May 2, 2020 – It was a beautiful still morning so Ben took the opportunity to fly the drone for some aerial shots of the boat and surrounding scenery before we headed onward; the AICW stretches of the northern Florida coast up toward Georgia and the Carolinas feature a lot of winding rivers, creeks, and sounds with tricky shoals, and the tides become a major factor in timing our cruising day. It is far favorable to travel on a rising tide, so in case you should run aground, the rising water would help float you off. The inverse would mean that if you encounter shallow water, it would just get shallower and shallower as the tide falls -and the tidal swing ahead of us gets to as much as 8 feet !
From the minute we left our mooring ball, the waterway felt different.
Busy. Really busy. Normal.
It was a Saturday, and people were out doing what they normally do on a Saturday.
Tubing, fishing, just going somewhere. Boats buzzing past us each way. Kayaks and paddleboarders. Jetskis. Lots of jetskis.
When we passed the St John’s River, we could have taken a left and headed down to Jacksonville. Instead, we crossed the river and headed up the AICW another half mile, and stopped at a very nice free dock near a park.
A couple on a Carver, from Chesapeake City, Maryland, caught our lines and helped in docking in a pretty good current. Turns out they are hopeful to do the Loop in a year or two, and we all got out our chairs and sat on the dock to socialize (at an appropriate distance, of course).
It was bonkers, watching the parade of boats going up and down the river, seeing the pier crowded with fishemen (and women), and hearing the squeals of kids playing at the park.
Eventually, it all quieted down, and we enjoyed a peaceful night.