Several years ago, a woman in a boat on the Suwannee River was killed when one of those giant river sturgeons jumped and hit her. I like to go over there during "jumping season" just to watch them (safely on shore, of course).
I know those fish can get up to 1000lb.s and live to be 100. Several years ago, a child was killed on a boat on the river here.
My dad was an ardent sailor and always said he wanted a Viking funeral. Unfortunately, the Coast Guard took a dim view of setting his perfectly good sailboat on fire and casting it out to sea. Besides, neither my mother nor I, as the oldest daughter, were interested in being immolated on the boat with him, much as we did love him, so the Viking funeral was off. Sorry, Pop. We had to settle for a funeral on the beach with a bonfire and fireworks and, of course, ale....lots of ale.
I had scratches on me from the gators tough sharp hide. But it wasn't his fault I fell in on top of him.
My late sister and brother-in-law lived for a while 40 years ago on a houseboat on the St. John's. More than once, they stepped out to find a gator sunning on the deck of their boat. They'd just blow a canned air horn at it a couple of times and that tended to send it packing.
It's been a long time since I've worked there, but I was one of the first employees of Yar-Craft when they were located in Menominee, Michigan. The company is in Arkansas now. I was their only chopper operator, at the time, so I laid the fiberglass in both the hulls and the decks. We also made canoes and kayaks.
Great story Mary, I studied Viking history in detail [ always been a history buff] forgot much of it.
Awesome photo, Yvonne that looks amazing. Back in the older days, there weren't nearly as many folks taking photos as in this day and time. There were some fish I caught that I wish I had gotten a photo of, though. Those are the ones that no one believes, you caught. Your son and grandson are really handsome guys, and look like they've been raised right, by you too. One time in St. Augustine I caught a huge drum, and Harry a friend of ours was loaning me his fishing rod that day. He was standing out on jetty rocks with me and telling me about a 55 lb drum they had caught there and had to lead with the boat to get it ashore because it was so big. Then something hit my line, and I busted his rod to pieces, sounded like a firecracker when it busted apart. I said man, I'm so sorry about your rod and reel, then he said not to worry, here's another. The next one I caught was a big redfish, that came off right at the edge of rocks, he laughed at me. Then I hooked a huge drum fish and brought it all the way in that time. He was screaming to Marie, his wife, what a giant fish I caught. I was thinking what about that 55 lb drum? When I quit fishing that day and came back off the jetty rocks, he looked at me, and said I'm sorry I had to clean him, and Ruby is cooking him in RV right now., I know you wanted a picture of it, but I couldn't help it, I had to clean that one. The true story most don't want to believe, without that photo.
We thought of living on the boat lately but then we can't afford that and keeping the property too. And who knows how many new rules and regulations plus new age pirates. We keep up with a couple YouTubers who live on boats and travel the world.But we would just be river rats or bay campers.
Nice picture and pretty Lanscape, what I can see nice looking kids too. I grew up in the hills of N.ga. and we had some pretty lakes too plus we had a 10 acre lake 45'deep in the middle. Those were the days huh Yvonne, at least your mountains are still there unlike our lake and woods, developer's urbanized it.
He held the head up to his belt and the tail just touched the ground. I was looking for pics of a black fish we used to catch there, and discovered that it is an invasive species called the Round Goby. We called it a "dog fish." The black ones are males in their spawning color. Apparently they have been a real problem in the great lakes but are migrating south in the lower reaches of larger rivers and have been captured in the Illinois River drainage...they ain't gonna stop there. Parts of Europe have problems with them as well. I haven't seen one of these since I was 8 years old, but I still recognize it...and they're still there.
Here's a pic of a boat like one I had: Mine came with duck-finned flippers you propelled yourself with. You ain't lived until you've been in the water like this (or wade fishing) and had a bass hit a top-water lure.
It was an assembly job but on a very small scale. I did all of the chopping; a couple of other people, including my older brother (with his Master's Degree), rolled the chop out, and my cousin did the grinding. Then the hulls and the decks were sent to another facility for assembly.