Jacksonville Free Dock - at the dock

That's Gordon Johnson's boat at Fernandina this morning

We didn't have far to go today for it was another leisurely start. The shallows south of Fernandina no longer hold a challenge since it was surveyed by Taylor Engineering. I obtained the waypoints from them for a safe passage at 8.5 MLW which I took again today just to confirm it was still good.

The docks here are first rate - cement with rubber bumbers too

We had a high tide with us all the way to the free docks so there were no problems but I did record all the depths converted to MLW and entered the results into Active Captain. There are a few places where you have to pay attention to the path if you try to go through at low tide. I've converted some of the successful passages to GPX files for easy entry into a chartplotter. If you follow the GPX route, then you'll be safe. They will be posted on my blog site within the next few days.

Another view of the docks. A fourth boat came in a few minutes ago.

The current really rips through the creek by the free docks! I tried to do a turn so my bow would be pointed out but that resulted in winding up with the current behind me after the turn. That almost resulted in disaster. It pays to think more ahead. I recovered and then just backed into the current and into the dock without further problems (except that I forgot about the dinghy painter not be pulled all the way in - luckily, it didn't wrap around the prop - that would have been a real disaster!)

So we are all set for the night and will start out Friday morning for St Augustine for a two day stay at a dock. We wanted to explore the town which we always enjoy. Then it's on to Dayton and then Titusville.