Friends of ours arrived in Astor on Monday evening to spend three days traveling with us to Jacksonville. We departed on Tuesday morning heading toward Jacksonville, a two day ride. I felt bad as it was not a warm, dry or sunny day. Our first stop was to tie up at the docks outside Corkie Bells for dinner, then on to the marina at Palatka for the night.
Unfortunately the weather didn't improve our second day out. We had planned to tie up to the wall in downtown Jacksonville. The cool temps and wind changed our minds. Ortega Landing had a great special. If you traveled for a minimum distance of 50 miles and it was you first visit your first night was free. They also had a pool, hot tub and boaters lounge! A deal not to pass up! On our way to the marina I called friends Deb and Dan whom we had not seen in two years. When we spoke last they were somewhere in Jacksonville. To my delight Deb called back and said they were at Ortega Landing. Now I was really excited.!! We had met Deb and Dan in Rock Hall Maryland two summers ago while bumming around on the Chesapeake. We had docked at a marina there to get a few repairs done and visit with our boat insurance agent who had become our friend. Our first night at the marina we met Deb and Dan and enjoyed cocktails together. The next day we caught up with our friend Zott. He was excited about introducing us to his really good friends who were also at the marina. It turned out to be Deb and Dan! We had a great laugh over that one.
Ortega required us to stern into our slip which meant tying the dingy up near the front not an easy task but doable. It was not an easy slip to stern into because there were no barriers between our boat and our neighbor on the port side, a big beautiful trawler. I was so proud of Tom, he backed Laughter in that slip perfectly and made it look easy!
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