Day 2 started a little late given we where both incline to sleep in a little after getting up a 4am and catching the plane down yesterday. We left the dock at 9:30am and headed up stream. The boat runs great with no obvious vibrations that would worry one and we where able to make about 6.5 knots (8mph) against the current. This boat is 47 foot long but its operation is much the same as the N37 we chartered in June. One difference is that the power system is set up with two inverters on the house batteries which is designed to enable you to run the air conditioners (three) off the house batteries while cruising and if the inverters sense a need for more power it automatically starts the generator to provide power and recharge the batteries. Well like most systems...right now there is a glitch Ken (who owns the boat is trying to diagnose). When you start the generator the electronics does not reliably start picking up the load and when it does you have to add load slowly. The air is on and all is well now but this is another example of a system that is great (but complicated) and violates my boating friend Doug's rule of keeping it simple stupid (KISS).
Here we are leaving and passing under the bridge to Green Cove Springs from I-95.
The electronics on the boat are great, GPS Radar, and the Auto-pilot is really cool. Point the boat in the direction and push a button and it steer the direction you point it. Or, you can click a point on the map and it will go straight there!
This next picture is a range marker, when the near red marker is in line with the back red marker you know you are in line with the navigation channel. We are to the right of it in this picture.
This is an example of many of the houses on the St Johns, even though they tend to be few and far between.
You can see the water is shallow close to the bank by the length of the walkway out to the dock!
The tide here is only a rise and fall of about a foot (minus big rains).
Miss Viv is a happy Admiral...
Unlike the Ohio river not much industry on the river and hence no Tow Boats yet....
We saw these turbines last trip here and still find them curious...sign says Warning High Voltage...we suspect they get lowered into the water but with the slow current don't see how they would produce much.
We diverted to Crystal Cove Marina to see if the GH-37 we saw before was still there..
It was but is certainly in sad shape on the exterior...need some tender loving care!!
Lot of fisherman out today but the majority are throwing cast nets...after we went by we wished we would have stopped and asked what the were after...maybe shrimp??
The Osprey are not to be seen this trip, guess it is past nesting season.
This next picture shows the moss on the trees at our location where we dropped the hook for the first night...moss slowly blowing in the breeze..
Calm and peaceful, with no one needing anything, just us together and that makes for a perfect end to a great day!
On a really neat boat...
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