Day 210: Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Port to Port: St. Augustine to Jacksonville, Florida
Underway: 7:35 am Motor Off: 3:46 pm Miles Traveled: 41 Stayed At: Dock
First Things First: First time listening to a cruisers net broadcast on the VHF radio (in some popular and large marina, boaters share info on weather, events, new arrivals, and things to sell over the radio); first dirigible flying near Jacksonville beach.
Mile 780 to 739 Mile: Our first challenge of the day was to get to the Bridge of Lions in time for the 8:30 am opening. They only open every half hour and we don’t want to be late. We also want to time it right to get a boost from the current for as long as possible as we travel north. We actually set the alarm (a rare event lately) for 6:30 am so we could shower, get ice and leave by about 7:30 am. We were only a couple minutes late and actually arrived at the bridge with 15 minutes to spare. Whew!
Playing the currents is an art (and random luck most times). We were going to stop around 30 miles at an anchorage we learned about but we were making such good mileage that we decided to just keep cranking out the miles and get across the St. Johns River while the weather is perfect. With the current boost in the morning we were going 7.2 mph for several hours – the houses and docks along the ICW whizzed by all morning. The tide eventually switched but we kept going 5 mph or better.
The scenery was ever changing. Off in the distance we could see the smoke from a huge fire somewhere north us. We learned later that it was supposed to be a controlled burn on about 40 acres of brush but got out of hand and burned 800 acres. We also started seeing military helicopters flying back and forth over the ICW from the Naval Air Station near Jacksonville.
It was only mid-afternoon by the time we stopped at a nice floating dock just north of the St. Johns River to use the restroom and walk around a little before anchoring across the channel. As luck would have it, Jacksonville allows travelers to stay at their docks for up to three days for free. What an amazing surprise (like I said, it’s the little things). I walked to the restroom and found another dock on a small channel north of us with another boat tied up there. I chatted with them for a few minutes and decided it was quieter, deeper and more protected on this dock so we moved Aurora over and within minutes were chatting with Roger and Dorothy on Slow Churn. We brought our beef stew over to their boat and they cooked up their hamburgers and we enjoyed several hours of stories until the sun started to set (and the no-see-ums came out to play). What a joy. They have been exploring the east coast and northern canal system and hope to make a complete loop someday. We will be seeing them again I am sure.
We were tired after a long and productive day. Although the current flowing fast by the boat makes for some new noises, we are securely tied to a dock and we were soon fast asleep.
