Day 206
We left St. Augustine Municipal Marina at 7:45 am, with no wind at all. Water was glassy-flat and the scenery was almost boring, as this stretch of the AICW is so wide, we could barely see the river banks. There are no houses in this area to see, anyway – just watery wilderness. This portion of the AICW (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway) is the Tolomato River. We passed through the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estruarine Research Reserve, (try saying that three times really fast!), which is a large, wild area that leads into Deep Creek State Forest.
Next came the Guana River Wildlife Management Area. All of these places were so very isolated, I kept expecting to hear monkeys screaming from the trees, along with the calls of jungle birds. (Or worse… BANJOS!) Civilization began to reappear in earnest as we approached and passed underneath the Palm Valley Road bridge, where we were once again cruising past large, luxurious waterfront homes again. All through the Palm Valley Landing area, south of Jacksonville, we saw marshy wilderness on the west side of the river, and gorgeous estates on the east (Atlantic Ocean-front) bank. Every single estate was graced with huge Live Oak trees draped in Spanish moss. I envisioned a mega-HOA for the area that mandates those trees in each yard, like our neighborhood in Katy, TX, (west of Houston), where that HOA mandated two new Live Oak trees be planted in every single front yard in the subdivision. That was no problem for me, whatsoever, because Live Oaks are my absolute favorite trees.
As we eased into Ponte Vedra (a very high-end area south of Jacksonville), I was frustrated because we were traveling through that area in the morning, which meant any picture I took of the lovely homes to the east would be backlit by the sun, which ruins the picture. Darn it! The homes in this area are just spectacular!
We passed Isle of Palms on our west side, and then passed underneath the I-90 bridge across the AICW. The shorelines of the river were becoming more and more marshy, the farther north we went, which meant the homes were farther off of the river, since they must be built on solid ground.
The weather today was nothing less than PERFECT. We cruised underneath I-10 (aka Atlantic Boulevard Bridge) and passed a pretty area called The View at Harbortown, before coming into North Beach, which begins the Jacksonville, FL, MSA. After we went underneath the FL Hwy. 116 bridge (aka Wonderwood Drive Bridge), we cruised by the sobering US war ship harboring and work area on the east side of the St. John’s River, in which we were now traveling. Just a little farther up the huge St. John’s River, we encountered the imposing Jacksonville, FL, downtown skyline, which was extra-striking on this Chamber of Commerce weather day!
Shortly after we passed underneath the I-295 bridge (there are a ton of bridges in the Jacksonville, FL, area!) and then traversed west on the Ortega River for more than a few miles, we made it to The Marina at Ortega Landing right at 3:00 pm. We were assigned to slip C84 (seems like we’re always in C84, no matter what marina we go to(?), where Rick and Rhonda Spykman (whose boat was in slip C90) and (brand new friend) Marilou Zachary, on Inshallah, were waiting there to grab our lines and help get us secured in our slip. Rick and Rhonda stayed a couple extra nights at Ortega Landing so we would all have a chance to connect again, and we made it there in time to avoid missing them!
Just like old times, we laughed and talked and enjoyed ourselves immensely up in R&R’s flybridge for several hours on Sunday evening. As always, Rhonda served up an impressive spread of food. In fact, there was so much food, we didn’t even have to eat dinner that night!
Position: N 30° 16.664, W 81° 42.810
Distance traveled: 62 SM
Total distance traveled: 2941 SM
Total marina nights: 184
Total nights at anchor: 21
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 27