Jacksonville, FL - 6/1/11

Preparations to pull out of Palm Cove Marina began shortly after 8 a.m.

Moor $tuff was on the face dock in front of the 2 dry storage sheds with hundreds of boats inside stacked to the ceilings.

Lucky One with Huen & Cricket pulled over to the fuel dock and topped off their tanks. Moor $tuff & Quest did that on the way in but the fuel dock was too short for all of us. The wind was pretty strong so Lucky One went on to tie up since the water was pretty skinny as well. We put 90 gallons of diesel on which gave us 1.7 mpg for that leg.

The channel leading out of the marina was pretty long and very shallow.

And we left Palm Cove channel at the AICW at MM 747.7.

This guy was flying north over us.

For those that have not been on large water, these are the range markers on the St. Johns River inlet from the Atlantic Ocean. The trick is to line them up and follow them to you next mark and it will keep you in the channel.

A different looking house on the St. Johns.

One of a few cable style bridges we will pass under on this adventure.

We passed the Gator Bowl.

Downtown Jacksonville.

And stopped at Jacksonville Landings for lunch at .......

HOOTER'S .......

At least they had a little class in the joint ......

As we left from lunch we immediately went under the I-95 bridge to South Jacksonville.

Signs on the bridge. It is very close to where you get on I-10.

A look back at downtown Jacksonville.

Approaching Ortega Yacht Club where we will spend the night.

As we were walking up the dock to go to dinner, we spotted this crab on the rudder of a catamaran.

Since this was the first day of hurricane season, guess what my bride ordered?

(answer - a hurricane of course)

We haven't decided how far to go tomorrow yet so our destination may be a marina or at anchor. The river will not get real pretty for another 40 miles or so.

Sorry Jack - our cordinates at Rivers Edge were N 29 53.135 W 81 19.341

Our position tonight is N 30 16.,501 W 81 42.938