Saturday March 29, 2025
Julington Creek Marina to Fernandina Beach
After spending several days getting provisions, cleaning the boat, unpacking, and double-checking our lists, it is time to say goodbye to Julington Creek Marina and head up the St. Johns River to the ICW to make our way north. Today, March 29, 2025, marks the beginning of our Great Loop adventure aboard our 40’ Cruisers 3970 Express Cruiser. Months of planning have led to this moment, HERE WE GO!!!
The waters were calm, the breeze was gentle and we had a mix of sun and clouds. We got to downtown Jacksonville and had to wait for a train. The railroad bridge is way too low for most any boat to pass under, so we wait. Just a few minutes pass and the train comes, then the bridge starts to open. This is a bascule bridge. Pretty fun to watch lift up. Just as we are getting close to our turn to go through, the bridge starts to come down again. UGH. Another train wins. We spent a little more time than we wanted at the bridge, but no big deal.
Going up the ICW was pretty interesting. We started out with pretty open shores, not any build up of housing, etc…
All went very smooth until we got to the Nassau River and the southern end of Amelia Island. We were following Bob’s tracks (a very reputable and up to date GPX file that we could download on top of our other navigation tools. There is a lot of shoaling in this area so one must be very studious to stay on course. We, did not. We ran aground. all who do this loop say…it’s not if you run aground, it’s when. I guess we decided to get this out of the way and do it on our first day. Anyway, it was a beautiful day to clean a bit more here and there while we waited for our tow. Thank goodness we decided to buy the towing package from US Tow Boat! He came about an hour after we called. We hesitated calling for at least 40 minutes or so as we on a rising tide. We thought maybe, just maybe we’d get free on our own. NOPE. Once our tow arrived, we were off and on our way.
We arrived in Fernandina Beach a couple hours later than we had planned, but all in all, the first day was great. We found a great anchorage, took the dinghy to shore and met some great friends for dinner.
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