Stadler Point Marina in Jacksonville - We get our genset serviced

First things first, we got up early to see the sunset and get ready for genset servicing

It pays to be a contortionist. For people that work on gensets, it's a great asset! They are usually located in very confined areas of a boat with very little room, if any, on any side of the engine. In our case, it was installed in the starboard locker which, as a rule, is much better than on most boats. Still, it's very tight. So today we had the yearly checkup with service on the oil and filter (changed), fuel filters changed, impeller changed (fine) and the zinc changed (not good, all gone!) So now we know to look at the zinc more often than once per year, probably once every three months. The main engine, the Volvo diesel, doesn't have a zinc. Volvo maintains that all the metals used in the engine are compatible and will not attack each other under galvanic action. However, the genset does have a zinc and it's not a very big one. I'll buy a few extras and check more regularly.

You just kind of curl around the genset to reach the impeller - which is NEVER conveniently placed...

We're watching the approaching front on weather radar. It's due to hit us later tonight and last all day Tuesday. With that we're going to stay the night and also Tuesday and leave on Wednesday for Fernandina. That will give me a chance to complete taxes on Tuesday (oh joy...) April 15 is approaching quickly.

We were entertained throughout the day and night with trains crossing the automatic bridge

One of the good things about Sadler Point Marina is the closeness of a shopping center with both a Publix and a good department store, Belk. We are now restocked and ready to ride out the coming storm. When you're on a boat, you get the weather up close and personal! One of the bad things is the closeness of the Amtrak car trains to Florida!

Sadler Point Marina in Jacksonville - at a dock

This bridge was out of commission until today!

A flood tide was supposed to start at 11:00 at the mouth of the St John's river but with all the recent rain, it was late. We reached the river and found a 1.5 kt tide against us, ugh! The current tables are not always accurate.

The downtown free docks are in the heart of Jacksonville

Onward we motored until reaching Sadler Point Marina. It's the same marina that installed our new Kohler genset last year and we thought it would be a good idea for them to do the first yearly checkup. The genset came with a five year warranty so we wanted to start out on the right foot. It only has 99 hours on it after one year, hardly broken in and after our first bout with a defective oil pressure sensor, it's been the model of reliability.

One of the few places where boats are wet stored undercover (no sailboats!)

Sadler Point Marina is 15 miles down the St Johns river and it has a mean current flow. You had better pay attention to when ebb tide is due, which we did, since it can run 2.5 to 3.0 kts! We'll have the checkup done on Monday and hopefully get out of there on Tuesday morning and head north to Fernandina with enough time so I can do taxes, April 15 is coming up soon!

Harbortown in Jacksonville - at a dock

Floating, concrete docks at Harbortown, no current, free electric, great place

Nice, easy day to go north. We chose slack tide to leave our slip at St. Augustine so that was no problem. Of the three boats that we left with, we were the only one that went north up the ICW, the rest went outside. It was a pleasant ride north, no waves, no wind and we made our marina by 12:30. The marina, Harbortown, used to take in transients but then they had a bad experience with one crew that claimed they tripped over something on the dock and sued the marina for medical expensives. The dockhand we talked to didn't believe for an instant that they actually paid the doctor what they claimed, they just wanted to collect easy money, $5000 worth. It would have cost the marina more than that just to contest the lawsuit. So the end result was to punish all law abiding cruisers by not allowing dockage to cruisers in the future. So once again, one bad apple ruins the barrel for everyone else! However, since the dockmaster knows us personally, we can still get a dock but nobody else can. 

Economy's recovering in Florida - it appears. This was a vacant lot in the fall

I walked into town for butter and hamburger buns and discovered that Fresh Market was open again, it had been closed when we came south in the fall. It is a great supermarket, somewhat like Adams in Arlington. I stocked up on huge grapefruit, lobster salad, fresh tuna steaks, pastries for Sunday morning Macedonia nut cookies for Ann, her favorite.

We'll just spend one night here and ride the incoming tide to Jacksonville and Sadler Point Marina where we'll have our genset serviced. There's nothing wrong with it but it needs a yearly checkup. Hopefully, we'll meet up again with Lee and Emma Rose. 

St Augustine - at a dock

El Galeon is a replica of a Spanish Galleon of the time of the founding of St Augustine 

Slack current was at 7:40 this morning and with the high current at other times and the tight docks, it was advisable to dock with as little current as possible. So we timed it to go to our dock at slack but when we approached I discovered that although we had no north/south current, there was a sideways drift that was apparent from standing on the bow. Unfortunately, I neglected to convey this information to Ann at the helm. So as we approached the dock, the current drift set the boat away from the finger, towards the other boat in the slip. We got a line to the dockhand who secured it to a cleat and Ann powered forward to lever the boat closer to the finger. After some fiddling around, we got the boat tied up without hitting anything else, an accomplishment in itself. All this reinforces the fact that you have to pay attention to even a modest current drift and be sure that your helmsman and crew communicate. As much as we've been doing this, you always learn something new.

You can also sail on a "pirate" ship

Fleetwing received her first cleaning in over a month! I would rate it a 0.4 Sharman, not bad by that standard. I also filled up the water tank and did a pumpout which was free with the slip. Lee and Emma Rose arrived around noon, friends from our days in the Air Force in Colorado. So we chatted and walked over to St Augustine and down St George Street, the center of the city. If you're ever in St Augustine be sure to visit St George Street. Also, you ought to see El Galeon, a replica of a true Spanish Galleon of the type that sailed to St Augustine when it was founded 450 years ago.

Many things to buy at the local shops

We plan on waiting for slack current Saturday morning before taking off for Jacksonville. It doesn't take much to get into trouble with a 2 kt current in an enclosed area.

St. Augustine - on a mooring

St Augustine has many pedestrian only walkways, much like a European town

We had intended to anchor at Ft Matanzas but since we soldered on yesterday to Daytona we could make St. Augustine by 3:30. We are expecting company on Friday so by being here today, we can get into a dock first thing in the morning and be ready for a visit.

We needed fuel and in looking at the dock we discovered that 3/4 of it was taken up by a river cruise ship! We discussed the approach since there was not a lot of room and the ship stuck out a good 30 ft from the dock. Ann was at the helm and she approached the dock at a 45 degree angle, into the current, which resulted in the boat crabbing sideways to the dock. At the last minute she gunned the boat in forward into the current and swung the wheel over to port, bringing the boat parallel to the dock where the dockhands grabbed the lines for a starboard tie up. When I paid for the fuel, all three men in the dockhouse complimented Ann on her handling of the boat. They see a lot of dockings and many are not pretty given the current and wind conditions here.

Not a mall, just downtown St. Augustine

So now we were faced with a 15 kt wind pushing us against the dock and a 2 kt current pushing us towards the river cruise ship. How to get off the dock? There was no room to back out like we did last year at Fernandina so we put two 16 inch round fenders hanging off the most aft rail, ran a line from the aft cleat to the dock and Ann put the boat into reverse. This resulted in the bow being pushed out against the wind and after obtaining a good angle, Ann shoved the throttle into forward and I brought the aft line aboard. Ann handles the boat more than I do nowadays.

The winds tonight were supposed to be less than 10 kts but it's been blowing 15 to 20 instead! The current through here runs up to 2 kts and when the wind blows counter to the current, there's lot of bobbing around. Hopefully, things will settle down later tonight. I asked the dockhand the time of the morning slack current, it's 7:40, so we'll pick up a dock then. There's not a lot of room for maneuvering by the docks with the 2 kt current.

Daytona Anchorage - Between bridges

Ann saw a loon! They are rate around here

We had intended anchoring at Rockhouse Creek but when we reached there at 2:30 with such good weather it was a shame to stop so soon. So we pressed onward north to Daytona. There are about a dozen anchorages just off the ICW in Daytona. We picked one that had a place to take Hoolie for his nightly duties, a public boat ramp - the best kind.

Lots of retirement communities - condos here

As usual, after we anchored we attracted a couple of other boats that decided we had the best possible spot and wanted to be as close as possible to our ideal position!? Oh well, at least at this anchorage there is enough room for all.

As I said, we attracted a gathering of boats after we anchored...

We dinked Hoolie into shore and I walked him while Ann remained in the dinghy and fended off. The docks are raised cement, not very dinghy friendly but we managed. Meanwhile, Ann struck up a conversation with a couple of locals that live on the permanently anchored  boats in the area. One claimed he was headed to Key West and we both bet that we would see the same boat here next spring! His sailboat had no mast and didn't look in very good shape.

We'll be here just tonight and leave for Ft Matanzas in the morning.

Titusville - we meet the manatees

Not kissing, just after the same water drip

Titusville has a resident manatee population. They have about 20 at the last census. It's a protected area and there's apparently enough seagrass to support the population. The never-fail way to attract manatees is to drip fresh water over the side. For some reason they love fresh water, it's also illegal to do so. However, when a diver comes to the marina to work on a boat, he will set up a fresh water drip - otherwise, the manatees will invariably be more interested in the diver than in their own kind. After all, the diver is dressed in his all black diver suit (just like a manatee) and some are about the same shape...

So today we were walking down the dock and noticed a diver in the water and sure enough, he had a fresh water drip set up - complete with several manatees sampling the output. Looking at them, it's a face that only a mother could love!

How would you like to wake up to that in the morning!

With April 15 fast approaching, it was tax preparation day on Fleetwing. I was immersed in all kinds of form down below while Ann was in the cockpit. Luckily, all the major players have downloadable tax summaries for their area (USAA investments, all banks and all income sources such as retirement accounts) So after the downloads and in using TurboTax, I'm plowing through the forms, ugh!

We still plan on leaving Wednesday morning for Rockhouse Creek but it's only 31 miles north so we won't leave until around 10:00 or so. Nice day today, high of 78, full sun, warm breezes.