November 8th - Astor to Palatka Boat House Marina

The story of the Hyacinth:

Florida's problem with the plants began at the World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition of 1884 - also known as the New Orleans World's Fair. The Sun-Sentinel reports the Japanese were giving water hyacinths to visitors as gifts.

Why the Japanese selected a South American plant to give away has been lost to time, but among the visitors who left the fair with a plant was Mrs. W.F. Fuller.

Mrs. Fuller and her husband, a citrus grower, lived along the St. Johns River in the area of Palatka. Mrs. Fuller brought the hyacinth home and placed it in her fish pond. When the plant choked her pond, she thinned out the plants and placed the extras at her boat landing on the St. John's River.

Water hyacinths are floating perennials with large green leaves, lovely purple flowers and dense, heavy roots that trail them in the water, according to information from the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida. In Florida, they grow much faster than even rabbits could think of reproducing, doubling in number in as little as 13 days.

Information from TheLedger.com

Ozel checking out Mrs. Fuller's Hyacinths

It was as though we were parked on ground.   Unbelievable....tide and current cleared them out by the time we left in the morning.

We left Astor and headed to Palatka which was also a revisit..to the Palatka Boat House Marina..below.  We were at the end of the T Head.

November 7th - Astor Bridge Marina revisited

This morning we left Hontoon Landing and headed upriver to Blue Springs Creek State Park in our quest for the elusive manatees.  This was probably the best nature viewing day of the trip.

This is one of many alligators we saw on this stretch of the River.  He sure is healthy looking.

These are Wood Storks which are the only storks in North America.

The alligators are almost black in color here.  It might be because the water is very dark.  It is the color of coffee but quite clear not murky or muddy.  Probably tannin. 

If you look closely, you may be able to see the head of the Manatee in the water.  It was difficult to see them because of the dark water.

Isn't this picture gorgeous?  Melanie took most of the pictures and I think that this one is definitely professional quality as were some of the others.

We saw many cormorants but this one looked especially photographic.

The number of eagles that we saw on this trip was surprising and encouraging since they had been on the endangered list.

This blossoming bush was in many places along the River.  We never did find out what it is.  We asked several people what it is but none knew.

The Ibis where everywhere on this part of the River.  Sometimes Egrets shared trees with them.

  

We'll end the nature tour  with an alligator.  This one is a little lighter in color.

When we left the State Park Area,  we headed down river to return to the Astor Bridge Marina and the good food at the Castaway Restaurant.

The owners of the Marina were on the bulkhead waving a greeting when we arrived.  We knew that we were returning to the same slip so just went right to it. 

We had another great stay with another great meal!

I will address the Water Hyacinths in my next posting.

November 6th - Hontoon Landing Marina

We continued upriver from Palatka.  The scenery was marvelous. We originally planned to stay at Hontoon State Park but the water at the docks looked pretty thin so we decided to stay on the other side of the river at the Hontoon Landing Marina which is part of the Resort.  As we were securing the boat, one of the dockhands told us that if we liked bears, we should out in front of the office and see the bears.  We thought he was putting us on but sure enough there were 3  bears up in a tree.. It was a mother and her 2 cubs.  The cubs appeared to be over a year old.  They were beautiful and extremely healthy looking.  The lady at the office said that there are a lot of bears in that area.  She has to take her garbage to a dumpster because the bears carry off her garbage cans.  She also said that one night the bears took her son's gas grill  from his yard carried it into the woods.

We had dinner on board this evening.  Melanie had  brought Crawfish Bisque.  It was so good!  Tomorrow further upriver on our quest for Manatees!

November 5th - Astor, FL

This was a good day....as the river narrowed more scenery could be viewed and enjoyed.

                                       Leaving Palatka 

Georgetown Marina where we bought beer

and made lunch while tied up to the dock

Some of the older dwellings along the river.

Astor Bridge Marina

We had a fun cruise to Astor. Astor has an interesting history:

In 1874, William Backhouse Astor, Jr. from New York City's wealthy Astor family purchased over 12,000 acres  of land, upon which he began to establish a town he called Manhattan. New settlers arrived by steamboat to the town which Astor had endowed with a church, schoolhouse, botanical garden, and free cemetery. William Astor also built a hotel, saw mill, and eventually a railroad. Over the next twenty years Astor saw his town grow, but the Manhattan name never caught on. When William Astor died in 1892, the town was officially renamed Astor in his honor.^]

John Jacob Astor IV inherited his father William's estate and continued to promote the town and their business interests in Florida. Following his demise in the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, the estate passed to his son,Vincent.William Vincent Astor was not interested in his grandfather's Florida enterprises, and so the Astor family's interests in the area were sold. This, combined with a severe decline in steamboat travel on the St. Johns due to increased availability of rail travel signaled the end of the town's prosperity and prominence (info from Wikipedia)

Castaway Restaurant with Freya in the
background (the boat with the radar mast)

This was a great stop!!!  While the guys were hooking up the electricity and water and making lines secure, Melanie and I went to check in at the Marina office. The owners of the Marina told us that the Restaurant there was really good.  Melanie and I decided to check out the restaurant and the menu.  We decided to have a drink while there.....ordered a Martini....called the guys to join us since the Martinis where perfect.  After cocktail hour, we stayed for dinner....the food was terrific!  Look at the picture of the restaurant - would you expect gourmet food?

The Marina owners were great, helpful and made us feel welcome....

November 4th - to Palatka

We left Lamb's Yacht Center and headed out the Ortega river, entered the St Johns and turned up river to the south toward Palatka.  The St. Johns is one of the few rivers in North America that flow South to North  The river is very wide at this point so there isn't much to see.

This picture is heading up river after leaving the Ortega River.

The Boat House Marina in Platka

Our stay in Palatka was pleasant.  We walked to the Quality Inn in which the Beef O'Brady's Restaurant is located.  After a good meal, we wandered back to the boat  for our after dinner drink and some planning for the next day. From here the St. Johns River narrows and begins a shallower, winding course upstream toward Lake George.

November 2 - 3, 2012 The trip begins.

We drove from Rockport to Biloxi on Friday, November 2nd.

This wonderful picture was taken out our bedroom window at the Landrum's beautiful house at sunrise 

Their home overlooks the back bay in Biloxi.

We headed out for the boat in Jacksonville, FL quite early.  The boat was in good shape and didn't require much cleaning up.  We did our provisioning and got the boat ready for departure in the morning.

After the boat was ready, we headed out to Tom and Betty's for dinner.  

Boat ready, stomachs full  -  ready for a night cap and a good nights sleep.

28 July 2012

This will be the last posting on this site until this fall.   Originally we were going to do the East Coast Loop boat trip this year and a West Coast RV land cruise next year.  Due to the unexpected medical event, we have traded years and are doing the "Land Cruise" this year.  You can follow our land cruise in our RV at rvnissa.blogspot.com.


We will drive to Jacksonville, FL in November to check on the boat and take a trip up the St. John River for a week or so and then head back to Angel Fire for the ski season.

We plan to continue our voyage on the "Loop" next April.   At least we won't have to redo the Gulf!

By  the way, Maryann's back surgery appears to have been a success.  She is walking 3-4 miles a day pain-free!!!