We ducked into a little creek thinking we would wait out the bad weather and dropped the anchor. When we awoke the next morning...Yikes! Low tide revealed we almost landed on a shelf of oyster shells!
About 2 hours later it looked like this! We were right at the edge.
We were swinging around on the anchor with the changing current and the next tide we landed on the bank and spend 6 hours at a 20 degree angle. We didn't like the idea of hanging out here dealing with the shifting currents and the weather was slated to be crap for the next week or better. So we took the dinghy to a nearby marina, got 10 gallons of diesel and weighed anchor to set off for downtown Jacksonville for Christmas.
It wasn't a particularly bad day for cruising, just not much sun. It wasn't too cold or windy. We were just ahead of the rain for most of the day. It finally caught up to us at the end of the day as we crept further up the St. Johns River in Jacksonville bucking a 4 knot current.
A wall of rain in front of us. Where is Radar?
LOL Down below where it's nice and dry!
Radar: "Dumb humans don't know to get out of the rain!"
We ran out of daylight and cruised into the darkness trying to reach an anchorage Carter found on the chart. Dodging barges and container ships all the way up the St. John's, we finally dropped anchor behind Exchange Island about 10 pm.
It was getting time for some re-provisioning so the Captain got out the digital satellite imagery (google maps) to locate the nearest grocery store that we could get to by dingy. Turns out it was just around the corner so the next morning we weighed anchor and went up Little Potsdam Creek and dropped anchor by the bridge. From there we could land the dinghy and hike 2 blocks to a Publix, (where shopping is a pleasure). Heading in we saw that the creek wasn't too nice to someone!
The bridge where we anchored and landed the dinghy.
With grocery shopping out of the way, we got up the next morning and set out for Jacksonville Landing where we read that could tie up to the dock for free for up to 3 days. Upon arrival we decided this was not the place to stay. Lots of chop banging us against the dock, a wicked current, and too many tourists. .
The St. Johns River has a lot of shipping activity.
They were off loading vehicles from this ship.
Tugs are everywhere and very busy here.
More high smog industry.
We decided to investigate a marina we passed by on the way to Jacksonville Landing, got the dockmasters phone number, made a call and voila, we are in a great marina for the next month. I was relieved that our situation is settled for the next few weeks.
You can see the Arc's solar panels on the left side of this picture and the stadium on the right side of the picture. The Tennessee Volunteers will be playing in the bowl game against Ohio on January 2nd. This will be a great location to explore downtown Jacksonville which is how we plan to spend Christmas day.
Merry Christmas!
Captain Carter and Diane
