Picture catch-up

Seen en route to Jacksonville: pepto-bismol-colored ketch in need of some loving.

Our first night in Jacksonville we anchored across from this shipyard. The cranes that pick up the giant shipping containers reminded me of dad when he had to do this on the set of one of his movies (move shipping containers with a crane).

We bumped into the Star Wars ship again! Steve S. was right! These *do* carry cars – we saw hundreds of Toyotas drive out of its belly.

Freighters always remind me of Tom Chamberlain and the Army of Darkness. Every freighter I have seen since we started our journey has “Safety First” plastered in large letters across the front of its tower. One day I will photoshop a freighter picture and change it to “Safety Third”.

Our toilet decided it needed some fixin’. Except the fixin’, which included just a few valves, would have cost almost as much as a new toilet and we would have had to wait four weeks for the parts.

Note the green growth on the toilet. While in some circles, “patina” is a good thing (Sotheby’s Auction, Antiques Roadshow), on your toilet? Not so much. I scrubbed this sucker with every chemical known to man and even tried hydrochloric acid. I probably took several years off of my life trying to de-patina this toilet. So, when it came down to fixing or replacing, you know what my vote was.

Installing the new head!

Six bus rides, five or so miles of walking (two of which included carrying the head), a few solid man-hours of install time, and voila: a thing of beauty.

Jacksonville Municipal Park Marina – just us for the first few nights; clean and quiet.

VIP dock.

Right across the street is the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium.

Oh no you didn’t! Talk to the hand! We’re in gator country.

This is kind of nifty. If you want shore power, you enter your slip number and slide your credit card and for $8.56, you get 24 hours of power.

Another service we took advantage of is free pump-out. You dock your boat alongside this station, attach the suction / hose to your holding tank port, and a few minutes later, your holding tanks are empty!

Securing the suction to the holding tank exit port.

Here’s a better shot of what’s happening.

One afternoon a pretty big thunderstorm / tornado came through. The porta-potties were shocked.

The trees were awed.

At night we were treated with the most excellent aroma of roasted coffee thanks to our neighbor, Maxwell House (it’s Good ‘Til The Last Drop you know).

On our last night we checked out The Jacksonville Landing – just a short walk downtown. Lots of restaurants, shops, and bars. We had a beer and our first Scotch Egg (hard-boiled egg, sausage, breading, mustard, greens – mmmmmmmm).

And today, we are off! We are anchored back across from the shipyard and will head south down the ICW tomorrow to St. Augustine.

Thank you Jacksonville Municipal Park! A really great place to stay! So nice to be on the dock again for a little while – who knows when that will happen next?!?