March 9, 2013 Day 302

Jacksonville Landing
Jacksonville, FL
Total miles to date: 5043.6

From Dr. Seuss “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”

“Today was good. Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.”

Another fun day!  Jacksonville Landing is the place to be this weekend!  Early this morning we watched (from our boat) runners participating in the 36^th annual 15K Gate River Run as they ran across the bridge near us. This is the largest 15 K run in the United States with over 20,000 runners. 

At lunch time, we wandered over to the PHINS Gumbo Festival. (PHINS means Parrot Heads in Natural Settings.)  This was a cook-off competition with about 15 competitors. We bought our tickets and proceeded to taste the various samplings of gumbo. There were many versions of it, some with seafood and many without.  The booths were cleverly decorated and the band played Jimmy Buffet songs, of course.  There were hundreds of people there and we had a fun time.  We have not checked to see which booth won, but we did not vote for the same one! 

Bill spent time this afternoon charting our course for tomorrow and also researching anchorages in Georgia.  We had dinner on board.

We will leave here late tomorrow morning and go to a marina in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island.  That will be our last stop in Florida which is still hard to believe.

The 15K Gate River Run

Joyce voted for them!

Bikini Gumbo Booth



The Brew Crew Gumbo Booth

March 8, 2013 Day 301

Jacksonville Landing
Jacksonville, FL
Total miles to date: 5043.6

From Dr. Seuss “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”
“Today was good. Today was fun.  Tomorrow is another one.”

What a great day we had! Being docked at Jacksonville Landing in the heart of the city on the riverfront offers many opportunities.  We walked through the Landing and had breakfast at the Village Cafe.  Then we toured the Jacksonville Maritime Museum, full of many ship models from all wars.

In the afternoon we took the Skyway (basically a small monorail) to the other side of the river, and then rode it back after we had walked around for a while. The Skyway ride is free and is a great way to get around!



The Skyway

Jacksonville Landing
Carried Away is docked on far left in photo

This evening was the highlight of our day (and one of the highlights of our trip). We went to the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Pops Series “Broadway’s Leading Men”.  The orchestra and four soloists were beyond expectations with their performances of selections from musicals Man of La Mancha, Oliver, West Side Story, The Music Man, Gypsy, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera.  We were amazed by the incredible talent that we were so fortunate to have seen.  

We returned to the boat and grabbed Bill’s camera so we could take pictures of the colorful Jacksonville skyline on the water.  All in all – another fabulous day to remember.

Colorful fountain and lights across the river from our boat -
a lovely view each evening!

Colorful bridge - it really is blue - not just at night



Landing at night

 

March 7, 2013 Day 300

Jacksonville Landing
Jacksonville, FL
Total miles to date: 5043.6

Container ship

One of several tows with their barges

On this 300th day of our journey, we made the decision to leave Jacksonville Beach at 11:30 based on the tide. It was low but it was only going lower!  We had such a nice calm ride today and the sun was shining!  By 1:00 we were in the St. Johns River. What a difference the scenery took – leaving marshland with a few homes along the way to the busy industrial ports as we approached Jacksonville. We passed several tows with barges, and saw many container ships at dock some still waiting for their cargo. We also passed the Carnival Fascination cruise ship with passengers boarding and ready for their cruise to the Bahamas.

Carnival Fascination

We arrived at Jacksonville Landing at 3:30 and tied up to their free wall. What a sight – lined with restaurants, shops, parks, hotels, a stage for events, tall buildings, bridges, fountains, and more in our view.  The lights are beautiful at night! (We will take photos of the Landing tomorrow.)

Because this is a free wall there is no electricity or water, and there is no one to help with docking – but Joyce is getting good at lassoing cleats! 

We had dinner on board and decided to wait until tomorrow to do our sightseeing. There is a gumbo cook off, so we just may have to check that out!  We will probably stay here three nights.

March 6, 2013 Day 299

Beach Marine
Jacksonville Beach, FL
Total miles to date: 5017.1

We did stay put today due to high winds.  Other than walking over to the dock master’s office to pay for day #3, we did not leave the boat.  Bill used the time to replace a macerator pump.  He also spent quite a while studying our options for travel over the next six weeks. 

Joyce organized a lot of files, did laundry, made phone calls to marinas, etc.  We have some flexibility in our schedule and we are just trying to get as much information as possible.

We will depart Jacksonville Beach tomorrow after lunch (waiting for the tide!) and we will go to Jacksonville. Jacksonville landing has a free dock and we hope to find room there for two days.

March 5, 2013 Day 298

Beach Marine
Jacksonville Beach, FL
Total miles to date: 5017.1

Today was fun!  We took a taxi to the beach which is about two miles from the marina.  We took the dockmaster’s advice and had lunch at Pier Cantina Sandbar – a great Mexican restaurant on the beach. We had quesadillas and were not disappointed!



Lunch at The Pier Cantina

Reflection of seagulls

We spent time walking on the beach, photographing shore birds, and picking up shells. There were a few brave souls in the water but not many. It was sunny and in the low 70’s today – a good day just to walk on the beach!

Surprised to see this guy rowing in the ocean!
He eventually brought it onto the beach.

We made a quick stop at Publix and then came back to the boat to relax.

We had dinner on board and watched television in the evening.

We are scheduled to leave here tomorrow but we will have to see what the weather does. The winds are forecast for 20-30 mph, so we may stay here another night.  Stay tuned…

March 4, 2013 Day 297

Beach Marine
Jacksonville Beach, FL
Total miles to date: 5017.1




Bridge of Lions opening for us

We left our slip at the St. Augustine Municipal Marina and headed directly for the fuel dock this morning. We made the 9:30 opening for the Bridge of Lions, which was right next to the marina and then headed north up the ICW. We were soon at the St. Augustine Inlet to the Atlantic Ocean, but we chose to stay in the ICW and go north on the Tolomato River!

Passing by The Castillo de San Marcos
as we depart St. Augustine

The St. Augustine Inlet to the ocean

Much of the trip was narrow and bordered by marshland. However, there were lovely homes that lined the shore on the east side of the ICW for about six miles near Palm Valley. Even there the west shore line was not inhabited.



Lovely homes on the ICW near Palm Valley

We had planned to anchor near Jacksonville Beach, just north of the McCormick Bridge.  We could not get a good hold on either attempt there, so we left, and then called Beach Marine and made a reservation. We were there in less than thirty minutes, got a pump put, and were tied up at the dock.  We have decided to stay here two nights.  We had dinner on board and just spent the evening relaxing.  We have now gone over 5000 miles on our journey!

We may go to the beach tomorrow! 

 

March 3, 2013 Day 296

St. Augustine Municipal Marina
St. Augustine, FL
Total miles to date: 4979.8

As planned we went to the 8:30 worship service at the Memorial Presbyterian Church with Chuck and Becky.  This is the church, built by Henry Flagler, that we toured yesterday.  The service was very good, the congregation was friendly, and we are glad we went, especially since it was communion Sunday.

Since Chuck and Becky decided to leave today, they took us to Walmart to provision the boat. Then we stopped at Dunkin Donuts (since we had not had breakfast). We came back and unloaded everything and then said goodbye to our guests.  Today was another cold and windy day and we did not feel like doing any more sightseeing in these conditions. 

We spent the afternoon doing laundry, chart plotting, and computer work. We had dinner onboard and planned our next few days on the Loop.  We will leave in the morning and travel to an anchorage near Jacksonville Beach.