But before we got down to it we spent the day relaxing after the overnight passage and enjoyed the pool and hot tub at the marina while visiting with other boaters. After the hurricane and the damage done to St Augustine we decided to look for a place where we could be sure of getting berthing at a reasonable rate and provide access to the facilities we needed.
Taking a dip in the pool while recovering from the passage from Charleston.
Last year friends of ours stayed at Ortega Landing Marina along the Ortega River just off the St John's River south of downtown Jacksonville and we knew it was very nice. So we were excited when we were able to get a slip there for the time we needed. There are also lots of live aboards there including the son and cousin of our good friend Skip Maiden. Going down the river was a haul but with the current it went quickly but spending time at Ortega Landing was very enjoyable.
Ominous looking clouds over the marina but nothing materialized.
Our first order of business was to get Linda's DOD ID card renewed because it expired on 11/1/2016. We were able to score an appointment and after getting our rental car drove to Jacksonville Naval Air Station and very quickly got that chore done. Then we drove down to Green Cove Springs to our "home" and retrieve our mail and packages that had been accumulating. But the next big thing was a birthday celebration. We went out to dinner at Tip Tum Thai a great local Thai restaurant and ended the day at bb's Bistro for desert. I had a piece of coconut cake. What a treat!!!!
But Tuesday started our shopping in earnest. We left the marina and went to the shopping region in Jacksonville. We made stops at Bed, Bath and Beyond; Best Buy; West Marine; Total Wine; Pennzey's and Trader Joe's and returned to the boat with a car full of things to stow. Provisioning for years away isn't easy. We bought stuff that can be packed and hopefully will last but at some point the stores will exhaust and we will need to go to local purchase wherever that is.
Wednesday started out with a work task going to the local Social Security Office to address a Medicare issue but then we drove to St Augustine to meet our old friend Dave Sikes for lunch and hanging out. On our way back we stopped at home in Green Cove Springs so Linda could pick up her official Cubs World Series Shirt to wear for the last 2 games of the series.
Linda shows off her Cubs World Series T-shirt at Tip Tim Thai Restaurant.
The next several days involved working on inventorying and stowing our purchases and accomplishing boat tasks. At night we watched the world series games. Finally on Thursday night we saw the Chicago Cubs win their first World Series since 1908!!!! The lovable losers won ending the longest drought in baseball with a team that was young, energetic and well managed. The final game was exciting and drew in fans who probably hadn't watched a baseball game in years.
For the weekend we drove down to Sanford to visit my daughter and her family. She and her husband were both sick so we spent as much time as we could without being taxing on them. It's always wonderful to see them and their kids. All my grand kids are doing so well I am so happy for them.
Visiting with the grand kids Ethan and Hunter.
We spent the final few days doing last minute shopping, stowing, working and planning as we went. Like last minute Christmas shoppers we ran out for each thing as we thought of it until we ran out of thoughts. Of course Tuesday night, November 8 we watched the election results. I never make political comments in our blog or Facebook but I was excited to see the country reject the Clinton's. I was on active duty in the Army in the 1990's and I believe the country could not afford 8 more years of them. We'll see how Mr. Trump does but I'm optimistic.
On Monday night the 7th of November we had a real treat. We were visited by a former work colleague and his wife, Rod and Gina Thomas who currently live in Wyoming but are selling out and going to move aboard a sailboat which they have to buy. They were in Florida taking a learn to sail class from Bluewater Sailing School. It was great seeing them after 3 years.
At dinner with Rod and Gina at bb's Bistro.
As we have along the way our focus was on the weather. Crossing the Gulf Stream requires a good weather window and sailors to the Bahamas fret over this. It looked like conditions did not favor us so we engaged our weather routers Dane and Jennifer Clark to help us. Our original plan was to leave Jacksonville and do 2 overnights and go straight to the Abacos by whatever was the most advantageous (read least bad option) route. After a couple of quick discussions we finally focused on leaving Jacksonville Thursday and staying in close to avoid really rough seas and then crossing over Saturday when seas seemed the least. So we finalized our plans to go down the coast to Ft Pierce to get fuel and spend Friday night with crossing over to the Bahamas on Saturday. We determined we could easily make Spanish Cay on Sunday morning early and do our check-in.
Our final lunch before heading out at Fuji Sushi.
Finally with as much shopping as we could do at the regular stores, the NAS Commissary, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and Total Wine we prepared to depart early Thursday the 10th of November. We had 3 challenges getting out of the marina. The first was the Ortega River Bridge which we learned operated 24 hours a day. The next was the Main Street Bridge over the St John's which was on limited schedule and had a scheduled opening for 0645 during the week. The final was the current. High tide was scheduled at Ortega River about 0615 although the current changes there about 2 hours after high tide. So looking at our challenges, we decided to leave about 0515 to get through the Ortega Bridge, wait for the Florida East Coast Railroad bridge if necessary, make the 0645 opening at Main Street and catch the current outgoing within the hour.
The sun was rising over downtown as we were waiting for the bridge.
We left our slip about 0515, got through the Ortega bridge, had to wait for a train at the RR bridge and made the 0646 opening. We slogged through current for less than an hour and our trip out the river from that point was as quick as coming in. By 0930 we were in the ocean and heading south to Ft Pierce. The seas were rolly but behind us after we turned and we had an eventful trip down the coast to FT Pierce.
Sunset just north of Daytona Beach.
Moonset over Cape Canaveral.
We ran in the Ft Pierce inlet with a slight outgoing current. We stopped at the Ft Pierce City Marina for fuel and then went across the ICW and dropped the anchor for a very nice quiet evening recovering from our just completed overnight and to prepare for our gulf stream crossing. Was a beautiful quiet night and the beautiful setting showed why we love this life. Tomorrow we leave the country on the first leg of our multi-nation cruise.
Our final sunset in the US from our anchorage in Ft Pierce.
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