We slept awesome on anchor last night. The wind didn’t pick up at all like was predicted so it was pleasant and quiet. After I made my coffee and we had breakfast we pulled up the anchor (this process needs refining… but she’s new. Ohwell) and started motoring north towards downtown Jacksonville. Along the way we sailed right past the Air Force Base and got to see the planes taking off!
The river through Jacksonville has us going underneath a few tall highway bridges. Most we will fit under but one requires us to call them to lift it for us! (how special!). The first bridge was Henry H Buckman bridge for 295.
It doesn’t really matter that I know how tall our mast is and I *know* that we will fit under the bridge… it alllways looks like it’s going to just snap the mast in half! 😮 Bridges are terrifying!
Here’s a video of us going under the bridge! It definitely looks like it’s just going to snap the mast in half…
After the bridge for 295 we made our way to actual downtown where there are 4 bridges in a row, including a railroad bridge! This is in the heart of downtown. When we first moved here I wanted to go downtown and do photoshoots and check things out, but everything was closed. Now I’ve only seen it from the water! Maybe on the way back we can stop here in the boat and go exploring.
We fit under that last bridge, but the next one is the one that has to stop traffic and lift for us to go under! Super exciting! Turns out it was pretty much a nonevent. We just hailed them on the radio and the bridge raised so fast we didn’t even have to slow down!
That was the last bridge for actual downtown, but there was another big green one further up!
After we were out of downtown we motored through a lot of the industrial and shipping areas. I took a ton of photos of cargo ships and cranes that is going to have to be its own separate post! Eventually though, we ran out of that and kept going. Our goal for tonight was to reach Sister’s Creek, which is on the intercoastal waterway and is pretty much the last place to anchor a large boat before you either go south to continue on the ICW or out the inlet to the open ocean!
Right nest to sister’s creek is BAE Systems doing some work on various Navy ships.
Sister’s creek actually has a free dock that you can tie up to, so we tied up there for the night. We should be in a great spot to wake up early tomorrow morning and head to St. Augustine! I took my camera back out for some sunset photos of the boat and the dock!
