No time to relax in Jax

What started out as a planned one-week stay in Jacksonville for medical appointments (and paintball!) turned into a two-week stay with medical appointments, paintball, skateboarding, tons of boat maintenance, and even a flight to Illinois for 3/4 of the crew! 

The fun

So what did we manage to knock out while tied to a dock for two weeks? Other than four doc appointments, final COVID shots for the adults, a few trips to the local skatepark, two awesome days of paintball fun, and lots of WiFi downloads, we:

- picked up tons of mail (and started a passport renewal!)

- waxed the hull of the boat

- started some interior wood care

- updated our spice wall in the galley

- cleaned the bilges

- filled the bilges with Trader Joe’s goodies

- replaced the water heater

- refilled water heater coolant

- changed engine oil & filter

- changed Yanmar and Racor fuel filters

- replaced pre-filters on the water maker

- pickled the water maker 

- reinforced the arch connections to the deck with steel backing plates 

- lubricated the shaft seal

- inspected the steering system

- topped off battery bank water

- replaced the aft condensate pump

- dewatered the lazerette from the condensate pump failure 

- cleaned the engine seawater strainer

- inspected engine impeller 

- topped off water/diesel/gas

- laundry, laundry, laundry (it was FREE!)

- filed taxes

- graded schoolwork (JUST KIDDING! Still behind there...)

A little bit of the work

There was some shopping and good dining in there as well, along with our Mother’s Day and Illinois fun, but we definitely took advantage of this stop for some maintenance. 

Weather is still not great, but we are itching to move along and make some progress north while we watch for a good offshore weather window. We are in reach of St. Mary’s Inlet with a decision to make—inside through Georgia (new and terrifying) or wait almost a week to go outside. Which will it be?

Leaving JAX

A Mother’s Day to remember

Mother’s Day was a lovely affair! While we did tackle some chores (and I honestly was happy with that) the kids treated me to an amazing brunch, complete with mimosas and entertainment (Big Bang Theory). It was awesome!

Early afternoon we noticed some “excitement” near the docks. Long story short, a 31’ sailboat had broken free of its mooring and had run aground. Lots of folks were trying to tug it by hand, with a patrol boat, suggested tying it off to a vehicle on shore...those weren’t working. The tide was dropping and it was a negative tide. Frank headed over to ask the Skipper if he needed anything and as apparently the only other sailboat types around, offered some ideas. We ended up assembling our Fortress anchor (our spare storm anchor) and ran it out to keep the stern clear of the rocks. Frank was actually able to muscle the stern over a bit and I did donuts with the dinghy to try to wake the sailboat off the shoal. But...you can’t fight the tide! We encouraged the owners to head home, enjoy the day as much as they could, and let them know we would keep an eye on the boat/lines/anchors, and agreed we would all get back together when the tide was rising and hope to float her before sunset.

As sunset approached we took soundings with our handheld fathometer—their keel was on the absolute shallowest spot and the way the boat had been pulled earlier in the day was actually toward shallower water. But we were close and we knew the path to deep water! With the sun setting, the Skipper powered forward while his wife and Frank worked the anchor lines and I used the dinghy to push, first from the bow then on the hip...and she broke free! We quickly cleared the lines, and I grabbed the stern anchor line, and they were off to the dock! My job—retrieve the Fortress. It was TOUGH! Once they were docked, I grabbed Frank and headed back to our anchor. We drove over it, tugged, swung, pulled...nothing. We finally decided to just run the line to the dock and come back in the morning for a dive.

The next morning was nice and calm. The water was only about 5 feet deep so Frank held tension on the anchor chain while I dove (no tank, just skin diving) to dig out the anchor. It. Was. In. I dug with my feet, my hands...it was exhausting, but I finally found the flukes and cleared the top of them. Then I dug in and found the crossbar...after a few dives and a hearty pull, it was free! It probably took less than a half hour, but there was a bit there where I wasn’t sure if I could do it.

Happy to have our anchor back. Happy that our new friends’ boat is safe. Happy to be living this crazy, challenging life!

Happy diver with our recovered Fortress anchor!

Jacksonville—A working port

Monday got off to a pretty sweet start...entered the St. John’s River from the sea on a flood tide and called ahead to Mulberry Cove Marina on NAS Jacksonville to ensure they had a transient spot for us so we didn’t waste a long slog up the river.  Easy day, right?  Well...long story short, the marina actually didn’t have a spot for us.  They didn’t have a good account of what slips were open, tried to put us in one two feet too shallow for us, blamed everything on the old hurricane damage and being “the end of the road” on base, and basically told us to “too bad, so sad” as they were closing for the day.  We walked by a slip that seemed pretty open and undamaged and somehow managed to talk them into letting us take it.  Ended up being perfect!  This isn’t the first time we have stayed here, and it’s an incredible value for military peeps, but this whole debacle was shocking.  We made our comments and hope it does something to improve the management of the operation.  

Once settled, we got to work!  The real drivers for this stop were new ID cards for everyone, FL residency and a license for the Cap’n, mail pick-up, and provisioning.  We did it all, and gave the boat a good scrub and took advantage of the free laundry.  We also managed to get some birthday and Christmas presents aboard and got new snorkel gear for the kiddos.

We want to hit St. Augustine, but with the holiday next week we could only get 2 nights.  We stayed out in JAX an extra night and now are headed toward St. Aug for a few nights of ICW anchoring before we get on a mooring there.  It’s been a nice, relaxing, southerly journey!