Day 351 - Sixmile Creek to Reed Is. (Jacksonville), FL
Day 351 - Wednesday, April 12th: We had a fairly long run to make today - part of it would be fighting current - so we left the cozy free dock in Sixmile Creek fairly early. We had an uneventful run past Green Cove Springs, the Ortega River (where we stayed two weekends back) and through downtown Jacksonville. Today, for some reason, they had part of the huge fountain turned on. We had been told it was so big that in a light breeze it got everything around it wet, so they had to turn it off:
When there is an east wind in Jacksonville, the whole city smells like coffee roasting. That's because a few blocks east of town, Maxwell House has a huge coffee processing plant:
A short distance further downstream is the Alltel Stadium, home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, home of the Gator Bowl and where Super Bowl XXXIX was played. It's huge!
We passed under a very high bridge that was just high enough to accommodate this ocean-going barge that was loaded with layers of trailers. The barge must have been about 700 feet long:
We were now into the port operations section of the St. Johns River. These two freighters were interesting in that the left one has a bulbous bow and the right one does not. The bulb, in spite of its size, actually streamlines the water flow around the ship, allowing her to go faster and use less energy because she doesn't make as much wake. Of course it's only effective when the ship is fully loaded:
We weren't sure for what purpose these colorful ships were used. They look like a mix between ocean-going tugs and ferries:
The gray ship is a military freighter:
This loading dock was lined with ships when we entered the St. Johns River a couple weeks ago:
A little farther downstream we turned south between two islands, Reed and Bartram Islands, to anchor for the night. The current was running about two knots and the wind was about fifteen knots, so we put out lots of anchor rode. We had a good view of the Dana Point Bridge past Bartram Island.
Due north of us across the river was the long loading facility:
And, south of us was a big shallow bay:
It had been a rather uneventful day of cruising, but we were ready for supper. Bill worked on these logs while Ruth worked on making white chili and salad. Yummy!
As darkness fell, we took a couple of pictures of the loading facility again. That place is busy around the clock! Thankfully, the noise wasn't loud enough to bother us:
Position tonight: N30 22.777 W081 32.207
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