October 1st to December 31, 2012 - Jacksonville, Florida

One of the Huckins yachts docked behind us. A 53ft built in 1966.

After looking around the different marinas in the area, we decided on Huckins Yacht Corp. to leave our boat for the next 3 months. This establishment has been in business since 1928 building custom yachts up to 90ft long. They also built PT boats during the second world war. Though it's not an actual marina they had nice floating docks and a courtesy car that was the deciding factor. As well it was a great place for Roly to get some work done on the boat.

Roly working in the engine room located under the living room floor.

Jacksonville was chosen because of it's proximity to the airport as we needed to fly back and forth for the birth of our 1st grandchild and the Christmas holidays.

Our beautiful grand daughter Lily

This particular area of Jacksonville is 20 miles in from the ocean along the St. John river which is well protected from major storms and hurricanes. We were safe from hurricane Sandy which went by while our boat was there.

Jacksonville Landing is a popular place for boaters to stop and eat.

Jacksonville is huge. It took us 45 minutes by car to get to the beach. While at the beach we were lucky to watch a surfing competition.

One day we found a Health Store named Grassroots that had an amazing variety of craft beers, (Roly was in his glory!).

There was only one other full-time residence on the dock, an Italian American from Brooklyn, NY named Captain Joe. This aspiring comedian kept us entertained as well as a great help with many things. "Thanks Joe, you are a gentlemen and a scholar and it was a pleasure to know you!"

Captain Joe