...and back to JAX

We left the anchorage around 7:30 am. We knew weather was coming (nothing major, possible t-storms which can bring winds), so we didn't dilly-dally.

We would have left earlier but while trying out one of the projects, our raw water hose, we, well, had no water. Russ installed it for this reason, to clean the anchor rode while it's coming up. He could hear the pump running but no water came out. And, of course, the chain and bridle lines were coming up coated in mud. Eventually, after fiddling with this and that he realized that the seacock was closed. Which, by the way, it should be. Once opened, the hose worked like a charm.

Boring boat stuff: if you don't know, many boat systems use the water around them for cooling or cleaning. There are holes in the boat that are plumbed to these systems. Our engines, for example, do have coolant, but they are mostly cooled by seawater -- which is kinda freaky, since our exhaust pipes belch water. Seems wrong, but if they don't, we overheat. The downside of seacocks are, if you aren't paying attention, they can sink the boat. Not a good outcome. So, if we aren't using it regularly we close them. We closed the seacocks on our engines while we were here for 2 months just for that reason.

The view from the Captain's seat. 
The St. Johns River is fairly big, just not that deep.

The wind came up a bit as predicted. It was coming from the east, which was the best direction for us for docking. Being here a while I watch boat after boat struggle with either wind or current; as they'd back into the space they'd lose their bow and biff into the finger pier. Armed with this I back in on an angle and let the wind move us into position. It worked perfectly. Yay for me learnin' stuff!

I'm looking forward to leaving, now. We needed a little reminder on what this all about.