Ortega Landing at Jacksonville

We slept late...until 7:30a....had a casual breakfast and slowly pulled out of our dock about 10a under partly cloudy skies.  Notice in this photo how the water takes on the mood of the sky overhead.

Soon a sail boat passed us doing what most of them do instead of sailing.....motoring.

Again we left on a rising tide and our speed was boosted but about an hour later we joined the St. Johns River....leaving the ICW to move further inland toward Jacksonville.  We were now going up the River which was slowing our speed to only 4 knots at times......today's trip would be longer than we first thought.

I loved seeing the few river barges and the tug boats....reminded me of the tow captains that were so kind and helpful on the midwest rivers.

When we entered the harbor of Mayport we saw a Navy war ship in dry dock with the tower wrapped tight.

This Coast Guard patrol boat was making sure we didn't get too close.

Here is an interesting boat.....we think it is an oil platform service boat.

Jacksonville Fire & Rescue boat.

Then we came to the usually busy container ship area where these huge cranes load & unload the ships.

Close up of loaders.

Notice the ladder going up the side of this one to the control platform.......how would you like that exercise to get to your office every day?

A beautiful suspension bridge.

The Captain pointed out the large expansion joint under the center of this bridge.

The only container ship we saw today.

In the middle of this ship was the escape pod or life boat (orange)....did you see the movie, “Captain Phillips”? This is what the Somali Pirates got into when they left the ship with Captain Phillips.

Under this bridge we came into Jacksonville harbor.

Downtown Jacksonville.

The Waterfront looked nice with boat docks & plenty of places to eat.

We had a low train bridge in front of us just passed this waterfront area...we found out there was no train schedule but the bridge tender just gets a 15 minute warning when a train is coming...and just before we got to the bridge it closed!  We were doing donuts when the SLOW train showed up.

What a BIG surprise to look back and see our friends on Harmony! They were suppose to be staying about a month at a port south of here. They got in line with us and waited on the train.  They were going to our marina also. 

Finally the last train car passed and the bridge opened.

We entered some shallow water.... Harmony radioed that the depth was only 1 foot below their keel....we had about 3.5ft so we both proceeded slowly as we entered the Ortega River. Then one last bridge opened for us and soon we were in the marina.

The dock crew was great and so was my Captain...he has really learned how to smoothly back up Miss gg into a slip...without bow or stern thrusters!  

Today was such a great day on the water....I just love moving along on this grand old boat...I think I was all but singing...... I was even feeling like cleaning....so I washed the isinglass on the sun deck while we cruised!

And now I really need to say, “Thank you”......many of you have been praying for our good health to continue.  I was reminded of this when we found out why our friends on “Harmony” had rushed to get here: her captain needs surgery!.....they will leave to drive home to Atlanta tomorrow. The captain of the other Looper couple here had a heart attack when they arrived!  We are older than these folks and know only because of much prayer have we remained well and I might add.....HAPPY!