Back to Ortega Landing Marina in Jacksonville, FL

Day 62, 63 & 64; Thurs-Sat, March 21-23, 2019

Palatka, FL to Jacksonville FL 

55 miles   …   6.5 hours hours traveled

Beautiful morning with calm winds. Since we were on the end of the dock, the sunrise wasn't blocked out by bigger boats this morning!! Nice restful night. Under way early and with the current.

Sort-of a boring day; and that isn't a bad thing, exactly. Passing sights we have seen. Then the wind picked up more than any weather/wind app predicted. Got a little sporty for a bit. We did stop for fuel along the way.

We passed Jax Naval Air Base. Two planes were practicing touch and goes. Freedom in action.

As Rip often says, it's boring until it isn't then you don't want to be there. Usually he is taking about cruising in the ocean. Such was docking today. The wind was up but felt slack in the fairway as we approached the slip. Felt like the condo building and larger boats were blocking the wind. Until we turned into  the slip and the wind funneled from the open slip in front of ours. 

Dock hand and a neighbor, Looper Jamie, were there to help. Problem was the dock hand wrapped the line I tossed her to the wrong cleat and I didn't catch what she had done. That gave us no place to take a Stern line so the wind started blowing us off the dock in a twisting motion and towards the boat next to us, Jamies'. Everybody took a deep breath and Rip gave a couple quick instructions and we were safely tied up. For a little boat she such can be blown around a lot.

Back to Oretga Landing Marina for three nights...

View from the upstairs balcony of the marina office building. Where Sherry and I hung out and chatted the day away.

View of the Marina from our boat, back in the same slip as before!

We arrived Thursday afternoon. Rip rinsed the salt off the boat and I made dinner. It was an early night for us both. Friday morning was laundry time, then a bike ride over to Publix for some prescription refills and pick up lunch for us both.

After dropping David off at the airport, Sherry stopped by to hang out for a couple hours. Rip and Cally took naps while Sherry and I relaxed at the clubhouse. 

More chores on Saturday morning. After lunch Sherry came back over to take me on a provisioning run, probably our last one the Loop, to Publix. Afterwards we hung out at the clubhouse balcony over looking the Ortega River.

It was quite a treat to spend time with Sherry again, just like the old days when we were in college. We tried to Facetime another college roommate, Mary, who lives in Colorado. I was surprised I had the right mobile number for her as it is probably 20-25 years old. But no answer. Dang, that would have been funny. Sherry was able to Facetime with her husband and daughter who just arrived in Chile for a hiking vacation. Nice to see they arrived safe and we're looking good after a long time traveling.

Tomorrow we are off, northward bound to finish our Great Loop. Amelia Island GA is our planned stop for Sunday night.

Leaving Welaka, FL for Palatka, FL

Day 61: March 20, 2019

Welaka, FL to Palatka, FL 

26 miles   …   3 1/2 hours

Easy slow morning as we don't have far to go today. Good byes to Jim & Kim and Last pets for Cally. 

Wind is up but the sun is out. We will be in protected waters today so the wind should not bother us too much 

We can hear the wind howling but travel is good. Very glad we crossed Lake George yesterday. Probably very ugly there today.

Passsed a lot of wooden boats heading south. Most be some kind of festival or show somewhere they are all heading to today. Each was immaculate and pristine looking. Fun to watch go past.

The north bound trend continues...railroad bridges down and waiting for a train to cross before it opens. This wait wasn't very long.

We beat the marina owner to the dock. We were all tied up and plugged into shore power when he arrived. Really nice guy named Skip. Skip and Marlene own and run this small 43 slip marina in Plataka, FL.  

They are in process of getting permits for a major remodel, adding a transient floating dock and fuel. 

Current building...

Architects rendering of proposed renovation...WOW!!

Sights around the marina and town....

Lab Partners at the end

Rip and I had dinner on the dock at a picnic table

Then, friends towing a fifth wheel texted they were coming thru Palatka. They waved as they crossed the bridge and we saw them going over. Our houses are about 3 miles apart in NC, we are 613 miles away from home and they will be only 10 miles away by water tonight.

Then Laurie, Mike & Laurie from Astor, just texted... They were crossing the bridge on their way home and saw us, too!

It's a small world.

North on the St John’s–Time to Head Towards Home

Day 60

Tuesday March 19, 2019: Sanford FL to Welaka, FL

61 miles. ...   7 hours

Drizzling rain started before. Cally told us she wanted to go ashore for potty time. Considering she hates to walk in the rain, I assumed this meant better now than later. So off to shore we went and prepped for departure once back to the boat.

This little fellow hung out on the pier half the day yesterday. I was happy when he left.

I liked the town of Sanford a lot. I didn't like the marina. The shower facilities were the worst in these past 60 days. Second worst I can remember on the entire Loop. Chicago still ranks as worst.

We did not go far before being stopped for 20+ mins by a closed railroad bridge with only 7' clearance. 

Light rain to sporadic drizzle followed us north. Passed very few boats. This boat was odd.

We did see one crew team out practicing.

As we traveled we watched the changing forecast hourly. We have plan A Plan B and Plan C. 

As we neared Astor (our original plan when we left this am), weather information indicated we could cross Lake George and get to Fruitland before the winds picked up. This would mean passing Mike & Laurie in Astor without stopping. Plus, the winds today looked a lot better than tomorrow morning to cross Lake George also. We moved on to see how the lake was and confirmed we should go for it. 

It was sporty but the boat and Rip handled all very well. Rip says the winds picked up 5 knots as we crossed and probably reached 17 before we crossed the lake. 

Lake George is shallow so winds can create high waves quickly. Glad that is now behind us. We will miss seeing Laurie and Mike at Astor, but relax at Jim & Kim's for the night before pushing on North tomorrow.

Cally loves all the attention she gets; whether with known buddies, like here with Jim, or new folk at a marina.

Sanford, FL; Our Last Stop on the St John’s River

Sat, March 16, 2019: Astor, Fl to Sanford, Fl

39.88 miles   …   6 hours

Mike, Rip & Laurie - saying goodbye is so hard.

See ya again ... sooner than later, we hope

Sad to leave Mike, Laurie, Cinder & Sunny; almost too much fun and definitely lots of good food. Good friends & gracious hosts.

We took a slow cruise to Sanford to enjoy the sights. Lots of natural landscape, a few populated places and lots of wildlife. The sound of birds calling was heard clearly over the still & quiet water.

It is a Saturday; once the sun came out so did a lot of boats. Fishing boats, speed boats and lots of rental pontoon & rental houseboats.

way too many houseboats ... at least they are at the dock today

rental boat people do not usually know how to boat

lots of folks out fishing

We passed an interesting boat…

The original plan was to go to Hontoon State Park. Weather for tomorrow was not great so we passed up on Hontoon and headed straight to Sanford, Fl. our last and most southern stop on the St John’s.

See the Rossi at the dock??

Do you see the Rossi we passed?? Sabatical was her name.

Once to Sanford, we hailed the marina of choice for the night… Monroe Harbour Marina. After confusing info on how to get to our slip from someone who doesn’t go out on the water … we arrived and were happy to be next door to friends, Cristina & Tom on Tadhana. We knew they wouldn’t be back to the boat until tomorrow am. So, a quiet night was in order.

Cally and Aurora (of Tadhana) had several long walks to parks and through the city. The marina is on;y 2 1/2 blocks from the down town with stuff, ice cream and restaurants.

We stayed until Tues morning. Sunday night was a fun night out to a very popular German Restaurant (Hollerbach's Willow Tree Cafe) with Cristina & Tom. Great food and too much fun to think about taking a picture. Actually, it was a bit loud with the German Oompah Band to think about taking a pic. Oh, well… we enjoyed it!

Monday was chores with grocery run (quick & easy with the help of a car Tom & Cristina have at the marina!! Thanks again guys.) Monday night will be quiet, dining on board, a little TV and early to bed. Tomorrow we start north and homeward bound!

Check out our neighbors!!

See the kids up top??

We didn’t have much of a view at this marina as we were surrounded by 2 75’ boats. But, we could get a glimpse of the Paddle Boat Tour Boat coming and going. Interesting, per Tom, she is a REAL Paddle Boat with twin engines and two Paddle Wheels that move her right, left, forward, backward. Most tour boats have a faux Paddle Wheel for looks but use engines and propellers like any large vessel.

There were also several “Tiny Houses” that float docked in a slip for full time residents.