suspect there is a more direct and sophisticated way to share Navionics charts with annotations, but I haven't gotten there on my learning curve just yet. So, I simply took pics of my Navionics display. They do show some electronic interference from the two devices, but I think the info will come through. The rule of thumb would be looking anywhere on the river where the Army Corps of Engineers in ages past cut a straighter channel and left a little island with a loop of the old river channel around it. Those loops get you out of the main river traffic and are nearly always minimum wake area to help protect the manatees. That makes them ideal for anchorages. I'll start from Fla highway 44 bridge south. The first is Drigger Island:

Down near Blue Spring Run you have a little loop caused by the Starks Cutoff:

[Herschel]

Just south of the Blue Spring Run you have Snake Creek:



Once you get south of Swamphouse Grill you have Emanuel Bend. This is a popular anchorage: