OUR BIGGEST DAY YET - BIG CLIFFS, BIG BOAT & YES, A BIG GATOR!!!!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25

This turned out to be our BIGGEST day yet.  We woke up to a foggy mist.  Looks so cool on the water.  

We are at a really interesting part of the river.  It wound around north, west, south, east - it was crazy.  The first BIG highlight of the day were the white cliffs of Eppes.  So nice to see something different for a change.

Then we were cruising along all by ourselves when we saw a BIG ship coming up behind us.  I thought it might be that BULLISH boat we saw at Grand Harbor.  As she approached the captain called on the radio and told us she was MIMI and that she was built by Burger Boat (Manitowoc, WI) in 1978.  She was a beauty!    

Enjoyed getting a little bio on her from her owner.  He said he is a sailor at heart and complimented us on Free Bird as well.

But the BIGGEST news of the day was our GATOR experience!  We dropped the hook at Rattlesnake Bend about 4:30.  We decided we should get into Marley and check out a few of the small creek areas off the channel that we were in.  We hadn't seen any new wildlife in so long and we almost got more than we bargained for.  We went into this little lagoon area and I saw it first.  John thought it was a tree but I knew it was a gator.

He had been sunning on the shore and I swear he was sleeping when we got there.

I would say he was 10 to 12 feet long.  We drove all the way by him taking pictures and even some video.  We had just turned around to make another pass and head towards the entrance to this lagoon and boom - he was in the water!!  I didn't even see him get in he was so fast, YIKES!!  I was ready to get the heck out of there!!!  I did point out to John that we were in a rubber boat and he kind of laughed.  I wasn't laughing!!  It was certainly thrilling to see one in the wild like that.  We wanted wildlife and boy did we get it!  We were probably just 30 feet from the animal. Check out the video. John thinks I sound like Steve Irwin, that "late" Australian naturalist guy.

Back to Free Bird we go.  Took a picture of our beautiful anchorage.  What a BIG day it has been!  It's going to be hard to top this one...