Day 157-158 – 3/9-10/24

Starting location: St. Augustine Municipal Marina, St. Augustine, FL.

Weather: 69 am, 83 pm, slight drizzle, cloudy but some sun breaks. Wind picked up with gusts to low 40mph range in afternoon. Thunderstorm with hard rain for a few hours in the evening – Saturday 3/9. 54 am, 70 pm, mostly sunny – Sunday 3/10.

Ending location: Port 32 – Jacksonville at Ortega Landing Marina. West of AICW at MM 740.

Statute miles: Approximately 65.

General summary: Motored North from St. Augustine to Jacksonville area and reserved a slip at a marina on a tributary called the Ortega River.

Wind picked up substantially as we got within a few miles of our destination and so docking was a challenge, but the dockhand was there to help and all went smoothly. We picked this marina due to it’s proximity to West Marine and Publix, its hot tub and pool, and excellent reviews. Ran into some Looper friends we had met in John Pennykamp State Park in the Keys (John and Kim on the Wild Goose). This route took us West of the ICW as we had decided to explore the St. Johns River a bit, after hearing great things about it. It was also a little too soon, weather-wise to head further North. We had been advised not to go too far North of here until late March/early April as nighttime lows can still be in the 30s. The daytime highs South of here, however, were rising as was humidity, so should not linger too long. Funny how we’d been chasing heat for so long and now are running away from it. Hot tubbed twice each day, had docktales with friends, re-provisioned, and planned our next steps.

Boater information: Port 32 Marina had good quality floating concrete docks, security gates, power, water, pool, hot tub, bathrooms, showers, free laundry. No gas or pump out. Grassy areas for dog walks. Very pet friendly. Mix of live-aboards (all well-kept boats), snowbirds, and transients like us. Many current and prior Loopers and got tons of helpful information from them. Very friendly people.