Cruising Notes
This section of the SENTOA website is
reserved for notes, logs, photos, and observations from
members about their cruises to the Bahamas, Florida Keys,
West Coast Florida, East Coast Florida, the ICW, and so
forth. We are counting on our members to share their experiences
with others. Please send your submissions directly to
our Webmaster
via email.
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For the second year, the SENTOA Rendezvous committee
has included a follow-on cruise. In our opinion,
this is where you really get to know your fellow
tuggers.
After the final goodbyes
following the rendezvous, five Nordic Tugs left
Fishermen’s Village,
Punta Gorda, Florida about 10:00 AM on Friday,
April 25. Minnie and George Osteyee on Muggins
led the way to Burnt Store Marina, followed by
Thomas Bush and Rosita on The Thomas B, Jack and
Rick Nostrand aboard Tranquil Tug, Bob and Emily
Wiggins on Tugaloo, and Chip and Louise Worster
and their Jack Russell “Tugger” on
Chip Ahoy. Read
more . . . |
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Following our 2007 SENTOA
rendezvous in St. Augustine, eight tugs headed
north to Jacksonville. Folks joined us and dropped
off as we headed to our final destination of
Hontoon State Park up the St. John River. . .
. First night’s destination was
anchorage behind Exchange Island in Jacksonville
for Omega and Happy Clamz and the free floating
docks at Jacksonville Landing for Chip Ahoy, Saren
Clare and Tugaloo. . . . Next day we were joined
by Bill and Diane Keltner aboard Tugnacious, whose
home is on Black Water Creek off the St. John.
Bill was designated our official guide for the
cruise and came up with some spectacular sites
and great overnight layovers. Read
more . . |
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In 1765, William Bartman wrote
of the St Johns River, “Blessed land where
the gods have amassed into one heap all the flowering
plants, birds, fish and other wildlife of two continents
in order to turn the rushing streams, the silent
lake shores and the awe abiding woodlands of this
mysterious land into a true Garden of Eden. Regardless
of its popularity, the river offers a sense of
solitude that is not easily paralleled. The land
is lined with towering palms, cypress trees, and
large live oaks covered with Spanish moss. Behind
the tree line bobcats, panthers, deer and black
bears roam. The landscape goes on unspoiled for
miles in every direction.” Read
more . . |
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Like most great stories
this one started on the spur of the moment. It
was July 6, 2003 and we were driving to New York
on I 95. We had just passed the town of Dillon,
SC, I turned to my wife Marlene and said, “we
have not been to Key West in a while”. Marlene
put down her New York Times magazine and with a
dreamy look in her eyes commented: “we always
have such a good time there, we should invite Bill
and Donna Hjerpe and we can cruise the Florida
Keys together on our tugs”. Read
more . . . |
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In the grand nautical literary tradition, of fact
and fable, spanning the ages from Homer’s
Ulysses and Trafalgar’s Lord Nelson, and
Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey to the more
contemporary exploits of Joshua Slocum and Ric
Gordon, I shall endeavor to explicate, in the entirely
too limited medium of the written word, the five
month cruise of Captain Kitty and her crew, aboard
the good ship Autumn Saga.
Part
I
Part
II
Part
III
Part
IV
Part
V
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It had been about half a year
since Captain Kitty and her crew had returned from
their five month sojourn north to the Chesapeake
Bay, during the summer of 2005. As the spring of
2006 arrived, she was contemplating another cruise
to a new destination. At the same time, for a variety
of reasons, neither she nor the crew was desirous
of another near half year away from their home
port. As it happened, a Nordic Tug rendezvous was
scheduled for the first part of April, at the Hawks
Cay Marina on Duck Key, in the Florida Keys. Read
more . . .
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