May 28 Doctors Lake to Sisters Creek

May 28

A good night at anchor with no rain, wind or lightning.  A light breeze so we opted to sleep with the windows open and forego running the genny and A/C.  Very peaceful and tranquil with the entire cove to ourselves (excepting all the houses along the shoreline).  Only downside was waking up to the back of the boat covered in midges.  They don’t bite – just a nuisance.  They simply won’t fly away when disturbed but resettle anywhere that is out of the wind.  Last time we really had an issue with them was last year during a stop in Edenton, NC.  

Forecast is for another extremely hot day with thunderstorms developing in the afternoon, so we hoisted anchor at 8:30 and headed to the Jacksonville free dock on Sisters Creek.  It’s a pretty good haul most of the way out the St. John’s River and clear on the other side of town where we connect back up to the ICW.   Our timing worked out perfectly as we rode an outgoing current almost all the way.  By the time we hit Sisters Creek it was almost at slack high tide which is perfect for getting in there and tied up.  

The trip back up the St. Johns took us past many of the places we used to boat when we lived here.  Orange Park, under the Fuller Warren bridge (good striper fishing spot), past Naval Air Station Jacksonville (NAS  Jax – original home of the Blue Angels), by the Ortega and Avondale  sections of town with their older houses  great eateries and many marinas,  under the infamously often broken CSX RR bridge (closed all day Fri and Sat for repairs so we really needed to head out today),  through downtown Jax and under all their bridges, passing by Shad Khans (owner of the Jags) massive yacht “Kismet”, then passing  the 3 Norwegian Cruise Line ships still  tied up just as they were when we came here 2 months ago,  skirting past  the Jags home field (we’ll always call it the Gator Bowl no matter what the sponsor of the day decides to label it), then passing through the more industrial waterfront with container ships, dry docks, and offloading ramps for imported Toyota’s.  Finally turned the corner into Sisters Creek.  Another trawler was cutting across the St. John’s following the ICW ahead of us.  With no one tied up at the free dock he headed in with us right behind him.  All secured by 1PM.  Two sailboats arrived later and tied up behind us. 

RR bridge is at least up for us

Shad Khan's megayacht

Old Jax Landing property ready for redevelopment

Alltell, Everbank, TIAA bank stadium - we call it the Gator Bowl!!

Goodbye Jax

The start of the industrial side of Jax

We never saw these cool murals honoring unity and diversity when coming into town

 as it was on the back side of the silo's

Cruise ships still stuck in port

Container ships in port

As forecast, storms  did develop and  we had several hours of rain and lightning.  No wind at least and the rain did help drop the temperature a bit. Still humid as a sauna though.   

Views at Sisters Creek

Journey for May 28