Hubby let it run for about 20 minutes,so its good to go. Maybe take it out in a couple days. I told him to slow down though. We bought a top for it and a life raft a few months ago. May go to ICW.
I forget what kind of boat you have, Marie. If you're taking a life raft, it's not a bass boat or something for water skiing.
First, Marie, the St. Johns River is not ICW. It's just a river. The ICW, is the waterway a person crosses before getting to beach cities. We never took our boat down that far on the St. Johns River, but have crossed that bridge by vehicle. When we had our boat at Atlantic Boat/RV Storage, off of Phillips Hwy in Jacksonville, we launched/retrieved at Goodby's Landing Ramp. When we had the boat at Florida Yacht Sales/Dry Storage, they used a forklift to put our boat into Goodby's Creek Channel. We actually, after coming out of the Channel, were right across from JAX NAS. We generally just go to Jacksonville Landing, have some lunch and return to the Ramp or Dry Storage. As for us, we like, much more, lake boating, like we have here. All freshwater, not "brackish" (salt/fresh combined) like the southern part of the St. Johns is, or pure salt, like the ICW is. When we boated in Jacksonville, we had to use "muffs" to run water thru our engine, each time we came off of the water.
Its a jon boat, 18x7 with a 65HP Evinrude Triumph. We have a electric troller moroe for the raft. Would not want to get stuck in the middle of the wide parts of the Intercoastal waterways. In the early 70s we almost got sucked into the jets of a huge cargo ship when we were on a raft,so not wise to be stranded on the Intercoastal. I don'y know maybe just go to the river instead.
Just wondering, Marie, are you getting the St. Johns River mixed up with the ICW, which is east of the St. Johns?
Phone call cut my reply short,but far as Jax I don't blame you for not wanying to go back. And your correct about ICW and StJohns.I get them mixed up but we did use to take our little cuddy cabin out on ICWand St.Johns. .
Why did you state, "as far as JAX goes, I don't blame you for not wanting to go back." Just wondering. But, we would never go back to JAX or, most likely, never go back to Florida again. Why the change from the cuddy cabin to the john boat? When we lived here in Colorado before, we had a 1989 16 foot bowrider. Sold that (consignment back to Marine Dealer we bought it from) before leaving Colorado. It was a 4 cylinder, which is much smaller than the 8 cylinder we have now. We've put quite a bit of money into our cuddy cabin and engine, but, like most hobbies/interests, money is part of maintenance/repairs for them.
Moved back to Georgia for awhile and gave cuddy cabin to daughter SIL sold it. Son gave us a jon boat so we fixed it up and it is fine for us in these little rivers liek the Suwannee and other smaller rivers. And the ICW and St.Johns is propbably not going to happen anyway. Our cudy cabin wasn't any longer than out jon boat but it was a nice one ,above deck cabin which is what we like for coolness.
Yes, I'd say the Jon boat would definitely be too small for the St. Johns River or the ICW. Your cuddy cabin was an "above deck" cabin?? A cuddy cabin can have either a small cuddy cabin or larger one, but either way, the cabin is below the main deck..........like ours is. Bigger cuddy cabins have a small frig and small propane stove. Ours does not. We can turn our seat cushions in the cuddy cabin into a bed, but it's a small bed. It also has "mood lighting" along the inside of the cabin, with a small porthole on each side of the cuddy, plus a window hatch on the roof. Our cuddy cabin is 4 feet longer than our old 16 foot Bowrider was. That's because the cuddy cabin has such a big engine in it (5.7L/V-8). Funny, but we took two Coast Guard Auxiliary Boating Classes in Jacksonville and STILL couldn't figure out most of the Warning or Information Buoy's we seen on the water. Only went on the ICW once with our boat and that was out of Daytona Beach Marina with some friends that lived in Ormond Beach. We absolutely love lake boating because there is very little navigational stuff to learn and no tides (high/low) to contend with.
Our cuddy was a old Larson and it was 'above or on deck'. We could open the windows and get a nice breeze.There was no below deck on ours. We had lots of fun on that little boat with kids and grandkids. We did haave it in both ICW and St.Johns. But at ge now your right not a good idea to go on either one.
No can'r ski on it it only has a 65 HP motor. I think we had 125HP on the boat they skied on. We had a 1965 24' Cuddy Blurbird once with twin 4 cylinder inboard inlines ,a real money pit.Boat owners nightmare.
Have only owned two boats. A 1989 Invader Bowrider with a 4-cyclinder engine and the one we have now, a 1992 Celebrity 200 (20') Cuddy Cabin with the big V-8 in it. The Cuddy can really get "up on plane" when we are at cruising speed of 28 or better mph. IOW, "hang on!!"