Jacksonville and St. John's River

Entering Jacksonville on the St. John's River

The JAX  Jaguars' Stadium

We turned off the ICW at the St. John's River and arrived in Jacksonville on Tuesday, March 27th.  We stayed at the Arlington Marina in order to be close to Tom's mother's first cousin-in-law, Jim Gottlof, who was going to join us for a harbor cruise on Wednesday.  Unfortunately Jim ended up in the hospital the day before our arrival, so plans changed.  Instead, we rented a car to visit him and run a number of errands.  We left Jacksonville on Thursday and began a week's cruise up the St. John's, which near Jacksonville is more lakelike-wide and about 10-20 feet deep.  Thursday night we anchored in Palmo Cove about 34 miles south of Jacksonville and took the dinghy to the Crab Shack up the creek for a dinner of soft shelled crabs.  As much as I hate avoiding the ever present crab pots floating everywhere in the river, I think of this as my revenge!  Spring is definitely in the air with the critters.  The frogs and birds carried on for several hours after sunset.  Whoever said the country was quiet has never anchored in this cove!

Friday we continued on to Palatka where we spent the first night at the Quality Inn Marina.  Then on Saturday, one of my former fourth grade students, Elizabeth Whitener Stegemoller, her family and her mom, my  good friend, Judy Whitener, from Farmington joined us for the day.  Elizabeth received her PhD in neuroscience from Northwestern and now teaches and conducts research in the field of Parkinsons at the University of Florida-Gainesville.  I am so proud of her.  Of course, I tell everyone it all began in fourth
 grade :)  We spent a wonderful day on a slow cruise to Rice Creek and a fast return to a dock at Boathouse Marina being chased in by a wild thunderstorm that developed quickly.  Elizabeth and Aaron's adorable little girls, Adde (almost 5)) and Lucy (2 1/2), were intrigued by the boat--especially the forward cabin.  Adde thoroughly enjoyed sitting on "Captain Tom's" lap, steering the boat and asking "What is this? What does that button do? How does that work?"  Captain Tom loved every minute of it also!

Judy, Adde, Lucy and Elizabeth

Elizabeth and Lucy

Intense game of dominoes!

Helmsman, Adde, with look-out, daddy Aaron.
Captain Tom directing.

Ice cream was a perfect ending for the day.

Eating ice cream can be exhausting!

We left Palatka Sunday morning and stopped at Welaka for lunch at Shrimps R Us--a biker's welcome banner out front.  The boiled shrimp was delicious! Then it was back to the boat and on to an anchorage at the north end of Lake George.  We took a LONG dinghy ride trying to find the entrance to Salt Springs Creek, but by the time we found it dusk had settled in and we didn't have time to explore.  The days have been very warm--in the 90's--but luckily the nights cool off nicely for sleeping so we don't have to keep the generator running all night for air conditioning.  Monday we motored about 2/3 of the way up Lake George (which is 10 miles long and 5 miles wide) to Silver Springs.  The creek was too shallow for our draft, so we left Raydiance at anchor outside and took our dinghy to the springs. The water at the springs was cool and crystal clear-- very welcome on a warm day-- and quite different from the root beer colored water in the St. Johns River.  We were hoping to snorkel with manatees, but had to settle for trout.  A surprisingly large number of people were there for a weekday.

Silver Springs

Mermaid?? snorkeling at Silver Springs

Schools of trout at Silver Springs

Leaving the Springs, we traveled to the south end of Lake George reentering the river channel through a set of gates on which pelicans, coots, gulls, osprey and cormorants perched on every post.  A bit after setting the anchor in a creek just north of Astor, we realized the tree directly across from us contained at least 5 large  great blue heron's nests.  As I said earlier, "tis spring" and those herons squawked and danced until well after dark. Quite a sight and commotion!  Other creatures in the creek included red-billed Common Gallinule (cousin to the white billed Coots which are very common) and several alligators.  Needless to say, we did not go swimming.  That night we dinghyed to Castaways Restaurant on the far side of Astor for dinner.

Places everyone!

Red billed common gallinule

Loud, squawky great blue herons nesting

The reason we did not go swimming

Dinghy highway to restaurant

Fine dining on the river

Tuesday we started the trek back to  Jacksonville.  We spent that night anchored in Six Sisters' Creek.  The following day we stopped for lunch at Corky Bells Restaurant across the river from Palatka.  Would highly recommend this restaurant.  I even got cozy with the alligators. That night we anchored in Black Creek.

Corky Bells

Another patron at Corky Bells

Thursday we headed back to  Jacksonville.  On the way we passed the Naval Air Base where  planes were practicing landings and take-offs directly over us.  We stopped at The Landing in downtown Jacksonville for lunch at an Irish Pub and then went back over to the Arlington.  Today is Friday.  Tom is working on the generator which is again acting up and we will be taking Jim Gottlof and his friend, Will, out for a harbor cruise later this afternoon.  Tomorrow morning we will leave for Fernandino Beach en route to Jekyll Island.

Planes overhead at JAX Naval Base

Raydiance at The Landing in downtown Jacksonville