St. Johns River Shipwreck #1

I came across this sunken boat that had washed up against the seawall in Lake Monroe along the Sanford Riverwalk. I've always found shipwrecks, even with relatively small boats like this, to be both intriguing and creepy at the same time. What's the story behind what caused the boat to go down? Who did it belong to? What happened to the rest of the boat? And then there's the creepiness of having a large, mostly submerged object, just sitting there in the dark water, creaking with the currents.


A few months ago, I noticed a few sailboats that had sank a few hundred feet off shore. They were gone when I came across this boat. Perhaps this is part of one?

Flooding @ Cranes Roost Park

Cranes Roost Park is located in Altamonte Springs, FL, right next to the Altamonte Mall. The park has recently been incorporated into the Uptown Altamonte complex and had a big overhaul and the park saw many improvements. One thing that wasn't fixed was the drainage problems on the central lake that the park is built around.

After the massive amounts of rain that was dropped from Tropical Storm Fay passing over the area, the lake in Cranes Roost Park rose to levels I have never seen. In the past, the lake has flooded, but I've never seen it flood this high. Here are some pictures of the flooding taken on September 1, 2008.





The two bridges that normally provide a trip above the surface of the lake were no longer usable. When Cranes Roost Park has flooded in the past, these bridges do get slightly submerged. I've never seen other sections of the park go under though.

The stage and amphitheater was perhaps where it was easiest to see how high the water actually was. Luckily, the stage floats, but I wonder what happens if the water rises above the pylons anchoring the sides of the stage in place?

As for the bleachers in the amphitheater, there are at least two rows of seats below the surface of the water.





Tropical Storm Fay has stopped pouring liquid into Cranes Roost Park, but it does tend to rain often in Florida, so it may be a while before the water recedes...

Sanford Marina...

Sanford, FL is located along the St. Johns River in Seminole County. The city used to have a large steamboat industry due to it's location along Lake Monroe. Lake Monroe is the last area that large boats can travel in before the river gets too shallow. The steamboats are all gone, but the city does have a nice marina near where the steamboats used to dock...

Shipwrecks in the Florida Keys

Florida is surrounded by water. Boats travel on this water. Boats sink. When that happens, they end up like these shipwrecks and abandoned boats in the Florida Keys...

These two abandoned boats were on the side of the road in Key Largo. They were probably recently pulled from the water...


This sunken sailboat was in a cove nearby the Islamorada Fish Company restaurant. It probably floated free in a hurricane and sunk here.