St. Augustine to Jacksonville and then Green Cove Springs

By Capt. Scott Buckley

We left St. Augustine the morning of May 7th to good weather.  Again we had to deal with some shoaling at the St. Augustine inlet but we followed the channel marker and not the charts and came thru OK.  The trip up to Jacksonville along the ICW was gorgeous.

Jacksonville, Sister Creek and the Angry 1st Mate

Our plan was to stay at the free dock in Jacksonville in Sisters Creek however when we got there, there were 3 boats spread out on a dock that could have easily taken 4 or 5 boats but due to the ways these guys hogged the dock there was not room for us.  We found a suitable anchorage in Sisters Creek that was not too far away.  Due to some outflow boundaries from a low that was off shore we encountered some very strong winds that night.  We had frequent gusts into the 30’s.   
The 1st mate was a little teed off at the folks at the dock that tied their boats in such a way to leave no room for other boats wanting to tie off.  As the winds increased the madder she got.  I believe if I had rowed her over to the free dock a violent massacre would have followed.  Our Delta anchor held fine and we had the dinghy on board at the time, so we just hunkered down and waited it out.  By midnight that night the winds started abating but not the 1st Mate’s ire.


St. John River at Jacksonville and the entrance to Sister Creek

Sister Creek Entrance, Free dock is at the channel in the upper left.

 
We arose the next morning and started heading thru Jacksonville up the St. John river towards Green Cove Springs.  Our plan was to stay at Reynolds Park Marina for a couple of days while we got the boat ready for hauling out at Green Cove Springs marina.
The trip thru Jacksonville was with good weather and the winds cooperated well enough we could motor sail most of the way.

Pictures of Jacksonville

Loved the Name on this boat



   

Reynolds Park Marina 

We arrived into Reynolds Park Marina around 4:30 PM.  Even though the trip was only 38 nm it took a while to negotiate all the bridges thru Jacksonville.

At Reynolds Park Marina for the small cost of $14/day you got water, electricity, showers, laundry, a spectacular cruisers lounge, and gated access.  Did I mention free WiFi?
I was able to connect electric to the boat and run the AC.  I had not run the AC since Oct 2014.  It would have been difficult without it.  This far inland the days really heat up.
Oddly enough one of the Space Shuttle’s fuel tanks was sitting right there at the Marina.  You could walk right up and touch.  It was probably  crawling with space cooties but how could you resist

Actually the "Space Cooties" is incorrect.  Once these guys go into space they get burned up on re-entry.  For this guy to even still exist mean he experienced "Failure to Launch"

This is actually 2 tanks.  one for hydrogen and the other for oxygen.

  .
We got Reynolds Park Marina on May 8th which was a Friday.  We were not scheduled to haul out at Green Cove Springs Marina until Tuesday or May 12th.  We had 3 days to do final prep on the boat before haul out. 
Once again David and Alice gave us a ride from Green Cove Springs back to St. Augustine to pick up our car.  While there we met with them for dinner and was joined by Toby and Dana from MV OZ.  Another couple we had met and cruised around with in Georgetown.