Titusville to Jacksonville

Friday, June 20th, was spent changing the engine oil and doing various odd jobs around the boat. Todd's sister, Jennifer, and fiance Mark picked us up Saturday afternoon at Kennedy Point Marina in Titusville and took us to Winter Springs, FL, near Orlando. That evening, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner of steak and Bahamian lobster.

Look appetizing? It was!!!


On Sunday I got caught up on laundry while Todd went with his sister to take her youngest daughter, Sara, to a nearby YMCA camp. When they returned we all drove to the Sanford marina to check on Todd's parents boat and then we grabbed a bite to eat at the little open-air restaurant next to the marina. Later that evening Todd went with Jennifer to the Orlando airport to pick up her oldest daughter, Shannon, and niece Kelli who just returned from a two-week trip to Italy with Todd's mom.

Jennifer giving "bro" a haircut. Todd accused her of exposing too much gray hair!


Nieces Shannon (left) and Kelli (right). Aren't they pretty?


One afternoon, we noticed that one of Sara's goldfish was floating. The Captain tried to resuscitate it, to no avail!


Todd and I did a little shopping on Monday and spent Tuesday just channel-surfing and lounging around Jennifer's nice, big house, something of a treat when you live on a forty-foot boat! Wednesday afternoon Shannon and Kelli took us back to "Life's2Short" and spent some time checking out the many manatees at the marina.

The manatees were loving their fresh water bath!




Kelli and Shannon with Uncle Todd.


We put in about 75 miles on Thursday and anchored in a canal near Flagler Beach that has both a cement plant and a Sea Ray factory at the end of it. Actually, we nosed the bow in to shore and tied stern lines to trees on shore, but it worked fine and we had a quiet evening with just a brief period of light rain. Although it was a long day, it was relatively uneventful other than a clogged fuel filter on the port engine which the Captain quickly changed.

We arrived in St. Augustine shortly after noon on Friday and anchored north of the Bridge of Lions near the Castillo de San Marcos, an old Spanish fort. Later that afternoon we dinghied to the St. Augustine Municipal Marina dinghy dock to explore the downtown area. The marina charges $10 for twenty-four hours usage of their dinghy dock, including trash disposal and the use of their showers.

An aerial view of the Castillo de San Marcos (borrowed from the Internet).


Our first downtown stop was A1A Ale Works where we ordered a dozen hot wings. Then we toured St. George Street, which has all kinds of shops and restaurants, before stopping at Crab Grabbers Grill for a half-dozen raw oysters for the Captain. On the way back to the dinghy we had a light dinner at Harry's Seafood Bar & Grille before returning to the boat. Just sampling our way through a few of the city's many restaurants!

Our anchorage from downtown, just across the street from Harry's.


We went to town again late Saturday morning and took a tour of what is supposedly "The Oldest House" in America, along with some other historic exhibits on the property. We had a very nice lunch at the Old City House Inn & Restaurant and then toured the Lightner Museum which has an amazing variety of collections and exhibits covering a broad array of subjects.

A very nicely displayed room in "The Oldest House."


One of Lightner Museum's many exhibits.


The Admiral found the shell displays especially interesting!



This is the Music Room.


The building housing the museum is centered around this beautiful courtyard. A wedding was held there while we were in the museum.


This is Flagler College. In 1888, Henry Morrison Flagler built the luxury resort Hotel Ponce de Leon, which now serves as a residence hall and centerpiece for the college. A masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance architecture, Ponce de Leon Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hotel was sold to Flagler College when the institution was founded in 1968, forty years ago.


After leaving the museum we went back to St. George Street in search of a Greek festival that Todd had read about on the Chamber of Commerce web site. After stopping and asking a variety of people where the festival was being held, we located it and were not impressed. Nonetheless, the Captain sampled the baklava which was quite good! On the way back to the dinghy, we stopped in again at A1A Ale Works but the dark clouds were threatening so we decided to cut our visit short and head back to "Life's2Short."  Even though we were literally surrounded by storms north, south and east of us, we were relieved to only have some light rain.

We left St. Augustine Sunday morning and travelled six hours to an anchorage three miles upstream on the St. John's River. Just before we reached the intersection of the St. John's and the Intracoastal Waterway, a nasty storm hit with probably fifty-plus mile-per-hour wind and blinding rain. Since we were in a fairly wide area along the waterway and visibility was virtually zero, the Captain decided to circle around south of the Interstate 10 bridge until visibility improved. Thankfully, the storm was short-lived and we were on our way again within about fifteen minutes. Not a fun experience!

Today, June 30th, we covered the remaining couple of hours to the free city dock at the Jacksonville Landing in downtown Jacksonville. As we were nearing the downtown area, Todd noticed a huge commercial ship named "Fuji" gaining on us from behind! Fuji's captain hailed us on the VHF radio a short time later and asked us to follow an alternate route just south of the Intracoastal until he got to his destination. We were happy to oblige! Todd asked the captain what he was hauling and he told us he had five thousand Toyotas from Japan on board - amazing what they haul half-way across the globe!

This interesting bridge was near last night's anchorage.


This is "Fuji" bringing five thousand Toyotas to the local Toyota distributor.


Coming in to downtown Jacksonville. The Landing is just beyond the blue bridge.


Since we haven't heard anything from Todd's friend from Switzerland, we don't know if he is still coming to Jacksonville or not, but even if his plans have changed I think we will find plenty to occupy ourselves for the next few days. Jacksonville Landing is a very nice development with about fifty restaurants and specialty shops, and the free dock is situated directly in front of it. There also appear to be other "points of interest" nearby, including the Jacksonville Jaguars' stadium, so I'm sure we'll get out and do a little exploring.

As I write this, another storm is moving through Jacksonville with heavy rain, strong wind and lots of lightning. Needless to say, we are both happy to be tied to a cement dock this afternoon! We plan to leave here Wednesday, July 2nd, and arrive in Savannah on Monday, July 7th. We will update the blog again at that time with information about our stay in Jacksonville and the trip to Savannah. In the meantime, have a safe and happy 4th of July!!!