"Bottoms Up" from Jacksonville

On Saturday, November 6th, we pulled in to the marina where Jim & Sherel keep their boat “Sandpiper.”

“Sandpiper” with “Life’s2Short” at the dock. The Jaguar’s Stadium is in the background.

The Maxwell House coffee plant near Jim & Sherel’s marina. Nothing like the aroma of fresh coffee in the morning!

That afternoon Jim and Todd took a tour of a Coast Guard Cutter that was docked between the marina and The Landing.

Just like being the Captain of “Life’s2Short”…NOT!

That evening, following Alabama’s upsetting loss, we had a great pot roast dinner on “Sandpiper” and were joined by Debbie, a neighbor and friend of Jim & Sherel’s who watches their cat (Miss Kitty) for them when they are out of town. Unfortunately, we did not get a photo of Debbie to share on the blog.

Sunday afternoon we moved “Life’s2Short” to The Landing. It was still quite windy but we got tied up without incident, thanks in part to one of the water taxi drivers who was kind enough to take a line for us. That evening we invited Jim & Sherel to join us at Hooters for wings.

Sherel and birthday boy Jim. Happy 65th, Jim!

Live music at The Landing.

Monday afternoon we walked across the Main Street Bridge to meet up with a group of MTOA members who are cruising the St. John’s River this week.

A new statue of Andrew Jackson (after whom Jacksonville was named) out in front of The Landing.

A nice view of The Landing from the south side of the St. John’s River.

The group gathered at The Chart House for happy hour, so we joined them for a drink and finally met Bob & Helen aboard “Allez!” We crossed paths with “Allez!” as we were leaving Washington, D.C., in early August but had never actually met them.

After leaving The Chart House, we hiked back across the bridge and ended up at Chicago Pizza for happy hour and appetizers before heading back to “Life’s2Short” for the evening.

The blue bridge in the background is the Main Street Bridge.

We left The Landing Tuesday morning around 8:45 and were in the process of getting hauled out at Huckins Yacht Corporation on the Ortega River by 9:30 a.m.

Jim (“Sandpiper”) stopped by shortly before noon and we rode with him to a nearby Taco Bell for lunch. By the time we returned, they had the boat up on blocks (they had already pressure washed the bottom before we went to lunch). So Todd got busy washing the hull and cleaning the nasty brown mustache off the bow and the scum off the waterline while I cleaned the rust off part of the stainless steel.

The workers starting sanding the bottom Wednesday before 8:00 a.m. Todd spent the entire day waxing the hull from the rub rail down and came very close to finishing it! While he was doing that, I made chocolate glazed brownies for the crew and put together a nice dinner for a very deserving Captain.

Thursday was primarily spent doing some shopping at Wal-Mart and Publix while the bottom was being painted, although Todd was able to finish waxing the hull later that afternoon.

Todd spent Friday putting two coats of primer and a coat of bottom paint on the running gear and also installing a new propeller on the bow thruster. The bow thruster quit working this past summer when we were on the Chesapeake but we weren’t able to determine what was wrong with it until the boat was hauled. Turned out that part of the (plastic) propeller had broken so we ordered a new one Tuesday afternoon to be delivered Friday.

“Life’s2Short” all washed and waxed with a newly painted bottom!

Friday afternoon Craig, one of the workers, put us back in the sling and lifted us enough to shift the blocks so that those areas could be bottom painted, which Todd also did. They then left the sling in place so that we would be ready go back in the water at 8:00 a.m. Saturday. They decided to do this because Huckins needed the lot space for its customer appreciation barbecue on Saturday. As promised, Craig was there at 8:00 Saturday morning and we were back in the water 30 minutes later.

Early Saturday afternoon we joined the barbecue and helped ourselves to some very tasty smoked pork and chicken, baked beans, potato salad and cole slaw. Thanks for the invite, Huckins!

Saturday afternoon Todd hosed the boat off in anticipation of our departure Sunday morning. Then we walked over to Publix to purchase a few final items before returning to “Life’s2Short” for a quiet evening.

Today is Sunday, November 14th, and we are leaving Jacksonville behind as we head back to the ICW to continue the trek south. We were hoping to meet up with “Knot Tide Down” in Jacksonville but they are still at least a few days out so we decided to go ahead and get underway.

We should be in the Port Canaveral area by Thursday where we will once again meet up with Doug & Tammy on “Gypsies in the Palace.” We last saw Doug & Tammy in Key West in early April. Since then they have both rejoined the workforce (ugh!) but are still living on their boat at Harbortown Marina. Looking forward to seeing you again, guys!