18 Jun 13

Since we needed to wait for the tide a bit, we did not leave until 08:45. We caught the last of the ebb down the Matanzas River, then turned up against the current (last of the ebb) into the Tolomato River. We fought the ebb for the next 4 hours and got to the high point just in time to catch the start of the flood as the ICW transitions into Pablo Creek (yes, this means we were going against the tidal current all the way to the St. John’s River). Nevertheless, we arrived at the junction of Pablo Creek and the St. John’s River pretty much as scheduled at 13:30 and commenced the 20-mile run up the St. John’s with the flood behind us. The trip up the river was a nice combination of commercial traffic and views of beautiful riverside homes. Our primary goal was to get past the Main Street lift bridge before the 16:30 shut-down (for rush-hour traffic). We got through the bridge at 16:03, only to be delayed a half mile later for 30 minutes at the RR bascule bridge; a very long (130+ car) train was crawling across the bridge. However, we had a good opportunity to enjoy the sites of downtown Jacksonville on both sides of the river. They have a number of free municipal docks along the river where you can tie up for up to 72 hours to take in the attractions of town. After the bridge opened, we crept up the Ortega River, running aground once just before the final bascule road bridge just downstream from the marina; this was at about 1 hour before HW. We got tied up at the Ortega Landing Marina (with help from Pat and Sam, who had arrived earlier in the afternoon) by 17:10. Long day, but we are done for a while now. We had docktails on LongHawk and then dinner aboard.

19 Jun 13

We spent all day long getting the boat ready to leave for a month; actually, I spent most of the day cleaning off the deck and topsides while Terri cleaned up down below. Sam and I helped each other pull down and flake our headsails. We will fly to Houston tomorrow and plan to return on 18 July, so we have rented a slip here for a month. Sam and Pat will fly back early next week and may not return until late August or early September; they have a son getting married and other domestic issues to deal with. I did manage to get the dinghy and kayak onto the dock and deflated; the outboard is clamped and locked onto the pushpit rail block. One bike and the asymmetrical spinnaker have gone in the dock box. The dehydrator has been pulled out of the locker, making room for the genoa and other stuff.

Docktails on Longhawk, followed by dinner at Fuji Sushi. Fell into bed exhausted.

20 Jun 13

Up early to finish preparations for departure. I tied off the mainsail clew, doubled up all the dock lines, stripped off the bimini and dodger canvas and all of the sunscreens (all of which fit into the starboard side locker), tied up the bimini arches, removed the burgees from the flag halyard, folded up the dinghy and kayak and stored them in the cockpit with the other bike, tied down the cockpit center console canvas, and taped down the canvas companionway cover. Then, we packed up and went for showers. We were ready to go by about 14:00, although the taxi was scheduled for 15:30 (time for a beer before departure). And then, we looked outside at a huge thunderstorm bearing down on us, so we decided to lock up early and high-tail it to the office to wait there for the taxi. It started to pour down just before the taxi arrived, with frequent lightning strikes in the vicinity; oh well, nothing we can do about it now. The taxi got us to the airport without incident and we caught the flight home to Houston. Dan and Ashley met us at the airport and we slept in our bed at home for the first time in 15 weeks.  

During our stay in Houston, I plan to order new running rigging for the boat and play as much tennis as possible, while planning the next legs of our trip up the east coast. Terri will see all her buddies. We will both help Ashley get moved into a place of her own.  

I do not plan to update the blog again until we return to the boat on 18 July.

18 Jul 13

After 4 weeks in Houston, visiting with our kids and friends, playing tennis, catching up on housework, we have finally made it back to the boat. All is well on the boat and it is much cooler in Jacksonville than Houston. We spent the afternoon getting the bimini and dodger re-installed, shopping for groceries and meeting some of our new dock neighbors. There are several boats here now that regularly come here for the duration of hurricane season; they generally spend the non-hurricane season in the Bahamas and/or the Caribbean islands - and think we are crazy for heading up the east coast (during hurricane season). The new running rigging for the boat was waiting for me at West Marine, having arrived just minutes before I did.

19 Jul 13

After breakfast, we started working on getting the boat ready to move. I made a trip to the top of the mast to retrieve the block hanging from the masthead crane that supports the spinnaker halyard (the block needs to be upgraded, since I frequently use this line to climb the mast). We also reinflated the kayak, cleaned up the dinghy, washed all of the spider webs and nests off the boat (thousands of them), relocating all the stuff jammed in the boat out to the proper place in the lockers, moving the genoa and spinnaker out of the lockers and out onto the deck, doing more grocery shopping, visiting Sailor’s Exchange to look for bargains (found a couple of shackles and a good knife), etc., etc. In the process of trying to repair the leaky self-bailing drain on the dinghy, I managed to lose the small rubber gasket (seal) over the side, so we will have to make another trip to West Marine. Since the local store has neither the block I need for the masthead nor the replacement bailer I now need, we will have to go to the flagship store on the other side of town, so we will rent a car tomorrow, for the weekend. Both of us were exhausted by the end of the day. Docktails and dinner on board.

20 Jul 13

Picked up the rental car and drove to east Jacksonville to the West Marine flagship store, where we bought a new block and self-bailing drain for the dinghy, as well as a step (to help us climbing up from the dock to the side of the boat), a new boat hook, a messenger line (for running the new running rigging), and a few other trinkets that we could not live without. After lunch at a generica mall restaurant, it was thunderstorm city, so we decided to go to the movies; we saw “The Heat” and it was hilarious - LMAO. Back to the boat for docktails and dinner.

21 Jul 13

After breakfast, Terri hauled me back up the mast to install the new block at the masthead crane. Then, we decided to take a day off and drove to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach. We visited the Kingsley Plantation; very interesting - Mr. Kingsley made a fortune as a young man in the slave trade and later (1820s and 30s), made even more money on his plantation, using slave labor, but was conflicted. He argued for humane treatment of the slaves, and even freed and married two of the women, who produced numerous descendants.  After Florida was annexed by the USA, the laws protecting the rights of freed Africans (i.e., freed slaves), were largely abrogated, meaning freed Africans could be re-enslaved, so Kingsley moved his families to Haiti. We drove around Fernandina Beach for a bit, but did not linger in this historic town as we will stop there for a few days on the boat on the way north. Late afternoon stormed again so we went to see another movie - “RED 2”; good shoot-em-up action film - you could tell that Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren enjoyed themselves immensely and John Malkovich’s facial expressions throughout were classic. After we got back to the boat, during docktails, we pulled the new genoa halyard. Dinner on board again.

22 Jul 13

Finally, I got around to changing the oil, oil filter and fuel filter on the boat. Terri did laundry, but got stuck in the laundry room for about 3 hours by a tremendous thunderstorm. After the rain, I finished repairing the dinghy drain, got it completely reinflated and got the bikes and kayak up on the deck. Then, we pulled the new genoa furling line and hoisted and furled the genoa. We also pulled the new spinnaker halyard during docktails. The residents of the dock all showed up during docktails and we had a good chat with them all; kind of an impromptu going-away party for us.