Mr. Bill & the Donzi (Mom's boat) & Ms. May at "Sporting Club dock" (left pictures)
Mr. Bill in the "Driver's Seat" on the Donzi & Mom & Dad's "Legacy 34" power-boat (right pictures)

Introduction:

This is the river that Mr. Bill 'grew-up-on' and it has a special fascination for him because of that.  It is also the river that my Uncle has made his life-long living from (He owned & operated one of the largest Marinas in Northern Florida for almost 40 years).  My Mom used to race inboard power boats (built-by my grand-father (who owned another boat-yard before my Uncle owned his) on this river, learned to sail on it - and I learned sailing, swimming, powerboating,  and even dated on it) etc. etc. etc.

(PS: all these pictures are scanned in - since we both (temporarily) mis-placed the digital camera, and we also didn't want to chance it getting wet in the Donzi.)

PSS: a few words about the red & white boat you see here.  This is an 18 foot (about 6 meter) long 'racing-hull' "I/O drive"(the actual (v-8 engine) is inside the boat but the driving part (propeller & steering) is outside the boat (a usually expensive to up-keep & operate situation) boat that belongs to Bill's Mom.  It's fairly old - about 15-18 years old. The hull is fibreglass - and it has about 200 horsepower giving it a top-end speed of just short of 50 miles an hour (about 85 km/hr or about 42 knots).   It's an excellent riding / waterskiing boat (Yes - Ms. May's also qualified at skiing behind this boat, too!)... The boat consumes about 6-7 gallons an hour at the speeds we were using (about 30 miles an hour) - we put about 10 hours of running-time on the boat in the two-day trip. - total cost
about $120 for gas (Gas here in the US for cars is about $1.70 a gallon, but when you buy it on the river it runs closer to $2.00 a gallon.)

Ms. May had never been on this sort of trip before so this was a new & different experience for her.

BUT - firstly - we had to be my Mom and my Aunt Sarah on our "Sea Doo" - they both want to get one so they wanted to ride ours so we took it north to let them try it out.

Aunt Sarah & Mom,      and then  Aunt Sarah & Mr. Bill

 
Mom & Sarah & then Mom & Sarah going VERY FAST (for two old ladies!)
 
 

Then I'd wanted to get Ms. May to learn to water-ski for months - but because water-skiing, like many-beginner-sports - you don't want to throw a whole lot of money into equipment that the student will outgrow, we asked my cousin PeggySue (who is an excellent water-skiier herself, as well as an instructor) to borrow some 'beginner skis' (these are just about antique quality, but for a beginner they're fine).  Anyway Ms. May got right-up the very first try and went over 100 yards before falling down.  We tried this behind the SeaDoo because it's ours & we have used it in Stuart, also, but it's also very easy to drive, very inexpensive to  operate and has a very small wake (the wave behind the boat) which is key when you're learning.
 

Anyway - Ms. May's doing excellently!!!! as can plainly be seen here on the right-hand picture.  The left picture is us having lunch at "Six Mile Creek" where it took them 8 years to get a permit for a 1500 foot long (about 500 meter) floating dock... Great Rustic River-Life-Style restaurant where the food is, fairly good, but it's the atmoshpere (HOT) that you go for!
 

Some other views & things:

     
top: Birds on Dunn's Creek, - bottom a friend we found in Welaka - where we stayed for two nights.  The birds-nest on the mark is typical in this part of the St. John's River; and here's Ms. May looking beautiful & exotic on the dock at Mom's house. 

here's a couple of pictures of Mom - sitting in the shade where she was watching Ms. May learn to ski, and Mr. Bill sitting with mom, looking funny as is typical for him!

Bill & Mr. Ha Gau (at home), Bill & Mr. Felix (we met him at Lunch in Astor, Ms. May ant Felix, and

Mr. Ha Gau in his travelling container, & another close-up of Mr. Felix!!!