02/28 - 03/02 - St. John's River

I was in Florida this past weekend getting some canoeing and kayaking in, and saw your group at Hontoon Island State Park, and also cruising on the Hontoon Dead River. I would've liked to stop and chat for awhile, but my time was very limited. There are photos and my journal here:

http://smittypaddler.com/cds/cdz/Florida2014/index.htm
 
Not much for typing on a phone and will upload photos once I get off the river in a week to 10 days. I just have to say that Tom and Joyce did an outstanding job bringing us all together and pulling off an amazing first C-Brat event for a good many of us. By some of the previous post it appears that we did not all go home after the event. We went south and found Carpy on the Wekiva River. Them Dory's sure are cute and get around! I'll be dropping Betty off tomorrow and heading north in search of adventure. Will post a bunch of pics as soon as I get back.
Fair winds to all!
 
James wrote: " it appears that we did not all go home after the event."

Nope! And there are four boats still here at Hontoon: Dessert 1st, Freedom, Y Knot, and Blues Cruiser. The park and the weather were both just too gorgeous to leave. We walked the entire nature trail and watched the resident alligator lounging on the bank just beside the dock all day. Relaxing day.
 
Smitty
No tennis this year! Don't forget. I owe you a ride on The Pegstan! For those of you who don't know, Smitty was my inspiration for getting a C-Dory.
 
We had a fantastic time... Thank you Tom and Joyce for all your efforts; especially for the "special order" weather! We're looking forward to the next gathering!
Mary and Rob
 
Thanks to all that came to our First Annual St. John's River Gathering. It would not have been such a success without the great attitudes and helpfulness of ALL the C-Brats that were there! From fire building, cooking and hauling tubs of food around there was always someone right there.

Cliff was our "fire King" starting great fires with wood that no one else in the campground could burn. Tom Smith was our "Burger King" yum. The ladies kept bringing us GREAT food, The park staff and volunteers made us more than welcome and want us back! Big thanks to Ranger Christine for bringing the snakes and the nature walk. Ron Rogers of the park took the panoramic photo that we put on the photo album. The talk that Cliff gave on the Ocklawaha River was very cool.....I'm going to have to figure out how they steered the flat bottom river boats!

Joyce is already going over the notes that she took.....planning for next year!
If anyone has any suggestions for the future PM us.

I picked up a lot of ideas for modifications on the Out2C....that will keep me busy for a whole year! It never ends does it?

Be sure to post photos to the album.....that's my next project.

Love you all....be safe....Lord bless...and hope to see you next year!

Tom Schulke
out2C
 
Good times on the St Johns! Thanks to everybody for a great vacation. Home today after a week on the river. Hontoon Island is so cool that we had friends and family meet us there Tuesday for more good times. Good job Tom and Joyce. Can't wait for next year. Now I just have to figure out this picture posting thing again.

John and Karen
Blues Cruiser
 
I'm working on my photos too. Will probably post what I have tomorrow. But in the meantime, here are six favorites of mine :

I like the reflections:
DSC00308-XL.jpg

The Hontoon Dead River as viewed from the hiking trail:
DSC00436-L.jpg

The resident alligator who lives just off our dock at Hontoon:
DSC00428-L.jpg

The resident snake who lives just under the walkway of our dock at Hontoon:
DSC00092-L.jpg

A manatee and her baby at Blue Springs:
DSC00290-L.jpg

The Ocklawaha Queen coming up the cut from the St. John's River to the Hontoon Dead River:
DSC00242-L.jpg
 
Outstanding pictures!!!
 
What a sight, beautiful pictures! One of my favorite images is the sight of C-Dorys all lined up in a row, reminiscent of motoring up the fairway at the Friday Harbor CBGT. And what a great setting and incredible wild life. So different than what we see up here in the great Pacific NW.

Congratulations on a very successful first CBGT!
 
Mary I can remember coming up to you from the canal and I couldn't imagine how nice the picture of the Queen was framed in the tree canape with out seeing it first. Thats how the Ocklawaha river looks except it has curve after curve. Tell Casey thanks for taking the measurements he took of my weel chair as well as the measurements of the rack on the cabin roof that will help me figure out how to pull off carrying the chair more efficiently. That was very kind of both of you, thank you Cliff & Debi
 
We've returned to snowy Michigan with wonderful memories of our time at the St. John's River Gathering. Thank you for welcoming us as landlubbers.
We've already booked a space at Hontoon Landing Resort next February with Meri Aura in tow. Wondering if the dates for next year will be on the February 28th weekend.

The houseboat adventure didn't happen. After looking at the projected weather we opted out. The folks at Holly Bluff Marina were very accommodating and returned our deposit in full.

Again, our thanks to all of you. It was our first gathering and if it was
an example of CDory fun, we're all for it.

Looking ahead, we'll try for a Lake Superior Gathering the second weekend of July. Our marina owners are still in Florida, so we'll have to await their return before we can start confirming plans. Just a reminder, we're on Keweenaw Bay near L'Anse (port of Pequaming)

Cheers, Hank and Pat
 
You really begin to appreciate the memory of that beautiful warm Saturday when you are in NJ looking at piles of snow that look as if they will never melt. Thanks for the picture of the Pegstan coming through the canal.
 
Stan Major":iiofbdpz said:
Thanks for the picture of the Pegstan coming through the canal.
Click to expand...

You're welcome, Stan! And thanks Lake Effect, Peter, Cliff, Rob and Mary for the nice comments on my photos. It's easy to take good photos in such a beautiful setting!

I have uploaded 45 onto the community album. I have a few good photos of individual boats that I will send directly to the boat owners this week. If anyone has a good photo of Dessert 1st, please e-mail to us in actual size. We rarely get photos of OUR boat!

Had a great time and looking forward to next year!
 
We are home and finally able to send some photos. The Pics posted in the album are very good and at this point there is not much that we can add. We did take pictures of everyone at the saturday evening fire circle and we have added them to the photo album.

We enjoyed the gathering very much. It is always nice to meet new C-Brats and we hope to see you all again. Thanks again to Tom & Joyce and all the others who made the gathering such a success. We hope to come again next year and that the gathering will be even better.

The St Johns is our favorite boating venue. This year was our 4th visit. We had the luxury this year of having no schedule! Other than the gathering at the beginning of our trip we had no other obligations. We rented a slip at Acosta Harbor Marina (on Smitty the Paddlers advise) for a month at a very reasonable rate and were on the water for about 5 1/2 weeks.
We went as far south as Lake Harney. Folks at the Jolly Gator said that Blue Days had been there shortly before us. We took the Barge Canal through Rodman Reservoir and went a little past Eureka. Very beautiful down there . The Rodman Lock is operating from Thursday through Sunday. We went till we needed a chainsaw to continue and turned back at that point. You could get through in a smaller boat but we take Carpy to some pretty dodgy places and I'd like to think we know when to quit, So far, so good.
We went up the Oklawaha from the St. Johns to Rodman dam and ventured into some of the small tributaries on Cliff's advise. A lot of it was a little to close for Carpy with our Radrar and roof rack. We got into the boonies in the Kayak.
We tried to venture to the end of everything and made a pretty good stab at it. There is still much awaiting us.

We will be sending our log and pictures to many of you. If anyone wishes to receive them, let me know.

I recommend the St Johns as a wonderful boating destination.

Bruce & Joyce
Carpy
 
Bruce and Joyce.....Good pics of the couples and makes a great addition to the album. You were really lucky to spend 5+ weeks on the river.

Wanted to apologize one last time for the episode with your dog. I was none to happy with Ifas for his behavior. In the 10 years we have been boating with him we have rarely stayed in marinas, much less 3 days straight, and I thought he was just anxious, what with all the people/other dogs. Turns out he had an undiagnosed medical condition. He died less than a week after our return. He loved going on the boat or any activity around water. I miss him terribly.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your dog/companion - I was shattered when I lost my bud, so I know how that "empty spot" is. Please accept my condolences. Sounds like he had a wonderful life with you; I hope that can be a comfort.

Sunbeam
 
Sorry to hear about your dog. Its always sad to loose a K-9 buddy.

Monty is doing fine. He had an incident getting off the boat when we beached. He tore off his dewclaw and was sore and linking for a while. All is well now. We left a gate open today and he "escaped" and and a big romp while loose. He always come back, but he can get into trouble such as rolling in goose poop or a dead fish which leave hime unsuitable for inside company. He can also eat thing which we don't want to revisit. I wish he could have more freedom but it doesn't work with a hound. He puts his nose to the ground and who knows where it will lead him. Usually into trouble.
He is no worse from his encounter with Ifas and it just one of those dog things.
I appreciate your responsibility in the matter.

See you downstream some time.

Bruce

Bruce
 
Sorry for your loss James/Betty. Been there done that as we lost Darius recently, our travel companion the last 15 years. Hope we see you again on St. John's or ICW sometime. Hopefully we can get one more trip up the river before we head north for the summer.

Kind regards,
John/Karen
 
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