2022: Jacksonville to Ortega FL

 7 November 2022

Depart: Sister's Creek Free Dock, Jacksonville, FL 7:20

Arrive: Lamb's Yacht Center, Ortega, FL 1:55

Distance: 43 nm

We both woke up very early this morning probably due to changing back to EST from DST. Since we were both awake, we got underway 40 minutes ahead of the proposed departure time given by the captain last night. The sun was already up and the gnats were hungry as we got ready to depart for today's voyage. We decided to get going immediately and eat breakfast going along as we often do.

Sun coming up at Sister's Creek in Jacksonville, Florida ...

The dock was full last night, but already boats had left when we came out to work our lines.

Egret hunting for breakfast at Sister's Creek

We passed by all the normal, industrial views as we traveled the St. John's River towards Jacksonville. Having been by here multiple times, I did not bother taking pictures. Previous blog entries show all the usual sights.

I did spot something I had never seen before - a cow mural on the Acosta Bridge! There must be a story behind this. Turns out this spot on the St John's River used to be known as "Cowford" because the water was low enough here for cows to ford the river. The mural was done in January 2022 and explains why we have never seen it before. We were last here in December 2021.

It turns out that Clark is not the only one that can get a good railroad picture. I took the picture below because Clark was busy dealing with current.

We passed the military airport near Jacksonville, and shortly afterwards we saw a military plane taking off in front of us.

Instead of going directly to our destination for this evening, we first went to get fuel. We found a place on the St. John's River that offered a better price than anywhere else in the Jacksonville area. The only catch being that we had to travel about 4 hours out of our way to get the fuel. We had the current with us for the whole trip south on the St. John's River, so that helped make it worth our while.

The map below shows where we started this morning (at the heart) Sister's Creek and our final destination located at the star - Lamb's Yacht Center on the Ortega River.

The map below shows the extra distance we traveled to pick up fuel before docking for the night.

Blue dot / star shows the marina where we plan to stay.
Heart shows the location of the fuel dock we visited.

As we made our way towards the marina to get fuel, I noticed on the chart that we were heading for Switzerland! Surprise!!

Mandarin Holiday Marina had us tie to their fuel dock on our starboard side because they said we were too wide to come in for the port side. Our boat is 16' wide at its widest but that is not at the waterline, so we probably could have fit.

Other side of the fuel dock
where they said we would not fit!

We found lots of vegetation in the fuel dock slip we pulled into. We sat with our bow in the weeds as we fueled.

Weedy fueling spot

When we came in, I threw a line around a piling to hold us while we fueled. The woman working the dock quickly transferred the line to a cleat as she said the pilings were not to be trusted. They were weakened when Hurricane Ian came through the area. She showed me how bad it was by wiggling the piling at our stern. Part of the dock came up as she pushed the pole away from her! She said repairs are underway but not yet completed.

$4.999 per gallon diesel

We spent about an hour getting fuel and took on almost 400 gallons. Even at $5 per gallon, it added up in a hurry. The dial only went up to $999.99.  After that it rolled over to $000.00 and kept going. (Unlike when we fueled at Top Rack where they had to ring up our fuel charges multiple times because their meter stops at $999.99 and has to be restarted as a new purchase for any more fuel to be added.)

Lots of sailboats in this marina -
a bit surprising as we were concerned about
potential depth issues as we entered the area

Weeds in the slips!
Listing sailboat over a couple of rows
looks to be aground in the slip

Fish Camp nearby

Clark had to back out of the marina as the area was too narrow for him to turn around. I worried about the 20 knot winds catching him as he backed out into the river, but he had no issues. We had to watch for traps in the river as we made our way back north on the St. John's River to our marina on the Ortega River.  

The next couple of days may get interesting as we are watching a potential hurricane (Nicole) forming off Florida's coast. Fortunately, the marina gave us a spot to tie up that has us as well protected as we can be if a storm passes through here.