Yesterday morning (Day 89) we left the city marina and headed across the city to Ortega Landing Marina. It is a favorite stop for "Loopers", and we can definitely understand why. Our trip was only 9 miles, but it took nearly 2 hours. This picture is of the Jacksonville Landing, which is the area where we had dinner on our first night in town (Day 87). If you look at the water you can see the swirls (or turbulent flow). We were headed up river and into an outgoing tide. Our normal cruising speed of 8 mph went down to about 4.5 mph. The St. Johns River is narrow here due to the development along the waterfront. This narrow channel restricts the flow and increases the velocity (and turbulence). We noted water depths of 76 feet in one area. If you restrict the width, the turbulence of the river just deepens or erodes its channel to accommodate the discharge. The downtown waterfront is pretty along both sides so the slow travel gave us plenty of time to enjoy the view. We left the marina at 8:40 am in order to make the opening of the railroad bridge that is undergoing repairs. If we had missed that opening, the next was not going to be until 2:00 pm. 
The marina is nearly full since there are lots of live aboards due to the proximity to the city center. The facility is fairly new and has a lovely pool and club house. Once again, our timing was perfect since the marina was hosting their monthly theme party/dinner at 6:00 pm. It turns out that the "theme" was pirates -aargh! It turns out that hippies from the 1960s make pretty good pirates in costume with their beards and pony tails. This picture taken from Lucky Us shows the club house (upper right) and some of the really nice boats. Sometimes people who live aboard do not take good care of their boats, but most of these people seem to do some serious cruising for extended periods.
Today's highlight was lunch at a Dominican restaurant. The food was great, but the menu was a bit of a challenge for me. I ended up with wonderful broiled Tilapia on a garden salad. The Tilapia had been marinated in a lime or lemon juice, which was an enjoyable but different taste. There is a fairly large shopping center nearby with a Publix grocery, Radio Shack and assorted other stores. At the Shack we bought some new connectors for the coaxial cable to the TV in the master stateroom, which had not been getting good reception. Problem solved! This was a big relief, since replacing the cable would have taken a lot of time. The cable is over 40 feet long and passes under the master stateroom, head and then through the entire engine room. Along the way it passes through 2 bulkheads and is part of bundles of up to 25 other pairs of 12 and 120 volt wires. A "relatively" easy day long job has been avoided at least for now.
Tomorrow or sometime soon, we plan to head south, up the St. Johns River for a week or so of cruising. Depending upon how good the cruising is, we plan to go 100 or miles south/up river. The St. Johns River is one of the seemingly few major river in North America that flows north, which is why many people find it "odd" to be going south and up stream at the same time...
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