We
enjoyed a nice pot luck dinner last night with our friends and
boating neighbors in the Captain's lounge at Ortega Landings. Some
of those same folks showed up this morning to help us drop our lines
and to wish us well. My heart was a bit heavy knowing we probably
won't see them again unless we return to this life on the water someday.
We
had to get fuel before heading up the coast and the best place was a
few marinas up river from our dock. A small boat was in the fuel dock
slip so we needed to back in.....the Captain showed he had forgotten
nothing by doing an excellent job without those fancy bow & stern
thrusters!
Parked
beside us was a Presidential yacht, Innisfail, used by Presidents
Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford and Clinton.
While Walter was filling both fuel tanks I got to spend some time talking
the crew that brought this boat up from south Florida to it's new
owners. It was built in 1939. I found out that there is so much mahogany & teak on it
that once one goes the length of the boat varnishing all the wood it
is time to start again on the other end! The crew asked me to take a
photo of them so I got to go aboard and had a tour of the main deck.
This is the back deck.
It
was 945a when we pulled out of the fuel dock. My job is to guide the
Captain as he maneuvers.......watching to make sure that big dinghy
engine makes it around the piles.
Then
as we passed by our dock at Ortega Landings on our way down the river
to the ICW.....almost an hour after we had left!.... more friends had gathered on
the end of the dock to wave good-bye. I fought back the
tears....such sweet friends!
The
bridge that I walked over almost every day opened for us revealing
the city of Jacksonville in the distance.
Near the city the train bridge was
opened because it was Saturday...due to work being done on it there
is a very limited schedule for openings during the week.
A
pretty downtown park.
Replica
of an old sailing vessel.
Container
ship
This
is an ocean going barge....notice the curved bow to keep the waves
from washing over the forward deck.
A
luxury yacht.
This
sailboat was hard aground. We cruised slowly by and asked if they
needed help.
They
were waiting for the tide and said it would raise their boat soon.
We
did find that the chart was not always correct on the channel depths
plus the channel strayed many times...”auto” was not doing much
of the piloting today which made the Captain's job very tiring.
Once
we were in the Intracoastal Waterway I was very surprised to see these huge container ship loaders near an inlet thinking only small boats,
mostly pleasure boats use the ICW.
At
the St. Mary's inlet was Fort Clinch where it served in the past to
guard the entrance.
We
passed an area where two large military ships were being worked on and
soon noticed we had a military escort! Their blue light was flashing
so we assumed they wanted us to stop, we did and they turned around
and left!
We
had rising tides almost all day pushing us along but late in the day
we had a tide against us and decided to stop before reaching Jekyll
Island. It would have been dark when we got there. We are swinging on the hook at
Terrapin Cove on St. Andrews Sound with two other boats.
Looking forward to being rocked to sleep tonight.
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