May 4 - Julington Creek, FL

Julington Creek - Anchorage

We woke up to a perfect day...comfortable temperatures all day and clear blue sky, so different from yesterday. We enjoyed our morning watching people in the park and on the dock in Green Cove Spring. Everyone seemed to be grateful for such an amazing Sunday. Our destination today was Julington Creek, we'd been told about a wonderful fish camp (restaurant) we had to try, called Clark's. Julington Creek is surrounded by beautiful homes with well kept yards and a few marinas. The entry to the creek looks more like a small lake and only narrows into a creek a mile or two up river. We anchored just inside the creek since a 15' bridge would keep us from getting to the fish camp on The Pearl. We had to take the dinghy past the marinas and the bridge to Clark's.

Clark's Fish Camp has been a local's favorite for decades. Originally it was a bait and tackle shop, they expanded to a seafood restaurant about 30 years ago. They have a large, unique menu offering seafood, steak and exotic meats. They maintain a fish camp atmosphere with simple, rustic surroundings. Besides the wonderful food the restaurant draws people in because they house the largest private collection of taxidermy in North America. Every corner of the restaurant is full of animals…everything you can think of is here.

We had a late, and too large, lunch of wonderful shrimp and trout. The servings were so large that we each had enough left over for dinner tonight. We had fun looking at all the animals and the live alligator they have...our granddaughter would love this place. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the beautiful day on the boat and watching the weekend traffic on the river. 

Sunny views of Green Cove Springs

Clark's Fish Camp 

Just a few of the animals we saw at Clark's 

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.