St. Johns River 2009

[captd]

The cold snap is over and we finally launched the Lucky Fin on Sat. The Pickup and trailer is in storage in Astor. After launch we just moved the boat to the Blacwater Resturant where it cost nothing nothing to spend the night plus it is a good place to eat. Shore power comes with it. We had no reason to plug in. The solar panels keep the batteries up.

We eased up the river to Pier 44 and had lunch across the river from marina. We are now on the Hontoon State Park docks. $13.50 a night with hook ups. About a 25 mile run. Got the viewcube hooked up to watch UFC fights last night. Internet connection is very bad and will wait for better reception to post pictures.

A full moon arising and cold this morning. Coffee is on. Life is good. 😀

captd

 

[CaptMac]

Hi Captd -

How did you wire up your solar panel? On Island Ranger, I hooked them up to the house batteries only. A couple months later, I discovered my other batteries - especially the dedicated thruster/windlass battery - were getting low. I haven't doubled checked, but I think if I leave the jumper switch on (engine/house), then I can charge the engine start battery with the panels. Of course, that would risk running down the engine start battery accidentally, so....

What are you doing?

One thought - maybe connect the panel output to an inverter, then connect it to the ship's battery charger? At least that would get all the batteries....

mac

 

[ron cowan]

Captd,
Glad to see you made it onto the St. Johns and to Hontoon. Enjoyed meeting you and Miss Dea last year while you were there and am looking forward to good pictures and notes this year. We moved from there in Oct. and I really miss the river and just cruising the St. Johns. Maybe next year I can get the wife to retire and we can come back and spend the winter there. If the house does not sell there we will have a place to stay anyway.
Enjoy your stay there and I hope you get to hit all the places you want including the islands. Please keep us posted on the trip because there are a lot of us tuggers that would love to be tagging along.
I am cruising here on the Tennessee river almost daily and it is a great river to cruise but have to stick close to home with the wife working. The St. Johns had a lot better short cruising and sights to see. Still a lot too cold for our few gators to be out although we do have a few to see in the dead of summer.
Ron

 

[captd]

Hi Captd -

How did you wire up your solar panel? On Island Ranger, I hooked them up to the house batteries only. A couple months later, I discovered my other batteries - especially the dedicated thruster/windlass battery - were getting low. I haven't doubled checked, but I think if I leave the jumper switch on (engine/house), then I can charge the engine start battery with the panels. Of course, that would risk running down the engine start battery accidentally, so....

What are you doing?

One thought - maybe connect the panel output to an inverter, then connect it to the ship's battery charger? At least that would get all the batteries....

mac

Mac,
I kind of though if the paralell switch was left on , it would charge all batteries. Andrew wired it and I think it is direct to the house batteries. So far all batteries are fully charged. Man is it nice to never have dead batteries. We are plugged in at Hontoon, comes with the slip. I think running the charge to an inverter would waste a lot of power. I will know a lot more by the time I'm done with this cruise.
Darrel (captd)

 

[captd]

Used the Wallas for heat again last night. Looks good for the rest of the week. Supposed to be in the sixties at night.

We had bought two Cayne folding bikes , so I tried one out yesterday. Rode out into the center of the island. Hard peddeling in loose sand or on grass. Don't need to go so far to get excersize.

We enjoyed the company of Buzz and Glen last night. Now Buzz is full time and wears a park uniforn. Glen stays a volunteer. That makes his wife, Buzz his boss. They get a slip for free because of his volunteering.

New rules with the ferry: Six passengers at a time. Weeks ends when hundreds come to the island, it takes a long time hauling them back to main land. They need 100 ton captains to haul 12. Some of you guys could have a cheap vacation with a free slip if you have one of those sheep skins. Big pontoons with a neat electric motor.

We plan on leaving here and heading down the river on Thursday. Stops at the springs.

Hi Ron, I was wondering if we would get to see you. Good luck on the sale of your property.

captd

 

[captd]

The Lucky Fin is going to hang around for a couple more days at the Hontoon State Park in hope the crew of the Ainokea get a chance to cruise up to the Silver Glen Springs. Their boat is moored right across the river from us. Same color as ours. But it is floating about 6 inches higher than the Lucky Fin...........I wonder why? Doesn't Frank know you are suppose to get the boat down in the water to the white line. 😉

Had company from Ocala yesterday. My fishing buddy. He put his boat in the water for a run up the Dead River. Must have seen twenty gators. Tooks some pictures of 5 babies and mama. I'll see if I can post in my album.

Nice light shower this morning. But still nice and warm. The store had some Jimmy Dean egg sausage bisquit so it made breakfast easy this morning. Last evening a fisherman gave us a couple of nice sized crappies. Fresh fish for dinner tonight.
captd

 

[captd]

Heading down the river this Monday morning. Spent a nice week Here at Hontoon State Park. Got to visit with Buzz and Glenn of the Bold Eagle. Met the owners of the Ainokea, Frank and Cathy Forest. Why do I think they have one of the most beautiful boats made by Ranger Tug? When he gets his picture album going, you will see. Got some really good info on the Sirrius weather from Frank.

What a terrific deal that is. Soon as I got back to the boat I investigated, $29.99 per month. Hard to get info from Sirrius. Their employees didn't have a clue. Looks like I need a receiver and a patch cord to run it on my Garmin 5212 chart plotter. Need more info to get it done. The patch cord must go from the Clarion to the 5212. Anyone have any info on the subject?.......Andrew?

Hope to drop the hook in Silver Glen Springs. Good place to wash the boat. Same time clean up the crew. Swiming out over the springs in 72 degree water is a neat expeirence. It is like swiming in gin. It has a large number of different species of salt and fresh water fish. Good place for the dog. He gets a bath too. Only about 40 miles frm here.

 

[Ainokea]

Darrell,


Cathy and I enjoyed meeting both of you and spending some time on the Lucky Fin! You gave me some good ideas on outfitting for our trip(s). It is a good thing that you didn't leave the Lucky Fin unattended as you might have come back and had a Raymarine C120 on board instead of the Garmin system. That is a really neat navigation set up. We hope you have a great trip and please keep everyone updated on Tugnuts as to your travels.


Cheers

Frank

Ainokea

 

[rt11002003]

I had a Garmin 3210c package which I installed on an Albin 27 AC (Garmin 3210 was a generation prior to the 4xxx and 5xxx systems). The package (the "c" indicated a package) included GPS, chartplotter, depth sounder, satellite weather and a black box; I added the radar to the system. The black box, really a junction box, was for connecting the modules to the ethernet system. The satellite weather module plugged into the black box to interface the chartplotter, which was also connected to the black box. The weather module also included a connector to plug into the AM/FM stero radio CD player.

Depending on the number of connections you have on your chartplotter, you might not need a black box. I'm not familar with your present system; you may already have the black box as a part of it. If my memory serves me, the weather system will require one connection to your ethernet system, either to the black box or to the chartplotter; the antenna for the weather module connects to the module. If you have radar, the weather antenna must be mounted below or above the radar's radiating beam, preferably above the beam. Garmin's instructions are very clear and easy to follow.

Gene

 

[captd]

We did drop the hook in Silver Glen. Two nights worth. Wind blowing into the spring run against the spring flow. Took three anchors to keep me off the markers. Nice thing about it is, you can walk the anchors out and place them where you want. Just a couple of boats in there and later we were the only ones.

An incident on the way in, A small pram was crossway in the chanel, I gave a toot, they moved to the port. Just as I was passing their stern a rope came up in front of my bow stretching all the way across the channel and tied to a tree. It was under water untill I was on top of it. I became instant hot under the collar. They were park people doing some kind of testing. The current took me to the Starboard into about a foot of water under my keel. At no time did they signal or indicate they had a line across the run. You could tell they thought they had some sort of authority to do this. They just smiled at my anger. Oh man, life is to short to let these knob heads get to you.

No cell service in there and therefore no internet. Now we are at the Boathouse Marina in Palatka. $1.00 a foot. 25.00 and they waived the electric of $5.00. They have nice clean showers and rest rooms. Lots of books, laundry. Two locals offered to take us to Publics, to collect some stores. That done, Dee will do the the clothes today. Last night Dee did that grocery shopping while I got the bikes down on the docks. And rode around town for awhile. Kind of neat how they built a walkway out into the water, under the bridge and back on the other side. Must have been very costly.

This whole little cove was the site of the old cypress mile in the 1800's. They were cut up stream and floated down to the mill. Lots of the logs sunk and are still on the bottom. Good old growth stuff. The owner of the Marina said how he got some and how perfect the grain was and large the planks he ended up with.

We will stay another night here which will let this new cold front pass. Should be in the 30's tonight. Wind has been blowing for a couple days. After the week end we should have good sailing for the next 7 days.

To be continued:
Captd

 

[captd]

Well, the cold snap did not pass. It is still here. We left Palaka yesterday on a high tide to take advantage of the out going. 1:00 pm . heading for Green Cove Springs. Cruised at 2250 rpm providing a speed of about 8 miles hour. Burning 2 gph. I can afford that.

We had a brisk breeze from the north setting up a good chop. Heading into the chop the Lucky Fin took all the jolts out of the waves, but it kept the wippers buzy keeping the wind shield clear so we could spot the numerous crab pots seemingly placedd on whatever course we would choose. Just to aggravate the crew of course.

There is a nice sheltering cove on the east side , just before the bridge. A couple miles in on a small short creek the is an interesting place to eat as well as party. It is called the " Outback Crab Shack" It sports a 1/2 mile floating dock. Free docking for all patrons. Us being patrons took them up on the offer. shrimp and crab cake poboys paid our slip rent. $5 a glass wind when a long ways to help. A very peacefull quite evening was had. Sun is coming up to a cool morning and an expected cool day. I will check the freebees up ahead and determine whether we will move another 20-30 miles forward toward Jax or not. I will check with the boss when she gets up.

I will see if I can post some pictures of this very well recomended stop.

The wallas is keeping the coffee hot and has taken the chill out of the air.

To be continued.
captd

 

[captd]

I'll try this again. the last post went in to cyber space.

Addendum to the last post:

Monday morning after making a post, Poo awoke and insisted on making his morning appointment. Upon getting on the dock he made a bee line down the dock for shore. Reaching a spot where the hydrilla or some such aquatic greenry spaned from dock to shore. Poo Bear in his haste to relieve hisself, figured the green grass was a perfect place to accomplish his task.( he likes to do his thing in the grass). He made a routine leap from the dock and landed in about 9 ft of water covered by this green mat. With probably a couple alligators waiting underneath for some happless critter to fall in or a dumb one to jump in. The look on Poo's face was something to behold as he was quickly bound up by the tangled mess. To save his life I boldly and bravely grabbed the only handy handle and that was his tail. It crossed my mind to leave him there long enough to get a picture with the camera I had in my pocket but it also crossed my mind that his main handler would not approve. I later suggested we ought to throw him back in so I could get a picture. Mis Dee saw no humor in that. Poo was so happy to be alive he raced down the dock, done his thing and quickly headed back to the Lucky Fin to report how poorly I had taken care of him. ( she always insists I put a lease on him) At that time he looked like a drowned rat.
Being as she would not allow a reinactment. I settled for taking a picture of the hole in the green where he hit the water and a small piece of green he stubornly clung to in his panic.

New stuff:
We left the Outback Crab Shack and headed down river Monday around noon. We reached the Mandarin Marina and fueled up . I took 18.8 gals. 1.8 in the wallas tank. The wallas has been buzy with these cold nights. Fuel cost was $41.00, ABOUT 2.30 A GAL,.not too bad.
We docked on the Jacksonville landing. Free dock space for 72 hour. No utilities. which is fine with us . What a wonderfull place. whether you drive here or come by boat you will enjoy. We had margritas and chips with an eye on the Lucky Fin. Next shop down is the Hooters. We had dinner there. Good place to enjoy all the scenery , on the TV's of course. Lots of places to eat and shop. Big fountain in the center with music. This is a must to tie up here for a day or two.

Next run will be to St. Augustine where we plan on spending a few days.



to be continued
captd

 

[captain's cat]

I'll try this again. the last post went in to cyber space.

Addendum to the last post:

( she always insists I put a lease on him) At that time he looked like a drowned rat.

Next run will be to St. Augustine where we plan on spending a few days.

captd

Great story captd! We are watching your travels closely. BTW, I didn't know you could lease dogs, sure would make it easier. Wonder what the residual value is at the end of a lease? :lol:

Happy travels..

Charlie

 

[captd]

:lol: Charlie, If you think that is bad you ought to see my handy work before I correct what I find. The writing is to close to the paper.
Enough mirth and merryment, back to serious reporting.
The Luck Fin pulled out of Jacksonville at seven this morning. 1st mate was none to happy. After I told her how much money we saved on fuel leaving with the tide, she felt better. I timed it so the tide would go out for 20 miles and through slack and then incoming as we entered the ICW. We are now in the City Marina in St. Augustine. Fueled up, took 21 gals. at 2.13 a gal.
Which wasn't bad, But slip rent was $1.95 a ft. Without elect. ($48.75) Company coming from Ocala, so for the sake of exploring such a unique town , I thought it will be the last marina for a long time.
unfolded the bike and run around town a bit. Went into the fort. Free if you have the Golden Age Passport. ( I knew it was good for something)

The batteries have yet to get even close to 12 volts. Solar is great.
Finally making good internet connections. It has got to be a problem with Alltell. Had about 20 channels of tv in Jacksonville. No need to hook up satellite. Both work on 12 volt. Still the batteries were fully charged.

To be continued.
captd 😀

 

[Marvin]

CaptD sounds like you are having a great trip. In Saint Augustine there's a great locals seafood restaurant about 1/4 mile east of the Bridge of Lions on the right called Osteen's. It's right next to a large antique shop there specialty is local fried shrimp but they have Minorocan Clam Chowder that I love. No alchol but great food and lunch specials. Have a great trip.

marvin

 

[captd]

Marvin,
Thanks , we will try that.
Captd