Saturday, April 20, 2019

Jacksonville Free Docks - Still here

I just love these 65 ft bridges! It replaced a lift bridge last year at Sisters Creek.
I got up this morning and the first thing I looked at, as usual, was the weather report - particularly the wind prediction. The one I put the most credence in is PredictWind and it was projecting 15 to 20 kts winds with gusts to 30 out of the southwest. If you're running inside, it's no big deal but we would be passing through two inlets, one just north of Fernandina (on the nose) and St Andrews (on the nose too)  just south of Jekyll. Could we do it, sure, have we done it before, sure on that score too - but why? I like to enjoy our ride and we're not married to a schedule. A day or two here and there makes no difference in our getting north. We decided to wait a day and leave on Sunday instead with winds of 5 to 10 kts.

We are not as crowded tonight
After all, we were tied up to a free dock courtesy of Jacksonville, so we just relaxed. I changed the oil on the outboard and would have done the same on the genset except I didn't have enough oil!? Such is planning ahead on a boat, at least for me.

The harbormaster for the two docks came by to ask about a car that had been there for several weeks. We knew we had 72 hours allowed so I asked about the other dock facing Sisters Creek. He said there was a four hour limit on that dock since it's a launch area for fishing boats (that pay for the privilege) and just a few large boats would take up all the room. I couldn't find that rule posted anywhere but he did state it and it makes sense.

Time to walk Hoolie, calming down, finally
I don't know if you noticed or not but there is water on docks now. There are two faucets, one at each end. If you're in the middle, you will need a very long hose.  The wind is finally starting to calm down but it blew all day in the 20kt range. We plan on reaching the Jekyll anchorage Sunday night which has a dinghy dock for Hoolie.

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