June 11, 2014 ICW to Atlantic Beach, FL

We had a relaxed morning getting ready to leave.  We normally go about 50 miles a day.  Jacksonville, Fl is about 30 miles and we don’t want to spend the night north of there because of the unpleasant smell of the paper mills.  You learn all kinds of things from our Active Captain application on our phones.

I made one more garbage run to shore and mailed some postcards that I waited until this morning to write.  Then we had to take the motor off of the dinghy and mount the dinghy on the davits again.  Not sure where the morning went, but it was about 11:30 when we were ready to leave the mooring field.  The first bridge opens on the half hour, so we called them about 11:45 and realized that they don’t open at 8, noon, and 5 for traffic.  So we had to wait until 12:30 :( But we did get to see some school kids on a field trip on a sailboat.  Something I never did growing up in SD.

We came to the inlet for the ocean and tossed around going outside instead of the ICW, but decided to stay with our original plan since we started so late.  It’s a good thing, too.  Because about 2:45, we ran into a thunderstorm.  We actually turned around and headed south for about 15 minutes then back tracked for a total of 30 minutes of stalling to let it pass to the east.  NOAA weather said there were 35 mph winds on the ocean.  So it would have been much worse out there.  When you have a 54 ft lightning rod in the middle of your boat, it’s even scary to see the lightning.  We had our handheld electronics in the microwave for protection.  We did run into some rain and were able to use the side windows for our cock pit that were made in Fr Myers Beach.  They zip into the Bimini top. 
The new West Marine chair was awesome.  Before, if I wanted to sit back with a back rest, my feet wouldn’t touch the cockpit floor and I wouldn’t be able to reach the wheel.  I could pull this seat forward and everything fit better.  There are even  arm rests.  The back has 5 settings so I was also able to use it as a recliner after dinner. 

We ended up south of the St John’s River that flows into Jacksonville, FL, near Atlantic Beach, FL.  This was one of those strange anchorages where the current is going one way and the wind is going the opposite way.  Plus we are now having to deal with 4-5 ft tide changes.  We will check periodically to make sure our anchor is holding us in place. 

We had a great dinner of leftovers.  So quick to prepare :) 

Kids on field trip passing through the Bridge of Lions

Same ship with the fort behind them

site of Spaniards landing in St Augustine and first Catholic mass on US soil

cushy cushion and storm we missed