6 November 2020
Depart: Sisters Creek Free Dock Jacksonville FL 8:25
Arrive: Green Cove Springs FL anchorage near Governor's Creek boat ramp 1:00
Distance: 36.1 nm
Conditions: Overcast, 70 degrees, passing rain storms
We started the day with an amazing display in the skies at the free dock - a rainbow that ran shore-to-shore over Sisters Creek.
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| Full rainbow with rainbow shadow to right side! |
Clark also managed to get pseudo sunrise pictures.
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| Morning Sun at Sisters Creek Free Dock |
Clark debated sending our mail collected at St. Brendan's Isle mail service to a local marina for pickup. I suggested we just go to SBI directly as we did once a couple of years ago. With that plan in mind, we got going early enough to allow time for us to dinghy to a dock where Clark could then bike to SBI to pick up our mail before they went home for the day.
Traveling down the St. John's River, we saw how busy the port of Jacksonville truly is.
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| Container ship in process of being loaded |
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| "Miraculous Ace" Vehicle Carrier Built 2006 - Cayman Islands 200 meters long x 32 meters wide |
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| Clark liked the name |
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| "Evergreen State" Oil Tanker built 2010 - Wilmington, DE 183 meters long x 32 meters wide |
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| Oil tanks at site |
A tug towing a barge passed us on the river. Watching the scene behind us, I saw the combo round a curve in the river. The path the barge took versus that of the tug was rather disconcerting. At one point it looked like the vessels were side by side. I was thankful we had passed them before they got to that curve!
Talk about a wide turn ...
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| Barge in tow |
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| Barge perpendicular to tug towing it (top of tug seen near middle of barge) |
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| Unmanned barge looks like it wants to pass the tug |
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| Barge slowly getting back in line behind tug! |
Passing by a city is always exciting as there is so much to see.
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| "TIAA Bank Field" Stadium - Home of the Jacksonville Jaguars |
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| The City of Jacksonville, FL |
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| Jacksonville |
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| Vystar - Veteran's Memorial Arena Used for concerts |
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| Maxwell House |
As we traveled down river after passing the Maxwell House site, we could smell that "good-to-the-last-drop coffee" for a while. It smelled "heavenly" (whoops that's a different brand) to me, and I don't even drink coffee!
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| How Tomorrow Moves (CSX) a rail-based freight transportation company Luxury Yacht "Kismet" docked in front |
As we got near the railroad bridge, I pointed out to Clark that it was not open. He had a moment of panic since he read it often closes for maintenance - would we be able to transit the area?? Almost as soon as he called the bridge tender on the VHF radio, the bridge started to raise. Whew!
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| RR bridge opening for us - Yay! |
The sky looked threatening, and we hoped the rain would hold off until the predicted 3:00 p.m. that I saw on Google weather. We arrived at our anchorage spot at 1:00, but we still had to get the dinghy down (takes quite a while), ride over to the dinghy dock, and then bike to the spot to pickup the mail.
My plan was to wait in the dinghy while Clark biked to SBI. Clark's idea was that, given it could pour rain any minute, I should drop him off and return to the boat to wait for him. I told Clark that sounded like a ridiculous suggestion as I have never driven the dinghy, which is more like a small boat, and I have never even sat next to him as he drove it to see what he did. In my mind I compared it to being given the keys to a car with a stick shift with no prior training and told to solo.
For "on the job" training, Clark had me drive the dinghy to the dock. When we arrived at the dinghy dock, Clark climbed out and tied us to the dock. I told him that taking the dinghy back to "Sunset Delight" alone terrified me and, rain or not, I would be staying right there and waiting for him to return.
He was gone for about half an hour. In that time it did rain lightly, but then the sun came out so bright and hot that I made use of my raincoat more to protect me from the sun than I had for the rain shower. As I sat at the dinghy dock, the dinghy was tossed around like I was on an amusement park ride. Loved it!
Clark had me drive us back to the boat. That turned out to be a comedy of errors as, with the wind and waves, I could not get the dinghy away from the docks. Clark talked me through the ordeal and after several hair-raising close dock calls, we finally got going in the right direction to return to "Sunset Delight". The fun was not over, however, because tying up to "Sunset Delight" proved to be a challenge as well.
Clark grabbed the bow line and stepped onto SD. Before I could get the stern line to him, the wind and waves had taken me out of throwing distance. Now the dinghy was pointing the wrong direction and pulling hard against the line in Clark's hand. If he let go, he'd lose me and who knows where I'd end up. Finally he secured the bow line and came up with the idea of throwing me a long line from SD to grab hold of. When we finally had the dinghy secure next to SD, I said, "Now do you understand why I was terrified of coming back to SD alone??" Had I tried to do that he might never have seen me again!
Our timing turned out well. We had just gotten the dinghy back up on top of SD when the rain came. Had it arrived earlier it would have been a wet bike ride for Clark and a soaking for me in the dinghy.
My excitement for the day must have worn me out as I laid down on the sofa in the salon and napped until dinner time.
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