Tonights dinner run

**JPEROG** · 07-31-2019, 09:24 PM

We are so lucky to live near the St. Johns River and be able to make a 40 mile run each way for dinner and back year round. I think we passed 4 boats tonight total, this is so much better then running in a lake and doing circles. My camera died but this gives you an idea of what we are so blessed with (we have 140 miles of this fresh water with several sandbars, restaurants, fuel and launch sites).

https://youtu.be/aVprzfty3bY

Joe

**mjw930** · 07-31-2019, 09:59 PM

What’s the speed limit on that section of the river but F&W are all at home, right

Looks like a great evening run.

**AZMIDLYF** · 07-31-2019, 09:59 PM

Back before dark?

**JPEROG** · 07-31-2019, 10:15 PM

Hey Mark I don't think that there is a speed limit is there? I did let the other guys run in front of me the majority of the time for a reason LOL.... We ran a little harder on the way back to beat the sun going down "12 minutes from the Astor launch to DeLand"-not bad- very little time under 90.

Back just before dark.

I have run from Plataka to DeLand in the pitch dark before with my deck boat "big gps screen with tracking and spot lights" but I don't care to do it again. We had slow dinner service at Corkey Bells and had to run back starting at 10 p.m.

Joe

**mjw930** · 07-31-2019, 10:33 PM

Originally Posted by JPEROG

Hey Mark I don't think that there is a speed limit is there? I did let the other guys run in front of me the majority of the time for a reason LOL.... We ran a little harder on the way back to beat the sun going down "12 minutes from the Astor launch to DeLand"-not bad- very little time under 90.

Back just before dark.

I have run from Plataka to DeLand in the pitch dark before with my deck boat "big gps screen with tracking and spot lights" but I don't care to do it again. We had slow dinner service at Corkey Bells and had to run back starting at 10 p.m.

Joe

LOL

I haven’t done the run from Astor to Deland when it was “clear” but we run a lot from Astor to Renegades, something like 15 minutes from the chute on the South end of the lake in the Talon, 35 minutes + in the Key West. On Memorial weekend the lake got real sloppy and we had the KW, that was the longest 45 minutes I could remember. The GPS track looked like we were a sail boat tacking just so we could run into then with the waves (strong east wind). An 18’ CC doesn’t like lake George on a windy day and sure as hell doesn’t like quartering 3-5’s.

12 minutes to DeLand is epic

**Li'l Toy** · 08-01-2019, 09:17 AM

I love running the St. Johns. Did it racing in the 70's, then at the Toy Run. Then in a little pontoon coming up the Oklawaha from Lake Eustis--big adventure! Got to get back there.

**Z06man** · 08-01-2019, 10:11 AM

Then in a little pontoon coming up the Oklawaha from Lake Eustis--big adventure! Got to get back there. Per Rock:That is a understatement last time we went my buddy dropped a chain saw in the water with a six foot blade .No getting it back with current and maze of underwater debris. It is a hoot but will not be done in any nice boats.

**JasonRS** · 08-01-2019, 11:27 AM

Very nice! Especially the year round part

**Li'l Toy** · 08-02-2019, 10:48 AM

Z06--Funny thing was, we came out at the big lock a little ways West of the St. John's. Locktender looked down (30' down) at our little pontoon and asked us where we came from. When we told him the Oklawaha, he said "and you did that without a chainsaw?" We had no idea going in it would get so tight, had the sides of the pontoon scraping down bendy branches at times, and once had to rock the boat over an underwater log. Fortunately, it was just an odd find of a boat for my son, and not a "nice boat." We slept overnight east of the Crystal river and still in the very narrow river. Son's friend, in a pup tent on the bow of the pontoon, tied a string on his wrist and to the zipper pull on his tent so if he rolled into the water he could find the zipper to get out of the tent!