Thursday, March 7, 2013

4th trip in Porta-Bote


We decided to try the Porta-Bote one more time on the Silver River on Saturday because we would be leaving Wilderness on Sunday to drive to Eustis where we were going to spend another week with Ken and Bonnie.

This time we had a fully charged battery and we finally remembered to take the wheels off.  Chuck ran the trolling motor for a few minutes while I enjoyed the ride.

 
But then we switched places and I ran the trolling motor on about 50% for the rest of the way that we traveled up the river while Chuck rowed backwards (like rowing is normally done). 

We made it all the way to the island in the river which we had not seen yet.

 
We traveled a little ways past the island which was about halfway to the headsprings.  We got further up the river than we ever had but stopped when the battery was about at 25% to 30% because we did not want the battery to go all the way down and have to paddle back up the canal.

We tied off and ate our lunch and then Chuck guided the boat as we floated back down the river.

We saw the monkeys again today....


 
...and more birds...





 
...and we even saw a wild hog this time.


 

While Chuck was guiding us back down the river, I even had a chance to play around with my camera and get some really cool shots:




Right before we got to the canal, I finally got a picture of the wood ducks we had seen almost every time.


We were able to use the trolling motor to get back up the canal so that was nice.  After we loaded up the boat and headed out of the park, we got behind tractor pulling a wagon with a bride and her bridesmaids.


There was a wedding ceremony going on in front of the Ocala Boat Club at the ramp.

While we were still not very pleased with the Porta-Bote's performance, we were glad we made it further up the river this time. 

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