Position: N 27 39.709 W 080 22.359
We
escaped from the dock last Sunday and the past week has been awesome.
We've been moving some and exploring some. Hanging out with some of
our favourite cruising buddies and having quiet time alone.
Exploring new places and visiting old favourites. All in a week.
Now we're talking...this is cruising and why we love it.
We
left the dock in Green Cove Springs timing it perfectly to get to the
Jacksonville railroad bridge in time for it's 2pm afternoon opening.
We were tootling along the St John's River enjoying being back on the
water and finally moving again, when we heard a boat call the Coast
Guard asking about the bridge opening times. The Coast Guard told
them the bridge would be open from 10am to 1 pm. Huh? This was
completely different from the info we had. Apparently they had
changed the schedule just for that one day because there was a
Jaguars football game downtown! Yikes! This made a huge difference
in our plans!
We
figured out that if we hightailed it at near full throttle we'd make
the 15 miles in time to get there BEFORE it closed from 1pm to 4pm.
Well, we did make it, thank goodness, by about 8 minutes, and even
got to see the beginning of the game from the river! With a 2 jet
flyover, cannons, fireworks, and a view of the huge TV screen in the
stadium showing opening ceremonies there was lots to see. We caught
the outgoing tide down the St John's river making 8 knots at times
and luckily had no big boat traffic to worry about. The St John's is
a major shipping river with massive freighters bringing cargo to and
from Jacksonville, it can get pretty scary, especially with the
strong currents.
We
spent a lovely, quiet, full moon lit night anchored by the ICW
(Intracoastal Waterway) just off the St John's and the next day
traveled down to St Augustine, one of our favourite stops. Being the
oldest city in America, you can imagine there is lots to see and do
there and especially when you get to do it with good friends you
haven't seen for a while. So we spent 2 days socializing and
exploring then we were off again down the ICW. We spent 3 long days
motorsailing in cloudy, sometimes rainy, weather which wasn't very
fun but hey, we were on the water, moving, and we were happy.
We
stopped at a new-to-us anchorage near Melbourne, Florida called
Dragon Point. There used to be a huge sculpture of a dragon on a
spit of land at the mouth of the Banana River, it is now a crumpled
pile of concrete and chicken wire, but the spot still holds the name.
We had friends who just spent 10 days there and sang it's praises
so, as there were big winds forecast, we decided to hunker down there
for a couple of days with our good friends on Barefootin. And we
were able to get some cleaning done on the decks as we were enjoying
sunny 80 degree weather for a day before the winds picked up.
We
explored the area by dinghy and afoot, socialized, and while it was
windy and rainy, even got to spend some time reading and relaxing.
Aaaah, sweet!
Yesterday
we moved down to Vero Beach, another favourite stop. Lots of
cruising boats are rafted up on moorings and there'll be a huge pot
luck gathering with over 100 cruisers for Thanksgiving on Thursday. We know lots of people
here and we're sure we'll know lots more before we leave.
Happy
Thanksgiving,
