Arrival near Jacksonville

 So we planned to travel from the mooring field in St. Augustine to near Jacksonville on Friday 5/27. This is the Memorial day holiday weekend and boat travel is likely to get crazy. We are staying at a nice free dock near the mouth of the St. John's River. I'm going to look into a mooring ball or anchorage or dock in either downtown Jacksonville or Fernandina Beach. We have confirmed marina reservations in Fernandina Beach Sunday through Tuesday.

But, back to getting here in the Jacksonville area. There is a popular free dock at a place called Jim King Boat Ramp. We got tied up in pretty strong tidal current, no other boats on the dock. Then some pretty nasty storms went through and we were so glad to be safe.

A few hours after our arrival I saw a single handed sailor making nearly no headway against the strong current. He pulled into the creek where we were and I went out to help him tie up and miss the sunken boat taking up some of the dock space. His story was that he bought the old sailboat to fix up after he brings it home down south. The previous night he got into some serious trouble in a storm while anchored and his boat keel smacked into some rocks causing a big hole and leak. While his bilge pump was barely keeping up he decided to go to West Marine for some parts. When he got back the pump had burned out so he called Mayday on the radio, which I responded to. (Captain geek note: Mayday is when there are people in jeopardy. You announce Pan Pan when it is just a vessel in jeopardy). 

I went over to see what I could do. The US Coast Guard and the Jacksonville Fire Dept. had boats to the pier in less than 10 minutes!. They pumped him out and sometime that night the fellow was able to get TowBoat US to tow him for an emergency haulout. We feel bad for the guy. The joys of finding a cheap boat to fix up!. Hope his situation turns out OK.




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