South, Upstream, on the St John's River, Florida

Our location and route for the last 2 cruise days.
Upstream (south) on the St John's River Florida

Again,  best laid plans are temporarily stalled.  We intended to depart Fernandina Beach for Jacksonville, FL Saturday morning at 9AM.  But the wind was howling, the rain was pouring, the old man was snoring.  So, we decided to stay another day and go have breakfast at our favorite breakfast restaurant, Bright Mornings.  After breakfast, we meandered back to the boat and the skies opened up.  So, we departed a couple of hours later than planned.  Getting out of the inside dock was a bit of a hassle because the fairway was a bit narrow and the current was ripping.  We were able to negotiate our way out safely and were on our way.  It was a cold, but much calmer cruise to Jacksonville, FL.

Since it was going to be 35 degrees, we decided to skip the free dock in Jacksonville (no electric) and plug in at the River City Marina across the street which is in the business district.  Everything was shut down on Saturday night, so we spent the evening on the boat.  We'll tackle the other shore of Jacksonville on the way back.

Today we cruised 7 hours upriver to Palatka.  We're on a very nice free dock with 15 amp electric.  Tomorrow we'll get the dinghy down and explore creeks in the area which are supposed to be fabulous.  Hopefully the dinghy will work - it hasn't been used for awhile.  Our fingers are crossed!