End of Day One - Mayport, Florida - the mouth of the St. John's river at the Atlantic

Well, we put 160 statute miles behind us today, further than origianally intended.  It was a good day.  Its beautiful along the St. John's river; see some background on the river here - http://www.theriverreturns.org/explore/  .  I must provide some valuable advice to you all, however.  Listen carefully, for this can benefit you both financially and with respect to your health.  First financial: go out tomorrow and fill your car, for I am sure after today the price of fuel will spike due to unusual demand coming out of North Central Florida - 260 gallons used in 160 statute miles!  I am afraid we'll have to slow down.  And with respect to your health: related to the previous financial point, please, please, please start using minimum SPF 50 every day when you go outside for I am sure the hole in the ozone layer will expand due to this trip.  That said, BossSea performed well after we set out this morning at 7:30am.  The picture of the four of us was minutes before the departure.

The river is beautiful early in the morning.  Nothing was stirring except the wildlife including a very large aligator that hitailed it across the river right in front of us. Didn't get a picture but you should have seen the wake that creature was leaving.  Amazing!  And, we experienced such a feeling of power early on when we needed to have a bridge raised: in order to pass  "John Whiteacre Bridge, John Whiteacre Bridge, this is BossSea to transition northbound standing by" and then, low and behold the bridge parted - ok opened! 

I think I got just a taste of how Moses must have felt! Maybe that's a stretch, but it was cool and sweet revenge for all those times I have been delayed by bridge openings! And then there was Lake George. It is huge and somewhat intimidating, being the second largest lake in Florida behind Lake Ocheechobee. Once on that lake you are committed - or shoud be committed. Candy and I took a 17ft boat out in Lake George in 1975 and got caught in a terrible storm that included lightening that literally raised the hair on our heads and left fingers that were touching the winshield tingling from the dancing lightening. I had something of a flashback about that, but as you can see, today represented no such risk for Boss and Byshka.

We continued on enjoying what little is left of old Florida.  It is still there though in the back woods and along rivers and back roads where moss still grows in the trees (and red bugs still wait for unsuspecting kids to wrap the stuff around their necks!) After many miles and many beautiful sights Jacksonville came into view.  It was great to see, a beautiful city from the water that smells like freshly roasted.....coffee!  I didn't see that coming.  The whole city smells like coffee which must be the Maxwell House manufacturing plant just east of downtown.  Those Jacksonvillians must be hopped up on the stuff all the time it smells so good.  We made it to Mayport about 6pm...and bought, yes, more fuel and tied up for the evening.  Mayport is a river / ocean working class location.  You've never been to Mayport I'll bet, and there is a reason.

Regardless, as you can see in the final Pic, everyone is doing fine and are in good spirits.  Even the guy taking the picture! 

We will head out to sea early in the morning.  Yep, going off shore; none of that intracoastal ditch running for us!  We're off to Daytona or parts further South tomorrow depending on fuel burn and weather conditions, which are predicted to be seasonal and fine.

YoHo, YoHo, its a sailors life for us!