Monday, October 31, 2016

Jacksonville Free Docks - Fendered to a boat at the dock

Fernandina is closed!
The Jekyll Island anchorage was calm as usual and we rose to another perfect day. We headed towards Fernandina which was on the way to the Jacksonville free docks. Fernandina was devastated. We saw a 1/2 dozen boats up on land and there were probably more that have already been recovered. The town marina was closed. No fuel, no transient docks, no dinghy docks, nothing. We heard that it wouldn't' be until April at the earliest until it's reopened according to the local newspaper. You can anchor, or course, but you have no shore access. The moorings are not open either.

No dinghy dock either
Onward we went. The shallows south of Fernandina are no longer a problem. Taylor Engineering with a contract from the Army Corps of Engineers did a depth survey of the shallows and found a 9 MLW path. They published a set of waypoints which I put into a GPX file labeled BFernRed on GPX Routes on my website at fleetwing.blogspot.com. Why sweat the shallows when you have a known good route through the problems? At some point in time, I'm told the Coast Guard will reposition the buoys so we will all be taking the route at sometime in the future. If you have BFernRed then you can take that route now. The rest of the shallow spots are about the same as before Matthew, just follow my posts on Active Captain or in my book.

One of a half dozen boat still up on land at Fernandina
When we reached the Jacksonville free dock we found it full! There were eight boats already docked. We were able to tie up to one of the boats already there so we are secure for the night. The boat between us and the dock will be leaving at first light so we will be leaving at first light too, around 7:15 am, another early start. That should put us into Ft Mantanzas with time to spare and two days away from Titusville!
Secure for the night

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