Monday, October 26, 2020

Jacksonville Free Docks in Sisters Creek - at a dock

Nothing quite like a nuclear sub - looks menacing

It was a dead calm night at the Jekyll anchorage. The charts only show 4 MLLW of water but there’s actually 12 MLLW if you know the way, SonarChart from Navionics is pretty accurate for this location. We left and headed into a fog bank waiting for us partway out to the turn in St Andrews Sound so I switched on the radar again – which worked again (two out of two! I’m on a roll).

You can see the two cables that attach to the saws

With the calm winds, St Andrews was tame. One of the reasons we like the Jekyll anchorage is the closeness to the turn south in St Andrews, you can catch the turn in the morning before the winds pick up. 

Fernandina is empty

Coming into Fernandina, we saw the way blocked by the huge saw boat used to cut up the Hyundai ship that ran aground earlier this year. It actually has two huge saw blades that do the job. The floating saw was attended to by several tugs and we had to carefully find our way through. Fernandina was empty. We saw only one boat on the outside docks and we heard the fuel dock was close due to a leak. The facedock appears to be longer than I remember - but it's empty at the moment. 

All by ourselves on the Jacksonville free dock by Sisters Creek

We wanted to reach the Jacksonville free dock in good stead since we expected a crowd in prime migration season but we found it empty, not a single boat, where is everybody? Terri and Larry came over for a chat, it was great to meet only friends even though we still had to observe social distancing. 

On Tuesday, we're headed for St Augustine for two nights, then the Bethune anchorage in Daytona followed by Titusville two days earlier than planned. We made better time than we thought with this excellent weather!

2 comments:

MikeS said...

Bob,

We have not stayed at the Jacksonville free docks. What are your options if the dock is full when you arrive? Is there decent anchorage nearby?

I think traffic will definitely pick up in a week or two. Many of us have insurance that won't let us go south of the GA/FL line until November 1st.

Mike

Kellirae Boann Adcock (Ocean Dancer) said...

Hi Bob,
I think everyone is a week or two behind you. In the Great Bridge lock, we tied up on the concrete wall because the padded side was already full. Several full lock loads came through after us, as well. Atlantic Yacht Basin's face dock was full and we felt lucky to get the next to last spot on the free wall, just south of Great Bridge bridge. We arrived in Morehead City today. While we usually stay in Beaufort, all three marinas over there were booked solid, at least for a 64'er. A call to Morehead City Yacht Basin secured one of their last two available slips. The southern migration is much busier than when we came north in March. At the height of the Covid lockdowns, we were often the only boat on the ICW and in the anchorages; that sure felt strange. Heading south again, it looks like the boaters are again in full gear and on the move.