Underway at 7:25 a.m. in time to catch the 7:30 bridge opening for the Bridge of Lions in St Augustine.
We had everything going in our favor -- tides and current -- so we made great time, averaging 7.5 knots, covering 60 miles in 8 hours! There was enough of breeze that the unbearable heat was bearable, and the storm yesterday helped to clear up the ever-present smoke haze.
This was definitely one of the more easy stretches of the ICW to navigate....wide and plenty of depth. And lots and lots and lots of beautiful homes to oggle over ...
Once we left the ICW and headed south on the St Johns River (which, BTW, is one of two rivers in the US that flows north ... the other one is the Red River, on the border of ND and MN), the river was quite wide and open. Maybe b/c it is Saturday, we did not encounter any large commercial or naval vessels which can make the run into Jacksonville kinda edgy.
We arrived at Jacksonville at 3:30pm, unsure whether to press on to Green Cove Springs (ETA 7:30), because the traditional 5pm thunderstorm was predicted. When we came up to the Jacksonville Landing, we found the downtown pier totally unoccupied, and since we could dock here for free overnight, the decision was easy. Once we were tied up, the next decision of the day was just as easy ... walk to the first bar with air conditioning as it was 102 in the cockpit. That just so happened to be a Hooters, so Dan got an early Father's Day gift as we hung out there for 3 hours ... waiting for the storm that never came, but he didn't seem to care! They had music outside until 10pm, and then we walked back the 50 feet to where Maja was docked. Sweet!
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