Left Ortega Landing in Jacksonville at 8:15 am. We headed south (up river) on the St. Johns River nearly 54 miles to Palatka. At our normal cruising speed we were only making 6.2 mph going up stream and against a falling tide. About Noon, the tide reversed and we picked up speed to a little over 8 mph, which is our normal cruising speed. Once we passed under the I-295 ring road bridge, it started to get very remote. There were still some houses along the water, but we were obviously getting out of the metropolitan area. One of the few boats that passed us was a 90 foot yacht that must have been throwing up a 6 foot high bow wave at about 20 mph. He did slow down some while passing us so we did not get waked too bad. There are only a few bridges across the St. Johns River, and even those are like 20 miles apart, which probably contributes to the remoteness of the area. Palatka is a small, county seat. It has lots of historic homes that seem pretty well maintained. 
Angel's Diner (first two photos) is the oldest, continuously operated diner in Florida. Like I've said before, every town has at least one gimmick. As the sign says, Angel's is biker friendly so I felt right at home on my electric scooter...
Our marina is small and right downtown
The last picture is a (lousy) photo showing the whole marina and much of the downtown waterfront. Bad quality aside, you really do not see most of the houses, which are generally set back from the water in the trees, and the downtown area is two blocks and more away from the water.
Tomorrow we are headed 48 miles further south along the St. Johns River. At some point it will start to get narrower, but so far we are over 80 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and the river is still 1 to 3 miles wide. Pretty amazing and beautiful trip so far.
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