FL: St. Johns River -- Doctors Lake

Monday 4/2/2018
Depart: Jacksonville Free Dock 10:45
Arrive: Doctors Lake Marina Fleming Island 2:30
Distance: 29 nm

We woke once again to dense fog. Since we did not have far to go today, we took our time leaving the marina to allow some time for it to clear.

Sun trying to break through the fog!

While waiting for the captain to decide we should leave, I decided to take a walk around the park for exercise.

Sign Says: Sisters Creek Marina and Park

One of the docks provided for free docking

Dock repaired after Hurricane Irma damage.
(It was cordoned off with yellow caution tape in Nov.)

Oasis at the entrance to the park.

Standing under bridge near the park

As I re-familiarized myself with the area (we were here in November), Clark became engaged in conversation with Hugh on Beatrice talking about travel plans on the St. Johns River. Just before I got back to the boat, Clark called me. Hugh had loaned him a document to copy, and our printer was not cooperating - out of ink, jamming pages, etc. I told him to hold on for two minutes, and I would be back and could look into it for him.

Whoever designed the user interface for our Canon printer must have a wicked sense of humor because no instruction manual is provided, and it is extremely "non-intuitive".  Through perseverance I have somewhat mastered the beast. I told Clark that by the time I tried to talk him through the interface, I would be back, and we could avoid a lot of frustration on both our parts.

I got the printer up and running, and Clark got his copies made. He ran the original back to Hugh who already had his engines running and pulled away from the dock almost immediately after Clark returned the item to him. We pulled out a short while later to follow Beatrice south on the St. Johns River.

After seeing miles and miles of waterfront homes with personal docks, Jacksonville came as a welcome change of scenery. This busy port had numerous ships visiting from other countries

Grand Orion - Panama

Carnival Elation - Panama

Hafnia Daisy - Valletta, Malta

Stadiongracht - Amsterdam

 as well as many industrial docks.

Cranes to load / unload containers from container ships

 

Tugs hard at work!

Container ship being loaded with containers.

Passing a barge being pushed by a tug reminded me of our days on the rivers when we did the Great Loop. Only this barge setup was much, much smaller than those.

 As we traveled the waters by Jacksonville, many interesting smells met us along the way.  As we passed a boat being loaded, I definitely smelled sawdust. The surrounding piles of substance, however, gave the impression of stone and gravel, not wood chips.

Chutes loading
something that smelled like sawdust onto this ship.

A while later I smelled a very sweet fragrance that reminded me of the Flavors and Fragrances plant near my home in New Jersey. I could not find a source for that odor however.

Coming closer to the heart of Jacksonville, we found interesting places to check out

Approaching Jacksonville

 

Everbank Field – home of the Jacksonville Jaguars

Maxwell House Coffee
(I tried very hard to see if I could smell coffee. I could not.)

“The Jacksonville Landing”
with Hooters and free docks

YMCA Aquatic Facility Sculpture by the River

  as well as bridges in the area.

Red and Green Bridges (Route 1 and Route 295)

Lift Bridge

 

Railroad Bridge

Railroad Bridge Lift Mechanism

Construction on Route 95 Bridge

 Once we passed through Jacksonville and out the other side, the river started to look more like other waterways we have traveled in Florida.

What a difference just Outside of Jacksonville

As we motored past some undeveloped areas as well as private homes on the water, I asked Clark if he was enjoying the ride. In response, he pointed out the lack of other boat traffic. Granted today was a Monday, but even so, the absence of other boats could not be ignored. We had the river almost to ourselves, and it was quite lovely and peaceful.

We arrived at Doctors Lake Marina where Clark had a reservation mid-afternoon.  After fueling at their fuel dock, we moved to our slip for the night. The “dock hand” that helped us tie up turned out to be the new owner of the marina. We found out he has a lot of plans for the marina starting with a number of new slips that are currently under construction as well as a plan for a Tiki Bar on the premises.

Docks under construction at Doctors Lake Marina

Late afternoon, after settling in and letting the sun drop a bit, we decided to take a bike ride across the bridge into what Clark heard the marina owner say was the “old town”. We did not find any signs of an old town, but we did find a fountain and a pond near the bike trail.

With nothing else to hold our interest, we headed back over the bridge towards the boat

View of Doctors Lake from Bridge

in time to catch the amazing sunset that kept changing its appearance every few minutes. Clark no sooner sat down than the view would change, and he would run back out for another shot.