Friday, February 10--Jacksonville to Saint Augustine

Bob pretty much sums this up in his narrative which follows.  Getting up at 02:30 to catch the favorable ebb tide is not my idea of fun. I did spell Bob a couple of times in the straight stretches approaching Saint Augustine, but he had a long day.

I was happy when we got to St. Augustine Municipal Marina because it has real showers and a laundry. Ten days of cruising has made for a lot of dirty laundry. A nice hot shower without worry of running out of water is always welcome.

 Not a bad run at all...

 

LEG-6 10 FEB 2012 (Friday)

 

We departed the Jacksonville Landing at 3:25 AM and reached the end of the Saint Johns River by 6:00 AM right smack at slack hour. I did not have to advance the engine throttle for this entire course. Just set the engine and transmission to engaged position. Our speed was 8 mph (7 knots) while the engine remained at 1,000 RPM.

 

After floating around the RED #25 buoy waiting for morning twilight (for some 40 minutes) and consuming our early breakfast. We found the entrance to the ICW, which runs diagonally off the Saint Johns River and then heads directly southbound.

 

 

The two orange square boxes (in the photo above) are the free dockages provided by the City of Jacksonville. The one on the left is the Jacksonville Landing and on the right Metro Center near the sports stadium.

 

It is a 20 mile run down river to pick up the ICW. However the Saint Johns River, ship buoy channel is well lighted. We had thought there would be no traffic, but we ran into an inbound container ship and then another large vessel making their way inbound to downtown Jacksonville. We yield our right of way to the tug boats and then ducked outside the green side of the channel.

 

The rest of the ICW course southbound to St. Augustine is (36 miles) once back into the ICW you pass many mansion's and moderately built private homes. All having their own waterways instead of streets and of course boat piers with boat hoists.

 

  

The only difficulties on the approach to St. Augustine is you must stay close to the land after passing under the new bridge. (The old Bascule Bridge) was replaced with a modern 65 foot highway span.

 

You must turn toward the inlet (as if your going seaward) and then acknowledge your next ICW mark.  You can see the both the red and green inlet buoys, but should not confuse these with your ICW marks. Then it is a straight run directly under the "Bridge of Lions" to the town marina. Full services and fuel are  available, but nothing for boat and motor repairs and/or ground tackle needs.

 

CONCLUSION:

It is highly recommended to pull off the ICW and make the 20 mile run into Jacksonville. You will not regret having done the same.  It is also recommended you don't leave Sister's Creek and attempt to enter into the next southbound ICW passage, without having daylight hours (at least for your first time) there are shoals which bare at low water (on both sides) and you only have a flashing green light to port and non-lighted Red Nun situated to your starboard. We also discovered there is another new fixed span bridge about 1.2 miles into the southbound passage on the north end. 

 

 

 

If you enjoyed the photo movies of Jacksonville?

We'll put together a photo movie set for St. Augustine; once we explore the local community.

 

Bob