Mike and Beth's Adventures

Amy Marie at the Palatka Free Public Dock  March 25th & 26th, 2022   Palatka is home to the Azalea Festival, one of the oldest in Florida.  It is also a slice of Old Florida, with historic houses flanking the river front.  In the center, jutting from shore, is the free city dock. Only two other boats occupied slips.  We chose a slip that kept our bow pointed into the strong afternoon wind.  A friendly fellow came over to help with our lines.  Turns out he was a young fellow who lived on a sailboat anchored just offshore.   The "Katie B" arrives in Palatka As we were getting settled, we saw some friends of our arrive in a 47’ Great Harbor.  They docked at the nearby marina. We texted and arranged to meet for dinner at a local Italian restaurant called, “Pizza Boys”.  To get there we walked through downtown on St. John’s Street.  Sadly, there were many closed storefronts.  The buildings look sound, but there was limite...

Welaka - Free Public Boat Dock February 21st, 2022  St John’s River, Day 2 Welaka is a fish camp town.  Founded in the 1850’s, it is now characterized by bait shops, bubbling bait tanks, friendly people, crab pots, and a wonderful free dock for visitors.  We walked around town, it is clean, but somehow caught in a bygone era.  The homes were on large lots with trees for shade against the hot Florida sun.  In the shade it was pleasant but walking in the sun created an instant thirst for a cold drink.  So after stretching our legs we went looking for that cold drink and some dinner. A "Fly-In" Fish Camp on the way to Welaka Osprey build nests on the Navaids Our amblings brought us to “Shrimp-R-Us”, a restaurant clearly built in phases as their popularity grew.  The original building was probably from the 40’s or 50’s.  None of the add-on enclosed areas were newer than probably the 60’s or 70’s.  You could eat inside or they had an outside e...

Beth explores Peters Creek Exploring the Saint John’s River – Day 1 We began our exploration of the St. Johns River from Ortega River Marina in Jacksonville.   Our start was delayed as I needed to spend the morning installing a replacement inverter.   Ours had failed 2 weeks ago.   After talking with the very helpful Customer Support staff at ProMariner, I sent the failed unit in and they replaced it with a 2000 watt Pure Sine Wave unit.   The installation went well.   I only had to fabricate a part to hold the remote-control panel.   With a quick check out to ensure proper operation, we were on our way. Passing the Ortega River Bridge at the start of our voyage. With a noon departure, the winds had a chance to build.   Our run for the day, ~25 miles was very lumpy.   With a strong north wind, and us headed south, it guaranteed we would be surrounded by spray most of the way.   We were very happy to drop the hook in   Black Creek, ju...