Valentine's Travels: This and That Before The Sawgrass

When we left Palm Coast we moved on up the Waterway to the Jacksonville Area. The City of Jacksonville maintains a free dock on Sister's Creek just north of the ICW's intersection with the St. John's River and we stopped there for the night. I mean it is free, right. We worried that there might not be room for us, we needn't have. We arrived a little after 3:00 in the afternoon and the dock was empty. Good and bad - good because there was room, bad because there was no one on the dock to take a line. It was a floating dock, also good and bad - good because there is considerable tidal swing in this area, bad because there were no pilings to lasso and the cleats were way down on the water. The tide was falling, and falling fast which was pushing us away from the dock and the wind was also working to push us off. In a situation like this Larry brings the boat to the dock and I have to sort of flip the rope (we boater's call it a line) around the cleat and hang on; actually when the current is very strong - and it was- I have to secure the line around a cleat on Lauren Grace so that he can use the power of the engines to move the boat closer to the dock. I'm not going to give a play by play of the whole ugly scene but let's just say that it took all of the skill we have both developed in the past 8 years to get us close enough to get three lines on so that Larry could manage to jump to the dock and grab the final line and secure the first three. Maybe it was free for a reason! Still, it was a nearly new facility, in the perfect spot, with trash cans, and potable city water and it didn't cost a dime.

Last time I shared about the kindness of others but we just had kindness taken to a whole new level. A couple of hours after we arrived at the free dock a local gentleman came by and paid a visit. Capt. Browne Altman's business card describes him as "Self appointed, unofficial, Greeter". He is in the business of "paying forward the kindness of others". What a kind man he is, not only did he stop by to introduce himself and see if we needed a ride to anyplace or any advice about repair technicians in the local area he even brought gifts to all of the boats on the dock (by now three more had arrived). He moved down the line of boats chatting with each one in turn, and he was just delightful. An old sailor himself, he has lived in the area for many years and appears to enjoy meeting the boater's that come by, he is a great ambassador for his city.We were the fartherest boat from the parking

lot and by the time he got to us he realized that the last coaster set he had with him (he weaves them from colored nylon cordage) was missing two coasters. He asked when we were leaving and promised to return with the missing coasters, of course we thanked him and said he needn't go to any trouble. But sure enough, just after dark when we had gone inside and closed the doors to keep out the noseeums, we heard a "Hello" and Browne was back with the coasters! What a special memento of our brief visit with this exceptional human being.

I always look for interesting boat names. Along the way today I saw a boat docked in front of a house on the waterway bearing the name "Knot Enough" - do you suppose there may be another boat in their future? Another good name today was a boat that came into the dock shortly after we did, named "Mach Turtle", that one amused me as the perfect name for a slow boat.

And, as always, I looked at the homes. I snapped a few of the more interesting examples