Jacksonville - Day 24

Squeeeeze

The winds built again overnight, so we expected a brisk ride to Jacksonville. But first we had another bridge to contend with at Kingsley Creek 3 miles below Fernandina Beach. This bridge is another of the ones the Army Core missed the 65 ft clearance. It runs about 64.5 ft and with a spring tide at 08:00, we had to wait till 09:00 to leave the marina.

When we arrived, the tide board was in the center of the passage way and could not be read unless you moved under the bridge. Real useful. Called a passing boat and they said the board read 63 ft and a few inches. We then turn around and anchor upstream to wait out the tide. That is always irritating because you get to run the shallow stretches further south heading into low tide. The good news is that we Skyped Yvonne and Ashton and had a video call. Just marvelous. After an hour another boat reported 64.5 ft at the bridge, so we weighed anchor and cleared the bridge.

The winds abated late morning and the run through the marshes of north Florida was enjoyable. We made the Sister's Creek bridge at 13:00 along with Tally Ho, a Hunter from Annapolis. They had been traveling with a group f three boats. We first encountered them on Walburg Creek. They chatted constantly on the radio and rode out the storm at St Mary's on the anchor. Needless to say they did not get much sleep for two nights.

Throughout the morning we listened to the Navy planes and ships trying to keep southbound boats out of a live fire missile practice off shore. When you hear "you are entering a live fire missile exercise and unless you change course to the north or west you could suffer harm", folks got real interested. Of course some folks never think they are the ones being called, so the plane flies right over them and says "do see a plane above you?" There was so much activity on Channel 16 that we could hardly have an opening to hail folks.

We left Tally Ho at Mile 740 and hung a right turn up the St John's River toward our marina 8 miles upstream. It was a nice run through a commercial shipping area before Jacksonville.

We had a nice deal lined up at Edward's Marina on the Trout River before Jacksonville. This small 25 slip marina has some live aboards and the manager lives right by the marina. Well, Charles about had a heart attack when we called on the way in and reminded him we had a 14 ft inch beam. They moved a boat out of their largest slip that had a 16 ft breadth and he had us come in. As we backed the Julep into the slip it became obvious that their tape measure did not match ours. Julep looked like 10 pounds of sugar in a five pound bag.

It was clear Edward's Marina could not accommodate the Julep, so we called a few marinas and chose to head back to the AICW to Jacksonville Beach. Edward's was close to the airport, so we will have further to travel next week when we fly out.

A small shrimp boat docked at Edwards and we enjoyed fresh shrimp cooked in Gullah rice for dinner. Quite a treat and worth the diversion.

Data: 09:00 to 14:45.. Engine hours 1020.