A week in the life of a 'looper', someone doing the Great Circle Loop, is a long time. We enjoyed our last week in Florida by spending time in the welcoming city of Jacksonville and we packed a lot of sightseeing into that week. The free docks provided for 'transient' boaters like us, gave us the opportunity to leave the boat for a couple of days and make a SERVAS visit.
Friday 10 April: Joan our SERVAS host offered us the kayaks in her barn and showed us where to launch them from the dock at the bottom of her wilderness garden. We paddled downstream, through the wildlife-filled marshes and round the bend to the white rock where an alligator slipped into the water as we approached and right on cue as predicted by Joan. We followed the river under a few bridges almost to where it meets the St John's River. Kids on Spring Break were swimming, waterskiing and fishing along the way. We arrived home with sunburn, itchy bites and a few blisters but thrilled by our kayak experience.
Saturday 11 April: The Jacksonville Zoo is accessible from a free dock so we spent a day following the animal feeding times at the zoo. At one point, Alice asked a Park Ranger for directions to the bears but his response was that "we don't have any bees here". "Grrrr, grizzly bears" growled Alice. "Oh, the baaares!" It was Easter at the time and so it took the rangers quite some time to set out the Easter treats and a reasonable amount of time for the bears to find the fruit-filled jellies and sardine-filled iceblocks and eat these treats. This was a fun spectacle and we had a great day at the zoo. We stayed so long that the tide had gone out when we returned to the boat and we had settled into the mud, so we stayed the night at the dock. The wolves howled eerily in the night.
Sunday 12 April: Lloyd was through the gate at 9am in the morning. "How did you get in here so fast?" asked several staff as the zoo doesn't open officially until 10am. After another few hours at the zoo we moved off to downtown Jacksonville. We spent the afternoon at the MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) where we did a print making workshop which was great fun. We had some delicious coffee and cakes at the gallery cafe and drinks and nibbles at Hooters Bar on the way home.
Monday 13 April: We moved to an anchorage on the Ortega River in suburban Jacksonville. A storm blew up late in the day with a fantastic lightening show. We had been warned that Floida is "the lightening capital of the world" and we found this out for ourselves. The lightening, wind and rain were impressive and water poured in the windows and onto the bedding in the first real rainstorm that we had experienced in the boat. The next morning started calmly but by 10am the lightening was going again and as we bucked up and down, Alice was saying "we're moving". Then Lloyd said "now, we're really moving" and John said "Phillippa, get up here quick!" The anchor had pulled free and was flying behind us like a kite. John started the motor and we moved to a more sheltered spot on the south side of the river. A couple of local guys came out in the storm to offer us a mooring ball which was more secure than the anchor. We were luckier than another boat that beached itself on the north bank.
Tuesday 14 April: We visited the Jacksonville Maritime Museum where Lloyd enjoyed the display and videos of the WWII aircraft carriers. In the afternoon we did the River walk to the Cummer Museum of Art. The museum has a delightful collection of art and beautiful English and Italian gardens.
Wednesday 15 April: It was time to push on from Jacksonville so we anchored in Sister's Creek beside the Fort George Plantation. Against a pretty sunset backdrop, the kids went ashore and built sandcastles. The next morning we were sitting on deck on a glorious morning, saying "it doesn't get much better than this." We visited the Plantation house, kitchen, garden, barn and slave quarters where more than 80 slaves once harvested Sea Island Cotton and Indigo.
Thursday 16 April: Fernandina Beach provided a good port for the night and we had pleasant stroll around the tourist shops.
Bow Waves from America
- Cruising the Great Loop
- Boating, travel and family fun are our motivation for trying something new. We heard about the Great Loop five years ago and this sounded just like the right adventure for us. We are a family of four from New Zealand. We have taken leave from school, rented the house and packed our bags. Bow waves is the blog that will follow us as we endeavour to buy a boat and cruise the Great Loop (America's Great Circle Route). We have membership of the AGLCA (America's Great Loop Cruisers' Association) and will begin our journey on the Intracoastal Waterway in the Fort Lauderdale area.