Day 87 St. Augustine to Jacksonville

Left the dock at St. Augustine at 8:30 am after, you guessed it, a pumpout. The scenery began to change almost immediately. First, the forested areas became mainly pine with only a few palms along the banks of the waterway. Second, there were very large areas of salt marsh that was very reminiscent of the Texas coastal plain. Don't forget that we are now far enough north that we are basically off of the Florida peninsula. We went about 56 miles with the last 16 in the St. Johns River. We entered the river near the coast and went about 8 miles west and then south or southwest for about 8 miles to get to Jacksonville.

Even with this relatively long distance in the channel (i.e. St. Johns River) we only passed 2 barges pushed by tugs and saw two smaller container ships moving in the distance. Thus, even though Jacksonville is a major port, it hardly seemed like being in the Houston Ship Channel. There are a lot of major highway bridges in town, including this one right before our marina. The dark sky on the left is real, and we had been watching this storm for several hours. The wind had picked up, but fortunately, we never caught up with the rain. We are in the city marina, and it is free for up to 3 days a month.

In spite of that (and a $8.00 charge for electricity), we are the only boat in the marina. Sounds crazy at first doesn't it? Third picture will give you the answer. This is a view from Lucky Us at our dock of the Jacksonville stadium where their NFL team, the Jaguars, will play a pre-season exhibition game against the Miami Dolphins tomorrow night. The marina will be 100% full tomorrow with plenty of "boat gating" before and after the game. On those days with special events there is a $50.00 charge for a dock, which is still a bargain! My lovely, kind Admiral arranged all of this (marina and tickets) and then surprised me! What a gal!

For dinner we rode our electric scooters along the waterfront about a mile to Jacksonville Landing, which is on the river downtown. There are several levels of stores and restaurants with live music in the courtyard.

...and guess what day it was? The second Thursday of every month is motorcycle day with free parking on the mall. Wow, with our electric scooters we fit right in (ha, ha).

Until today, we had only found Mexican restaurants in 3 or 4 towns, but today we hit the jackpot! I had the absolute best taco salad that I have ever had. Plus, it was only $7.99 with fajita chicken.  Well, a fairly long day on the water and a full stomach means that I ought to sleep very good tonight... Gotta rest up for the game tomorrow night!

     So far, Jacksonville is looking like a great stop on our trip. However, about a mile before we reached the marina we both smelled a strong odor with a faint burnt smell. Then it quickly went away. Just as we docked, we both smelled it again for a few seconds...

When we started out for down town, after a few blocks we passed this huge Maxwell House Coffee plant that covered about 3 large city blocks. The origin of the smell was solved. I must say that I felt relieved because a fire on a boat is not something that you want to have happen. No way!

Well, I will talk at you after the game tomorrow...