After Action Report

First off, this is what happens around the house on sunny days. Them get involved in whatever I happen to be doing, like chartwork.

Good thing they don't get to go on trips. I know at least one of the cats will decide to visit other boats. And all boats travel with dogs.

We were underway at a rather reasonable 0805, Friday morning. I had loaded all the goodies up the day before so it was not the usual goat rope event when we arrived and untied from the dock.

Too bad it was very windy (Gusts to 25 from the Southwest!) and sort of bumpy on the river, but what the heck. We were boating on a Friday morning heading for Black Creek and the Ira Farm for Frostbite Cruise 2012, the forty-first annual cruise to said farm by the Florida Yacht Club. The Club loves the old traditions and there is always a big turnout for this event.

By the way, we have mentioned Stewart Ira before. This is our second trip to the Ira Farm but we actually met Stewart and his Wife at a Six Mile Creek Raft up when he pulled up behind us with his 1950 Huckins Fairform Flyer called "Four Ladies".

Stewart Ira onboard his boat

Stewart always has attractive ladies onboard...

Sure looks like a PT Boat!

Wind blown hair

St Johns River South of Buckman Bridge

Black Creek in sight1

Much calmer in the Creek, the wind is blocked by the swamp

I took a left rather than right around a small island

Never mind the tv antenna plug.

We can use the green line to follow our way back home

Roasting hot dogs the old fashioned way

A person can sit aboard and drink only so much beer and wine. The Barco Crew took a hike around the old property and visited an abandoned graveyard in the woods.

It seems this property hasn't been woods for very long, it was a working farm since at least before the Civil War. One of the headstones indicated a birth in 1821 and death in 1884. The next stone was for a person born around the same time and who had passed in 1905. The stones were very weathered and in bad shape. The best viewable marker was for a baby who had passed in 1917. It was nice to be able to think about the family who had lived, worked and passed on the same property. I asked the current owner, Stewart Ira if he had known any of the people who were resting in the old cemetery and he talked at length how his father had purchased the farm without knowing there was a family burial plot! He said the cemetery was not listed in the County Maps and that the descendants had been quite the pain because they wanted constant access to visit the graves and such. Apparently it took a few years to get the mapping corrected and titles to all the land squared away.

What an interesting story. To think this elderly man had been a young boy running around the property that actually had burial plots. Think about the ghost stories he probably told his teenaged girlfriends on dark nights around the fire...

Entrance to the Ira Farm

That Graveyard I mentioned earlier

Hiking out

Couple of the bigger boats 50'+

The Fire pit is always popular in the winter! Note the shorts clad person...

Barco Sin Vela was first to the dock. This meant we got muddy from the pedestrians.

Oldest Yacht Club in Florida, since 1876.

We got the county mounty's to ensure the no-wake zone was not disturbed.

Another Huckin's Fairform Flyer, this is owned by Brooks, the proprietor of Sadler Point Marina 

Beautiful oldy but goody.

Our neighbors back at the club dock.

Stewart Ira, our Host.

Berry Wine from the UP of Michigan

Bill, our friend comes by for a couple cups of cheer

Bill's Designated Driver (His son)

Brekkies

Sunday Morning Brekkies in the rain

This is Marlow, A Gibralter Goat Hound.

Bill gets brekkies, while he can.

After a couple hours around the tents, we broke up the raft and the boats went home. We were last off the dock and got underway around noon. It was a gray day but good and calm out on the river. We looked forward to just getting home.

As we approached NAS Jacksonville, we saw it was business as usual. F-18's and P-3's were doing the aviation thing as we passed by.

Kyser Point

Approaching the Florida Yacht Club

So ends our weekend on Black Creek, at the 41st Annual Frostbite Cruise. I see no reason why we won't make it again and again.