May 3 - Green Cove Springs

Green Cove Springs City Dock

We could choose to sit in the rain in Palatka again today or travel north in the rain and hope to move out of this weather system. We chose to travel, it was misty rain most of the day with temperatures in the mid to upper 50s and a pretty steady breeze...amazing how the weather can change in just a day. 

The MugRace started in Palatka this morning, 70+ sailboats of all sizes were heading to Jacksonville. I'm really glad I wasn't on one of them this morning, they looked very cold, at least we had our flybridge to keep us dry and a little warmer. We'd hoped the weather would clear as we moved north, but it was still wet and grey when we arrived at Green Cove Springs. After we docked we wandered around the pretty waterfront park and checked out a few places we'd read about for dinner. This part of town is beautiful with large homes on the water and a great park and pier so the community can enjoy the spring and river.

The spring, locally known as the “Original Fountain of Youth", attracted guests in the 19th Century; there were more than a dozen hotels near the spring. Today the sulfur-scented spring water feeds an adjacent public swimming pool before flowing the short distance to the St. John’s River.

As other towns we visited along the St. John's, agriculture and tourism were the primary economic ventures until the end of the century, when Henry Flagler's railroad began taking tourists further south into Florida. In 1895, the Great Freeze destroyed the area's citrus crops, and tourism all but ended. Each town has struggled to find its place, but all have done a great job in restoring their historic areas by the river. I don't think many people take the time to do this cruise and even fewer do it slow, taking in the little creeks and spending time just soaking in the sights. The river is an amazing place with beautiful scenery, lots of wildlife, neat little towns and wonderful friendly, helpful locals.

By early evening the clouds had disappeared and the sun was out...yeah! We enjoyed a BBQ dinner at a place called The Brickyard and spent the evening visiting with people on the dock. Life on the river is wonderful.

A few pictures of the sailboats we passed

Spring Park

This is where the spring comes up from the ground and flows into the pool. The depth of the spring is 28 feet, it has a flow of 3000 gallons a minute and is a constant 78º.

May 2 - Palatka, FL

Palatka City Dock

"My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?"―David Mitchell

The rain the rest of the south has been getting all week finally caught up with us today. We didn't get any severe storms, high winds or hail, but it did rain off and on all day. The rains brought in a cool front, which makes it much nicer on the boat. We spent the day reading, watching videos, surfing the web, playing the guitar (Stan), playing Sudoku (me) and generally being lazy. It was kind of nice to have a slow day.

A large sailboat race leaves from Palatka tomorrow. We were told the waterfront park would get very busy by this afternoon, but the rain put a damper on most of the activities. The Mug Race is the world's longest river race, a challenging one-way course along the beautiful St. John's River to Jacksonville. I'm not sure if it'll go on with the rain or not...I guess we'll have to see what tomorrow brings. We were also told there were around 80 boats registered in this year’s race. It would definitely be fun to see them sailing on our way north tomorrow.

This is the only picture I took today. A Common Tern sitting on the post close to the boat.

May 1 - Palatka, FL

Palatka City Dock

We continued our way down river today, retracing our path from a few weeks ago and trying to soak in anything we might have missed. We kept our eyes open for eagles, alligators and manatees...no gators or manatee, but we did see two eagles today, one flew past us this morning while we had coffee on the deck and another was in a tree above the dock at Corky Bell's where we had lunch.

We had a nice cruise, although a little warm, back to the Palatka area. Our first stop was at Corky Bell's for lunch. We could have spent the night on their dock...which we planned to do, but we found out they were having a bass tournament this evening and we knew that would be more action than we wanted to be part of. So after a good, but too big, lunch we moved to the Palatka city dock. We had another small afternoon shower...this is getting to be a routine, but no large storms.

On our way into the Palatka area we passed a canal that was dug as the eastern section of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. This canal would have connected the Atlantic Ocean with the Gulf of Mexico. In 1964, President Johnson commenced the building of the Cross Florida Barge Canal. The nearly 200-mile long, 30 foot deep canal would dwarf the Panama and Suez canals. The Canal would begin in Jacksonville and travel down the St. John’s River through Palatka, follow the path of the Ocklawaha River to Silver Springs, then cut west below Ocala until it entered the Gulf of Mexico near Yankeetown. The project was estimated to cost upwards of $300 million to build but would have provided a critical link between Mississippi River commerce and the east coast.

Only seven years after its authorization, President Nixon announced he was stopping all work on the canal to prevent further environmental damage to the Ocklawaha River. Less than one third built, the canal remains the largest public works project in American history to be halted in the midst of construction. Two sections of the project were completed before being called off. The area around the barge canal is now a protected green belt corridor, named Marjorie Carr Cross Florida Greenway, after the leader in the fight against the canal construction. 

Corky Bell's Seafood Restaurant 

Looking at the Buckman Lock on what was to be the Cross Florida Barge Canal 

This canal definitely would have changed the looks of Florida and which areas grew. The canal wouldn't have been this straight through the state or this large, but it gives you an idea of what it would have been like.