Day 230- December 3 FINAL DAY Saint Augustine, FL to Jacksonville, FL



No, it is NOT an early departure, the sun is just coming up later!


See, there it is. Still an early departure on my time schedule.


We saw this anchored just North of St Augustine.  I had seen it on YouTube.  This fellow made this in his back yard in Oklahoma and documented the whole thing.  It took years.  Check out SV Seeker on YouTube.



We started the day with several sightings of white pelicans and numerous dolphins. Of course, they were camera shy.






Those Floridians use a lot of power.

So a story goes with this.  The guy in the red boat is named Wally Moran.  A Canadian with a somewhat checkered past (would that be 'chequered?') is a self-proclaimed ICW guru.  He's done the waterway for 20 years.  Probably because he can't go back to Canada.  In addition to pontificating on various fora and sailing publications, he runs an annual "Sail to the Sun Rally".  For the low, low price of $995 you can follow him down the ditch and he will show you all the places where you can buy him drinks.  This year he apparently has four schlubs tagging along.  They left Norfolk on the 22nd of October and have gone about 700 miles in six weeks.  Excruciating!

Wally and his ducklings.


The shores a lined with beautiful homes.


This must be a retired farmer.


Across the waterway from the beautiful homes is unmanaged forest and brush.



Santa was waving at us. 




It's an LMSR! (Large Medium Speed Rollo-on/Roll-off).  Ask me how I know!
I asked.
He said, "he wrote a lot of papers on why the Navy should buy them, even if they weren't sexy and had to help move Army stuff."


Two greyhounds of the sea getting buffed and puffed in the shipyard.


I've never seen an open container rack with cars before!


Next time we do the Loop we'll go as deck cargo.


Where the Jacksonville Jaguars hold their fights.




The guy that owns the Jacksonville Jaguars had a little cash left over and picked this trinket up.  It's bigger than those destroyers.


Jacksonville skyline.


The Ortega River Bridge, the LAST draw bridge of this cruise to open for us.

It was obviously laundry day.


First stop at the marina.

NO job is finished until the paperwork is done. 
Or, in this case, let's do one last pump-out.

We did it!!  We've earned our Gold Looper Flags!

We have been flying a white AGLCA Loop flag, which indicates we are on our first journey around the loop. Once you complete the loop you get to fly the gold loop. Those who complete it a second time will fly a platinum colored flag.
We are happy with a gold.  

The "Goose" did a fantastic job of going the distance.

Thanks for following our journey.
Check back for one final post with the total distances, times, etc.

---------------------------------------------------------------
Paul comments in this font
Cheryl comments in this font



Comments

  1. SkippyDecember 4, 2024 at 11:13 AM

    The guy that owns the Jacksonville Jaguars and that big boat has proven that there's good money in bumpers. He manufacturers bumpers for every Toyota in the US (and most other brands today). As PW would say---ask me how I know?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob the DuckDecember 4, 2024 at 5:04 PM

    Congratulations you two, you made the loop an adventure for yourselves but we got to tag along. Thanks for sharing your adventures and observations. What a treat.

    ReplyDelete

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