Day 5 - Bolts Creek to WeKiva River

The day started quiet and ended with a lot of noise!  I left my nice quiet stop for the night and headed the short distance to Hontoon State Park to take a hike in the island park.  So far so good!  

Cooler in the morning so the hike was pleasant and I walked the full 3 mile round trip.  Bought some ice and headed out for Blue Springs Park.  

                                           Hike Track - Hontoon State Park

Click to Enlarge

Below are several shots along the trail, nice hike!

Here is the park marina, pretty quiet while I was there:

The noise began right after I left Hontoon Park, boat after boat after boat just one big train of boats going both directions! I could not believe it, so quiet the past few days and then this, it was like everyone decided to come out with their boats.  In some places at least they drove slow but when free of the manatee speed restrictions they all took off! So I began dodging wakes as I went, like driving through a mine field! Got to Blue Springs and there were boats everywhere!  The river was full of kayaks and canoes, so I just kept going, not my cup of tea.

Got a ways down and stopped at the Swamp House Restaurant, but again a zoo!  Boats lined up to get into the ten open slips for visitors.  They were all full so they started filling any slip available, fortunately after gassing up, I got one.  There was a  band playing outside at the bar and a waiting list for lunch.  Should have figured on a Sunday noon it would not be easy!  Nevertheless, I was seated soon and had a nice lunch.  

Michael-need either a bow rub strip or have a set
of bow fenders for bow on tie up like this. 
Normally slips 1-10 are for diners.

The place had two or three security guards running around
to keep people off private areas and checking in boats to eat.

Music playing on the deck, place was busy

I was off again, to once again run the river gauntlet of power boaters on the rampage!  I finally escaped to the Wekiva River...or so I thought!  Pretty soon I see one boat pulled in, then another, then another, then two pass me, two or three meet me, and the river gets narrow enough that in places it is tight for two boats to pass. Some of these idiots were going 20 mph or more!  I kept thinking it has to get better the farther I go.  It never did!  

At one point I tried to get off the beaten path and went up this narrow side channel with overhanging trees.  It didn't look promising.  At one point I scared a large gator sunning up in the woods and their was this mad crash through the brush and a big splash in his hurry to get in the water.  I scared him and he scared me!  Saw some hide but never the gator in full. He was big though.  Made a big ruckus trying to get gone!

I finally picked a spot an ran it up in the weeds and the boats kept speeding by until after about 7 pm.  (See track below)

                         Day 5 Track - Bolts Creek to Wekiva   

Click to enlarge

Wekiva River
Narrow, some current to consider, and low hanging trees!

My spot for the night

It finally got quiet after that hour so I relaxed on the fore deck with my chair and sun shade sipped some wine and ate a few chocolate covered almonds.  Since I had a big lunch I just made fried bagels, cream cheese, with some white wine.  

The shade can be clamped to anything so I can use it on
the aft seat as well.  However, it does not tolerate much wind

Set up the shower and cleaned up.  The shelter served its purpose since a couple boats went by while I was showering.  

For Michael: The shower heater is a Zodi Hot
Camp Shower and uses a one pound bottle
of propane as you can see. More info below.

As a reminder, the green set of hoops is the shelter which I previously showed you (Day 2?).  I did find a few tricks along the way.  One: keep the door toward the heater so you can reach out and put the shower head back in the large pail while soaping up, this adds extra heat to the water and conserves it at the same time. Two: tie the shelter close to the starboard side to allow some room to pass the shelter from the fore hatch.

The red shower pump and shower head I purchased on Amazon since it charges via USB and fit the Zodi fittings okay.  My old pump switch failed and had to be replaced. Since the old one used batteries and Talisa is set up for USB, the USB powered version is a better arrangement.  I pull the pump off each day and let it recharge while I'm moving during the day.  I also have a USB buss so I can charge four or five USB devices at a time. 

I found my 10' USB extension, bought for the shower pump, is inefficient so I do not use that. Removing the pump each night is not a  problem.

No Internet where I was on the Wekiva so this is posted one day late.  Sorry!