Captain's Cat Chair on R-25

[KentSidel]

Hello, Tugnuts,

My wife Annette, Sarah the cat, and I just completed a four week cruise from Hilton Head Island, SC down the ICW to Jacksonville and then up the St. Johns River to Sanford (near Orlando).
Great cruise, but we picked the wrong weather window. Two gales and many mornings in the lower 20's kept us in dock and inside much more than we had hoped for a winter cruise to sunny Florida.
Some points of interest --
-- We burned right at 1 gph with our 110 Yanmar purring at 1800 rpm and powering us a 6.5 knots.
-- Our max mileage day was slightly above 70; most were in the 40's to near 50. (These were very long days.)
-- Wallas stove and heat pump were blessings. Wallas stove was especially appreciated for its quiet, trouble-free operation (we burn only low-sulphur car diesel).
-- Because I needed to monitor the AC voltage very carefully (some local marinas had very erratic power delivery), I stumbled on a new way to store the helm seat which provided the cat with a captain's chair and me with a viewing tunnel to the AC panel. I've posted a couple of pix in KentSidel's album (#42) in the photo section.

Kent
Sarah Grey
R-25

 

[JamesTXSD]

Fine looking feline! Seems that "sunny Florida" has been experiencing another cold winter. The two times we've cruised in Florida in the winter, we ran into cold... and everyone told us, "This is really unusual." Riiiiiiiiight.

Hope to see more photos of your trip.

Best wishes,
Jim B.

 

[colleysails]

I'm considering trailing my R25 down to the Sanford or Hontoon Island State Park area in early March and do a leisurely cruise to Jacksonville. Would you have any suggestions for a place in either of those areas to park my truck/trailer for a couple of weeks?

colleysails

 

[Spirit of Gratitude]

Very nice feline indeed! I am sure it is nice to know that if your auto pilot fails you have a cat that can bring you home safely.

We have almost the same setup...... Captain Winslow is our back up!

 

[JerryE]

Colleysails,

In Sanford I'd recommend Sanford Boat Works and Marina for an inexpensive place to leave your truck & trailer in locked storage. They also sell diesel and there are only (I believe) 3 marinas that do on the river. I have pictures of the docks in my photo album. Frank of Ainokea lives in DeLand where the Hontoon State Park is located. Send him a private message for more information if you want to leave your rig in DeLand; he is a TugNut member under "Ainokea." You can see the park on Hontoon Island behind our two R25's which were parked together in Frank's lovely marina (Hontoon Resort & Marina) just last week. The park's marina is just 500 feet to the left and the Hontoon Dead River is 500 feet to the right.

I just posted a couple of tiny movies about the river on my new blog: http://altosadventures.blogspot.com/
Jerry

 

[captd]

I'm considering trailing my R25 down to the Sanford or Hontoon Island State Park area in early March and do a leisurely cruise to Jacksonville. Would you have any suggestions for a place in either of those areas to park my truck/trailer for a couple of weeks?

colleysails

Astor is a good place to put in. Two blks or so from the launch is a pontoon sale place on the right who charged me $25.00 a month to store truck and trailer. Up river to Hontoon , down river to Jacksonville. All fenced in and open 6 days a week.
captd