Great adventure and I love the shallow draft of our Rangers. After the Rendezvous at Burnt Store, I too went exploring up the west coast of Florida, great gunkholing and not a lot of boats north of Tarpon Springs. I was able to get into the Sewanee River, played the tides and bumped once or twice going in the southern entrance. I was able to get diesel at a small marina at the beginning of the River. Enjoyed a nice fish and shrimp dinner at the local diner. Was fortunate to get rides both was as the nats were really bad I tried the local Florida brew of repellant call NO NATZ, contains citrus. It was marginal on me. I went about twenty miles up the river; passed a marker sign warning "DANGER, JUMPING STURGEON". The River was quite deep in some areas about 30 feet, but it did shallow up in wide areas to 6 feet where I passed. Interesting creeks to explore by kayak, most of the alligators were sleeping because of the cool weather. For the most part, this area of the Sewanee River is a state forest, so no civilization and lots of wildlife. Weekends brought out the guided missile bass boats and noisy airboats. I left by the north channel slightly deeper with no groundings.
