JACKSONVILLE

The passage from St. Augustine to Jacksonville was beautiful, interesting, and fun.  It seems like we passed more than one inlet, cruised through more than one manmade canal, enjoyed the scenery along the Tolomato River, and then merged onto the St. Johns River.  Now, that, was exciting.

 

There is an area along the way where the water "sweeps" through a narrower area when the tides change, and the water "boils" like rapids.  It was insane!  One minute, we are cruising along at a comfortable 7.3 knots and the next, we were moving at almost 11 knots without even touching anything.  Then, when we merged onto the river, our speed dropped to barely 5 knots, again, without touching anything.  Not bad for the money, really.  For the same RPMs, and thus the same fuel consumption, we went, 7,5, and 11.  We did notice, however, that, once you get past Jacksonville, the tidal currents are not as meaningful. 

Needless to say, when we arrived at the Landing at the end of a long day, it was fun making the boat walk sideways using the current and thrust to put Abreojos gently right up against the dock.  Nice landing at The Landing.



Jacksonville claims it is the city that is the largest "in area" in the continental United States.  However, only approximately 850,000 people live here.  The city is an intermodal transportation hub/distribution center that includes air cargo facilities, rail and trucking routes. Additionally, there is a lot of shipping going on here as well, as there is a major Atlantic Ocean inlet just down the road which maintains fairly deep (deep enough) water for the large ocean going cargo ships.  Millions of tons of raw materials and manufactured goods move through the city annually.  Yet with all this "action" you might forget that Jacksonville has the largest park system in the country.  There are miles and miles of beaches not that far from downtown, not to mention the fact that Jacksonville sits on the the St. Johns River.  Unfortunately, there is apparently a lot of violence in the inner city and the city leaders are trying everything they can to stem this.  There is a lot more in the way of visible police presence in this town.  But, I have to say, the downtown area is pretty rough.  There are a lot of homeless people here, and poor people who are far less fortunate. Again, I am referring to the downtown area that I have seen from my bicycle, and that ain't that much.  There are beautiful office towers here too, which are filled with lots of hard working folks which, to me, means that there is undoubtedly much nicer areas where these folks live.  It's great seeing all the people out in the early part of the day, and at the end of the day enjoying walks and jogs along the river.  Every color, shape and size.  Folks hanging out and doing things as a group or as a family.  In every city, there are ups and downs.  You just have to find what you are comfortable with and go for it.




We got here a few days ago.  Our first couple nights, we spent on one of the city's "Free Docks" at a place called The Landing.  The Landing is a waterfront mall.  There are over 50 restaurants and stores to keep you interested.  There is an interesting central plaza with a fountain that comes out of the ground, so the kids and adults can play in the water when it gets hot enough.  It's like a public pool in a way.  There is also a stage in the plaza where a seemingly endless string of folks come to play music, to sing, dance, or demonstrate their cheerleading routines.  What is also really nice about the landing is IT IS AIR CONDITIONED.  BECAUSE IT'S SO HAAAAAAAWWWWWWTTTTTT.  From the ICW, we are only about 18 miles inland, and I can tell you that the climate is very different.




St. Augustine was cool in comparison.  In fact, we even had to break out a heavier blanket because it cooled down, especially at night.  Here, however, while it cools down at night, it doesn't cool down that much.  Thus, we're glad we picked up "Olga" when we were in Titusville.  Oh, perhaps I haven't introduced you to our newest crewmember.  "Olga" is a portable room air conditioner.  She is quite small, standing barely 3 feet tall, and, she has a flat head, and no teeth.  No seriously.  She plugs into our AC power system and runs when we are plugged in or when we have the generator running and blows.  Let me tell you.  She blows nice cool air without any of the hassles of very expensive marine units.  We picked her up at a Home Depot and if she makes it through the rest of the summer, we'll gladly give her an honored burial.  If she makes it through the next two summers, then she will assume a hallowed place in our hearts forever.  If she doesn't, then for the price of 5 cartons of cigarettes, we'll get another.  She doesn't eat anything, she doesn't go to the bathroom, she doesn't complain, and she doesn't talk back.  I think she and "Leon" have been eyeballing each other.



So, we hung out at the landing for a couple days and enjoyed the proximity to downtown Jax.  From there, we decided to get off the dock for a couple days, and headed down to a place called Doctor's Lake.  I haven't the foggiest idea.  That would be my response to the question, why do they call it that?  All I know is we had three wonderful days swinging on the hook with nothing to do but read and enjoy the wonderful pastoral scenery.  There were lots and lots of gators in that there lake.  We only saw a couple, but you know they are there.  Not to mention bugs - HUGE flying things that bite, sting and otherwise make you crazy.  Leon was looking a little thin after 4 days in St. Augustine.  Leon can hardly get off the couch now, he ate so much.



Things rarely go completely without a hitch.  As we were warming up the engine and getting ready to cruise down to Doctors Lake, Brenda informed me, "the radar is not turning on."  GREAT!  I have said it before, and I'll say it again, radar is not a critical element to do this cruise.  We are not running at night, in the fog, or in bad weather.  Many of the other boats around us are so small and plastic that they hardly show up in any event.  However, I have always thought of our radar as an integral component of our navigation routine.  It is actually quite helful for a number of reasons:  We can use it to spot navigational aids; we use it to tell us when we are running down the middle of a narrow channel; we use it to help confirm our position vis a vis other visible landmarks and landmarks that are on the plotter and our paper charts; we use it to help guage distances from the shoreline and from other boats in an anchorage.  Ultimately, the radar has many functions OTHER THAN seeing in the dark or in the fog.  Some of you might think, well, hell, Larr, why don't you just look out the damn window?  Well, of course we do.  My eyes, however, will not tell me certain things with the level of accuracy and precision some of the things my radar will.  For instance, those of you who know me know what a klutz I am in close quarters.  Brenda laughs because I can hardly walk through a damn doorway without hitting one side or another.  (That is probably a function of the width and breadth of my ass and shoulders - hey, I never said anything about being graceful.)  But, I find it difficult, sometimes, to see whether or not I am actually moving down the centerline.  No seriously, this is, I believe, a function of having astygmatic vision.  Even corrected, it's still a hassle.  Don't worry friends, I am not planning on taking up flying planes!  Nevertheless, I have become so accustomed to using radar over the last many many years, that not having it is like walking with a patch over one eye.  I can do it, but it feels funny. So what to do what to do. 



Raymarine technical support is a joke and I will never have a Raymarine product installed on anything I ever own again that floats.  We tried the website, we tried local Raymarine technicians, we tried calling their 800 number.  Nothing, nothing, nothing.  Everyone said, "well, you'd have to ship it to us and then we might be able to figure it out." Or, we were told that is an old unit and we don't even make them anymore.  Only my friend Dave, who is still THE BEST marine electrician in the bloody world, was able to tell me what was most likely going on.  Based on his information, it became clear that the display unit was basically cooked.  So, again, what to do, what to do.  Then I remembered my friend Joel in Ventura, who owns Beacon Marine Electronics, and decided to give him a call to see if he could get his hands on another unit like ours since we could not find a single place that sells them (the unit is 10 years old and even Raymarine doesn't carry them).  So I called Joel, and he said, something along the lines of "Dude, you're in luck.  I just took two of them off another boat.  Let me see if the guy wants to sell one."  We ended up getting the unit that is in perfect shape and barely used, shipped to us in Jacksonville, and installed by a less than professional marine electrician (yes, that would be me), for a very reasonable cost.  I want to thank Joel at Beacon for stepping up to give us a hand and a break. http://www.beaconmarineinc.com/




We are back in Jax, only this time, we are chilling at the city's other Free Dock.  This place is really nice.  There is no charge and you can stay for 72 hours.  There is power for a very nominal fee, and water is free.  It's a short bike ride from downtown, and is literally in the shadow of the stadium where the Jacksonville Jaguars play.  This area really is a huge sports complex.  Again, there is the football stadium, then there is a baseball park, and another arena where they do all sorts of things from Springsteen concerts to Arena Football.  In fact, this marina gets a lot of use from folks who come to sporting events by boat.  It's all good. 



We are here for just a couple more days and then Brenda's sister and her husband Steve will join us as we cruise up the St. Johns River.  This will be a totally cool cruise as the river has quite a few sides and faces.  More later.

Bye