"2003-November 24-25 Condo Destruction" Top 5 Page for this destination Jacksonville Beach Travelogue by grandmaR

Large ship in the St. John's River

We got to the Sister's Creek bridge about 10, and went through without any problem. We passed the boatyard that is hard by the bridge, and could see the big ships going up and down the St. John's River ahead of us.

Yards on the north side of the St. John's River

I took some pictures of the yard on the north side of the river and then we managed to cross. We saw ships going down the river before we crossed it, and we saw ships going down the river after we crossed it, but when we crossed there were no big ships going up or down.

Mayport Navy facility with chopper from ICW

We only had to worry about the current in the river and finding the entrance to the ICW between the rock jetties on the other side.

After we crossed the river we could look east and see the Mayport Navy boats and a heliocopter. Our nephew (my sister's son) was stationed there for a time.

New Bridge under Construction

They are building a new high rise bridge which doesn't appear to be 65 feet - it was only 63 or 64 feet on the tide boards. We went under it without a problem as our mast is only 58.5 feet. The top picture is also of the construction on this bridge.

Former location of Pablo Creek

We passed Pablo Creek - or what WAS Pablo Creek. It is gone completely - leveled to the ground. Now I understand why they didn't answer the phone. Apparently the area is going to be used to construct condos with their own slips.

It is now almost one o'clock and my sister is starving to death. But I've become accustomed to Bob's habit of not eating until after we've safely anchored or tied up unless we aren't going to arrive until after 2 or 3 pm. She went foraging around and found some crackers to hold her over.

Florida Fish and Game building next to marina

Beach Marine is a couple of miles farther past where Pablo Creek used to be. There is a Florida Fish and Game building on the north side of the channel with a big antenna. There is another marina across the way, but it doesn't have enough channel depth for us.

We tied up at Beach Marine after 31.3 sm at an average speed of 5.6 mph (we've had the current against us a lot of the time) at about 2 pm. We've done a total of 694 nm this trip.

While I went up to pay, my sister and Bob went up to Billy's (the restaurant on site) to have a late lunch.

My BIL meanwhile took A1A down the coast including a ferry from Fort George to Mayport, and arrived at the marina about 5.

When I went up to try to do email (at which I was unsuccessful), I heard from the marina folks that there was going to be a vote tonight on whether to turn this marina into a condo arrangement too. This is very worrisome as there isn't really another good spot to stop between St. Augustine and Fernandina.

In our sister and BIL's car, we went out prospecting for a place to eat dinner and ended up at Tsunami, a Japanese sushi restaurant in Jacksonville Beach. Bob was so still tired from the overnight from Charleston that I thought he might fall asleep at the table and I was also tired.

My sister apparently did a piece on Japanese restaurants for the paper where she is an editor and she and my BIL ate at 6 different Japanese restaurants in 7 days, so they were able to help us with what to order as we are definitely not familiar with sushi dishes.

Bob and I both ordered steak on skewers and we took most of our steak back to the boat because we were too tired to eat much.

At dinner, my BIL described the water massage that he had at Amelia Island Plantation. Then they returned us to the boat and they went back to the resort. Bob told me later that I should never sign him up for anything like that.

Looking back at the bridge after we went through

Bob was up at the bathroom 3 times list night and said it was due to the black bean soup we had in Fernandina - I had similar but less intense problem.

I called our son about 7 to tell him where we had gotten to and where we were going. Then we cast off nicely - no current in the marina.

Problem was - the McCormick Bridge only opens on the hour and we had to wait until 8. The current was going through the bridge at a couple of knots and there was a wind. So we called the bridge tender and told him that we would wait in the entrance channel of the marina until he started to open and then go through.

As soon as the bascule started up, Bob drove the boat for the opening - we went through when the bridge was barely up.

It's overcast and chilly today. We see evidence of another condo on the west bank.

Next: St. Augustine