The reason I stopped in Jacksonville was to visit an old friend and possible part-time cruising partner, Nicole. In July of 2021, she had helped me move my then recently-purchased Serendipity from Titusville over to St. Petersburg. I hadn’t seen her since, but this last summer we reconnected and planned for her to join me in September to cruise the Chesapeake. Unfortunately, she ended up getting sick and had to cancel, but in the meantime I had my tax returns sent to her to bring along, but since we never met up, she still had them. My plan was to stop to visit her, retrieve the documents, and explore Jacksonville, which I had only passed through driving, and which I admittedly did not have a good impression of.
The location of the anchorage proved very convenient because there was a public dock right across the river in front of a huge and beautiful YMCA–probably the most impressive health club I’ve ever been in.
They offer two free days per month to anyone, which I took advantage of. This was also right along the beautiful Jacksonville riverwalk, which I would take to Nicole’s place.
Next to her place was very lovely Memorial Park, which I took advantage of to do yoga during the warmer days.
I had originally thought I would just do the transit back and forth to the dock with my paddleboard, but the 1/3 mile distance and strong currents of the river soon convinced me that it would be worthwhile to deploy the dinghy and newly-repaired outboard engine. (It worked flawlessly.)
I ended up staying for just over a week, sometimes on my boat and sometimes on Nicole’s couch when some cold snaps came through bringing the temps down into the low 40’s. She showed me around Jacksonville (which I have to say I came away with a much more positive impression of), we biked in the countryside, and even visited St. Augustine in all its Christmas-decorated glory. It was nice hanging out with a friend, especially after having been alone for so long.
I was also able to finally obtain a primary care doctor in Jax! My previous one, with whom I had established shortly before launching in May, had unexpectedly closed up shop a month later, leaving me without a primary care provider (which my insurance requires authorizations from if I am to see a specialist, etc.) Previous attempts over the previous five months to obtain a new one had proven unsuccessful because even though many of the network providers do telemedicine now, they all seem to require the initial, patient-establishing appointment to be in person, and these appointments were always at least two months out! With my nomadic lifestyle, this just didn’t work. I decided to try one more time in Jacksonville since it was a pretty big city and managed to find an open appointment while I was there, so now actually have a doctor again! Yea!
But after a week or so experiencing the urban life, it was time to continue south for the holidays. I wanted to spend the them with at least the two of my sons who would be in Florida. Alek and his girlfriend, Alex, lived in Orlando, but were planning to spend Christmas at her dad’s place in Pinellas County. Nicholay and his girlfriend, Sierra, had flown in from cruising in Guatemala and were also staying in Pinellas, just a couple of miles away from where Alek was going to be. Best of all, there was a room for me at Alex’s dad’s place since he was out of town. Excellent! (Would have been perfect if my third son, Andrei, would have been in town…but he was going to be spending the holidays in Colorado where he lives.)
But to do that, I needed a safe place on the east coast of Florida to put the boat for a couple of weeks. I didn’t–and don’t–intend to return with Serendipity to Tampa anytime soon–that would be a month-long voyage for me in any case. Instead, Titusville was the logical choice as it is only an hour’s drive from Alek’s place in Orlando; he’d be able to pick me up and take me with them to Pinellas. I just had to get there by the 17th at the latest.
It was going to be close, because I couldn’t leave until after my new doctor’s appointment on December 10th. At my typical 30-mile-a-day pace in the ICW, it looked like it would take five days to get from my anchorage 20 miles up the St. Johns River down the ICW to Titusville. I didn’t want to budget any less than 30 miles a day because I remember there were currents in this section of the ICW. Not as strong as the 2-3 knots up in Georgia and South Carolina, but still a knot to a knot and a half, which can significantly affect an all-day trip. I would also need at least a day after getting there to do all the things required after arriving in a marina and to prep the boat for leaving it unattended for almost two weeks. It was going to be close! As long as I didn’t run into any maintenance issues, though, I felt I could make it. Unfortunately, another cold front was coming the day I was supposed to depart, so it was going to be uncomfortable yet again.
After my doctor’s appointment, I spent the afternoon stowing the dinghy and outboard and otherwise prepping the boat for a 5-day trip to Titusville.