Underway Again Finally!

This morning Linda's parents came to see us off around 8:00 a.m. after we pumped out and filled up the dinghy gas tank.  They are being kind enough to take our car down to the Keys for us.

 

The day was filled with plenty of scenery including these bunches of purple flowers that added color to the little bit of fall color of the leaves amongst the mainly green vegetation.  We did see manatee around Blue Springs State Park but only one alligator was spotted throughout the day and we were not quick enough with the camera to capture any of those images.
Linda refused to let Ray get any ideas when he saw this pontoon boat coming down the waterway.  It's funny, he said "Here comes Huck Finn" when he saw it coming.  Neither of us noticed the name on the back of it though until we downloaded the pictures.
It was an eight hour day of travel for us.  We ended up going farther than we planned.  The winds were fairly calm, about 6-10 miles per hour out of the northwest, so we continued on into Lake George.  About three miles up the western shore is Silver Glen Springs, a place we used to take our bow rider many years ago.  We attempted to bring "The Second Noelle" in, but got deterred when we could see the grassy bottom once the water got clearer.  Instead, we turned around and brought her back into Lake George to a more comfortable six feet of water and anchored there, just outside the mouth of the springs.  Almost immediately, we dropped the dinghy.  Actually, we almost dropped the new dinghy motor.
Yes, we purchased a much faster 15 horsepower motor while we were in Sanford this summer.  Unfortunately, we almost lost it shortly after its purchase when a downpour of rain sank the dinghy while we were in Murphy at one point.  Thankfully, our friends were there to save it and fog it so that it was running just fine again.  We even tested it out again yesterday to make sure before heading off this morning to head back to Marathon, Florida for the winter.
So as we were using our pulley system to place the motor on the dinghy, the newly purchased strap that is for this purpose, broke.  Thankfully Ray had tied the extra length of the straps into a knot behind the motor.  This is the only thing that saved it from crashing onto the swim platform and worse.
We did get to make a successful trip via dinghy into Silver Glen Springs.  It has not changed much, and Ray was glad we did not bring the Second Noelle into the shallow and potentially hazardous area because it was kind of disappointing to him.  The water was clear and beautiful with lots of fish and birds observed.
We were back to the mother ship before sunset and moonrise.