Day 8, Monday Dec. 8: Jax to Orange Park

Day 7 (Monday, Dec. 08) Safe Harbor, Jacksonville to Whitney Marine, Orange Park

After arriving in Jacksonville Friday, we visited with my dear friends Doug and Robin Smith who run Safe Harbor Boys Home. Boys at the home live on boats donated by caring supporters and learn all things nautical as well as attending a special school on campus. While we were there, the boys were building their own hydroplane boats and racing them around the harbor. These boats are really cool: about eight feet long and four feet wide, they skim across the top of the water propelled by 15 hp outboards. Top speeds are more than 20 miles per hours, which is fast in a tiny boat.

In addition to their traditional academic curriculum, the teens also learn to work on marine engines, work with fiberglass and build all things mechanical. They also get to do a lot of boating: over the weekend, some of the boys took a cigarette boat south to another marina to take part in the lighting of the harbor event. Others went deep sea fishing and brought home shark and Cobia, which they cooked up for dinner – yum!

The Smiths also lent us a car for the weekend and we drove home to visit with family for the weekend, leaving River Rat in their care. It was so strange after six days of following the slowly-winding river to traverse the same distance in two-and-a-half hours. Such a disconnect between the beauty of that naturally winding, slow-moving dark water and the dark, straight, utilitarian highway that replaced it as the preferred method of travel.

Just over a hundred years ago there was little choice. It was travel by river or trudge through swamp and forest on foot or by horse. The St. Johns was truly Florida’s first highway: Steamships from Jacksonville would bring goods and people upstream as far as Sanford and prosperous towns like Palatka sprung up along the way.

But with the coming of the railroads, and later, the highways, many of those towns suffered economically when railways and highways bypassed them. Such is the case in Palatka where stately historic buildings are home to just a few stores and plenty of empty spaces. One bright spot was Angel’s Diner, which we visited on our trip north. Billed as Florida’s oldest diner, the greasy spoon is housed in an authentic rail car just a short walk from the marina. Colorful employees and customers, as well as the sense of history, make this a must-visit spot.

Sunday evening, we returned to Safe Harbor by car, had a great meal and turned in early. This morning, Monday, we set out on our first home-bound leg around 9:30 a.m. Coming through the Dames Point bridge I was especially cautious (or paranoid) as I thought back on our near collision with a cargo ship on our northbound track last week. Fortunately, we had no issues and after passing through Downtown Jacksonville we were able to shut down the engine and had a near-perfect downwind sail – the first really long period of the trip during which we have not run the engine. A 12 knot wind on the port quarter and an incoming tide made for a great, relaxing sail.

The conditions came at just the right time as we noticed earlier in the day that the engine was smoking a bit and the cooling water discharge seemed weaker than normal. We made it in to Whitney Marine just before sunset and tomorrow I will have a look at the motor to see what’s up.

Whitney’s is just across the river from Mandarin Holiday Marina, where we stayed on the north-bound leg. While more expensive by 50 percent ($1.50 per foot vs. $1 per foot) Whitney’s is a nicer facility and offers free Wi-Fi and free ice. It is also a DEP certified “Clean Marina.” (Mandarin may be as well, but I forgot to ask.)

After settling in, we had a camp-style dinner of sausage and potatos (Thanks, Dan, now I can never remember which way is correct) cooked up on our two-burner propane stove. It's a gorgeous night and our slip faces the river. The slight swell causes the boat to rise and fall gently, a motion that always gives me a great night's sleep. Tomorrow we will make for Murphy's Creek campground which we passed on the way up. Looks like an awesome spot.