Depart: Murphy Creek Conservation Area Free Dock 9:10
Arrive: Ortega Landing Marina 5:05
Distance: 57 nm
Once again we woke to ridiculously cold temperatures. My phone showed 48 degrees in Palatka just down the river from us. We bundled up to start our day. With another long day of travel planned, we only took time for a quick peak at Murphy Creek, and the place where we would have anchored if not for using the free dock at the park.
We decided to poke our noses in at the northern end of Murphy Creek. To do this we turned onto Dunns Creek.
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| Dunns Creek (access to Murphy Creek from St. Johns River) |
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| Dunns Creek - boat in weeds (strangely "anchored"; abandoned?) |
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| Dunns Creek (M/V Gabrielle anchored near entrance to Murphy Creek) |
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| Murphy Creek (nice, wide and weed-free area where we might have anchored last night) |
Having now spent several days on the St. Johns River, we are accustomed to the look and feel of the river. From our snapshot view of Murphy Creek, it appeared to be more of the same. If we had lots of time, it might have been fun to look for alligators and turtles along this stretch of waterway, but Clark had other plans for the day.
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| Murphy Creek Scenery |
We noticed with our stay at Murphy Creek Conservation Area that we had left the "Blind Mosquitoes", i.e. "midges" of Sanford behind us. Blind Mosquitoes do not bite but are members of the fly family that come in swarms and are most annoying. When Clark went up to the upper helm our first morning in Sanford, he could not walk across the floor that was literally covered with midges - mostly dead. Before he could do anything up there, he took a vacuum cleaner to make a pathway. We noticed a few gnats at Murphy Creek but nothing to compare to the midges in Sanford.
Traveling by boat makes getting our snail mail a bit of a challenge. We use a mail service called St. Brendan's Isle that collects our mail for us and then sends it to us when we have an address such as at an upcoming marina. St. Brendan's isle is located in Green Cove Springs which sits on the St. Johns River. Clark excitedly took pictures of Green Cove Springs on the way to Sanford. Today, Clark planned to tie up at a dinghy dock and visit St. Brendan's Isle to collect our mail in person.
Having traveled the river in a southerly direction, we mostly saw the same sights on our return trip. One sign that caught Clark's eye on the way south did not get in the blog. Both times he saw the sign, he shook his head in disbelief.
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| Totally Illegible Sign - White Letters on White Background Straining to see while using binoculars, Clark read, "Do Not Anchor" (sun bleached away the color from the print) |
On our way to Green Cover Springs, we passed Palatka and the Palatka free docks where we stayed.
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| Palatka Memorial Bridge (still patting myself on the back for making it over by bike) |
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| Palatka Free Docks (too close to Murphy Creek to stay here tonight) |
I captured several pictures of osprey at their nests on the way south, but today I saw two "love birds" in their nest side-by-side.
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| Osprey nest |
After three hours of travel and me saying, "Are we there yet?", we arrived at Green Cove Springs. As we approached the area, Clark had me pilot the boat while he prepared the dinghy for lowering into the water upon our arrival at the anchorage. I had decided that I would rather stay with the boat than bike to St. Brendan's Isle. When I told Clark I had no desire to bike to St. Brendan's, he came up with a suggestion I had not considered. He asked me to stay with the dinghy while he biked, so he would not have to wonder if it would still be there when he returned from his ride. I agreed to this plan.
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| Governer's Creek -- View of launch ramp and dinghy dock from Sunset Delight |
I slathered myself with sunscreen and brought my Kindle with me, so I had something to do to pass the time while I waited in the dinghy for Clark to return. When we tied up, the dinghy was so low compared to the fixed dock, I was very happy I did not have to figure out how to disembark.
Another reason it was good that I decided not to bike as well, I do not know where we would have put a second bicycle in our dinghy. As it was, I rode with Clark's half sitting in my lap. Had I not been buried under bicycle, I might have tried to take a picture of my captain wearing his life jacket with his bicycle helmet while steering the dinghy. With so little available space, wearing the items made the most sense, but anyone who saw him must have wondered why he needed a helmet in a dinghy.
I made myself as comfortable as possible in the dinghy to wait for Clark to return. The current kept pushing the dinghy under the fixed dock which I found most annoying. I discovered that if I put my foot up on the bow of the dinghy that it was just high enough that my foot would hit the dock and prevent the boat from going under it.
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| My view from the dinghy of Sunset Delight at anchor |
With my foot in place, I pulled out my Kindle to read and await Clark's return. Since I am currently reading a murder mystery, I got deeply engrossed in the plot. Suddenly I became alert to my surroundings by the strong smell of outboard motor exhaust as I heard the sputter of a failing engine. I looked to my right and saw a small metal boat heading directly for my dinghy.
The driver of the boat had only just tried to start the engine, so it had no speed - just current. I watched as it came closer and closer. I figured that I would just give it a shove when it got close enough, but apparently my presence in the dinghy, watching the driver approach, made him nervous.
He was a "roly poly" fellow, and my first feeling of concern was when I saw him rock his boat wildly as he struggled to grasp his oar. Throwing his weight around was almost more than the boat could handle. The exertion of reaching for the oar had him red in the face and covered in perspiration. I began to worry about his health. Once he had his oar in hand, however, he madly paddled backwards to direct the boat towards the dock. When he got there, he tied up and, for me, the drama came to an end. I went back to reading my book.
Meanwhile, Clark peddled at top speed for St. Brendan's Isle just under two miles from the dinghy dock. He reported to me when he got back that he had some hills to conquer with stop signs along the way that prevented the use of built-up downhill speed to assist with the uphill parts. More than ever, I was happy to have stayed behind. I would have slowed him down considerably.
He did bring back a few pictures of his bike trip.
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| Magnolia Point (Gulf Course and Wedding Venue) |
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| Bike path along highway |
Clark forgot to take a picture of the outside of the St. Brendan's Isle place of business, but he did take a couple of inside shots. He said the building itself was totally a nondescript warehouse.
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| St. Brendan's Isle Office Space |
Clark returned to the dinghy to find me engrossed in my novel. I heard him as he started to collapse his bicycle and got myself in position to retrieve and hold his bike in my lap once more.
Although it still takes more time to retrieve this dinghy than the "sitting on the swim platform" arrangement we had for the one on Sea Moss, we are getting better are lowering and raising it. The hardest part of getting it back on board is positioning it properly so that the brackets that hold it in place can be attached. Once we got that part done, Clark had me drive while he put everything else back to order.
The dock hand at Ortega Landing Marina told Clark that he goes home at 5:00. We left Green Cove Springs at 3:00 and wondered if we would make it to the final destination before he left for the day. He told us to call him when we reached the I-95 bridge because then he would know we were 30 minutes away. We called him at 4:30. At that time we had current and moved at 10 knots, so things looked good for an on-time arrival. A short while later we lost the current advantage and slowed down considerably.
We pulled up to the dock just around 5:00. The dock hand helped us tie up and gave us a welcome package. He strongly suggested that Clark register in the morning, but Clark did not pick up on that hint, so they walked up to the office to do the paperwork for check-in to, as Clark put it, "get it over with".
I had told Clark that I needed a stop at a drugstore to get a prescription filled, so we walked into town to find the CVS.
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| Street up to the business section of town |
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| One would never guess a CVS is nearby |
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| Park passed on way to store |
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| No playground equipment here - just trees |
Ortega Landing is on the outskirts of Jacksonville. When we got up to Route 17 from the marina, we found Publix, West Marina, a number of restaurants, and the CVS we sought. Instead of waiting for the prescription to be filled, we walked over to the LongHorn Steakhouse where I had a delicious rib-eye steak and Clark had lamb chops. After picking up my prescription, we were just steps away from Publix, so I convinced Clark to stop there as well. He grumbled as we walked to Publix that he would miss the sunset picture for tonight.
When we exited Publix, however, the sun was just setting, so he got a picture over Route 17 - clearly not the setting he hoped for, but a sunset picture just the same.
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| Sunset over Route 17 at Ortega Landing Jacksonville, Florida |
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