Started: The Marina at Ortega Landing, 30°16.61′N 081°42.79′W

Anchored: Green Cove Springs, Governor's Creek, 30°00.72′N 081°41.26′W

Log: 18.5 nm. Time 3½ hr. Engine 3½ hr.

Feels good to move after a month at dock.

The boat works. The St. John's River is very cute.

The Active Captain anchorage in Governor's Creek is a good distance from the free dock and downtown Green Cove Springs. There's not much protection, everything's exposed to the long reach to the NNE up the St. John's River.

A better place to anchor is near the public pier: 29°59.670′N 081°40.460′W. Still exposed, but a shorter dinghy ride to the good coffee shop, Spring Park Coffee.

Tomorrow we want to walk up to the famous 411 Walnut St., address of St. Brendan's Isle mail service. The actual facility is not at 411 Walnut. It's out on route 315, nearer Governor's Creek, where we're anchored.

The little town park looks vaguely like Congress Park in Saratoga, NY. Then we found the local paper with a headline "Saratoga of the South." I guess that nails it down. It's not just us that see echoes of Saratoga here.

Red Ranger still has dampness and mildew issues. CA has found one porthole gasket that's not good. One leaky lifeline gate. The chainplates need some attention. Also, we need to get out of North Florida. It's a famously lethal combination of warm damp days, and cold nights.

So far, the apparent leaks are all relatively small jobs that we can tackle on down days when (a) its warmer and (b) we're tired of moving the boat and want to just play quietly.

One other job like the leaks is the black goo between the teak slats on the cockpit benches. We need to carefully ream out the old goo with the Fein Multi-Master, tape the slots and slather in new goo. It takes 24 hours to set up — in warm, dry, sunny conditions. There are a lot of slats, so we'd probably do this one section at a time.

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