Arrived Atlantic to NAS Jacksonville

Renne' and I spent a lovely day meandering the St. John's River west from the Fort George Island Marina, almost on the mouth of the St. John's River and the Atlantic.  We departed about 1000, leaving the dock in a 2.0kt current outbound to the ocean, we muddled our way west.  This trip would be about 25nm and would take about the same time it takes to sail from our slip in Seabrook, Tx to Galveston, Tx.  Today it would take a bit longer as the current is against us most of the way.

Along the route, we passed the clean coal power plant, which is purported to be one of the 10 cleanest burning coal power plants in the world.  We passed a ship and a tug in dry dock for repairs, and only one major ship, an empty tanker called the "Overseas Texas City".  We had to call as he passed and tell him we were from the Texas City area.  He thought that was cool, but as he was getting underway, he didn't want to chance an episode on his watch, so we passed him one toot (port to port) and he and we were on our way.

We passed several potential anchorages as well as the famed "Jacksonville Landing", where, had we arrived off the ocean on Wednesday three hours earlier, we would have tied up to the FREE docks, paid $10 for electricity, and stayed for several days.  But we were not so lucky, so we decided on our way out of Jax we would stop for the night and enjoy the scene.

We arrived at NAS Jax about 1630 in the afternoon.  We were here about 90 minutes when a sheet of rain and thunder clouds passed over the top of us.  Winds picked up to about 30 kts.  Renne' had arranged for transportation to her sister's house to pick up a car when it hit.  She was sitting in the car while I was watching this sheet of rain approach from the west.  I flew down below to close up the boat when it hit.  Talk about rock and roll!  So for 5 minutes I watched from the boat, and as quickly as it came, it was gone farther across the city.

Renne' and I are on our way out again.  She is heading for South Carolina to pick up Payton for a couple of weeks, and I am headed back to Key West to pick up the car we left down there.  We both will be back here on Tuesday or Wednesday.

So we are settled down until the 10th of July - if you can call it that.

See you for Sundowners on the dock tonight!! Oh, ya gotta call us to get into the gate.  They don't just let anyone onboard - but then we just sailed up to the dock without any question.  HMMMMMM!

JonNe'