April 20, Day 299 – Doctors Lake to Six Mile Creek

Gerry was up early this morning, but Linda slept in for a change. The forecast had called for rain, but none came and it was a beautiful morning. We had a leisurely breakfast and finally headed out around 9:30. On the way, we did a quick stop at Holland Marine – we had come by car while staying in St. Augustine as Michael and Jana had checked it out as a possible place to keep their boat during the summer. They wanted to check it out again.

We continued on upriver (south) passing under the Shands Bridge and then soon turned into Six Mile Creek. The area was beautiful and much more remote that our trip yesterday. Our destination today was the dock at the Outback Crab Shack. If you eat at the restaurant you can have free overnight dockage. Heck of a deal and an added bonus was the fact that it was a beautiful area with lots of wildlife (check out the pictures).

Once we were settled in, we walked to the restaurant for lunch and had their BBQ rib lunch special. Not the greatest ribs, but not bad for the price – plus the free dock. Later in the afternoon we took the dinghies down and explored Six Mile Creek beyond the bridge. The guys tried fishing, but with no luck. However, the scenery was incredible – a very enjoyable ride.

We weren’t very hungry after having a big lunch, so we just had a small snack for dinner. No TV reception in this area so we watched a movie and then off to bed, serenaded by the sound of the many nearby critters.

Editors Note: I wrote the above narrative before going to bed. Now that it is morning, I might want to change the "serenade" to "heavy metal band". Never have we heard such a cacophony.

We had noisy neighbors this morning -- little osprey were hungry

Maintenance work going on at the bridge

Second Star heading into Holland Marine. This is a big place with lots of docks for large ocean-going vessels.

Here's a couple of tugs and an ocean platform, probably in dock for repair

We passed under the Shands Bridge. This is just south of Green Cove Springs. Because of its height, most sailboats are not able to travel any further up the St. Johns, unless they drop their mast.

Heading up Six Mile Creek the scenery got more ..... well, scenic

There was heavy folliage along both sides of the creek

We turned a corner and there was the dock for the restaurant

Up ahead was the end of the line for us ... except by dinghy. The bridge had only 12 feet of clearance.

The area alongside the dock was amazing and full of critters

As shown by the sign, you need to eat at the restaurant to have permission to dock

I walked down to the beginning of the dock (at the approach). You can tell how long it is given the fact you can barely make out Monk's Vineyard at the other end -- a quarter mile away. According to the guidebooks, on the weekend this place is packed with many having to raft up. Definitely not the case today. Only one other boat was here with Monk's Vineyard and Second Star.

During my walk down the dock I saw turtles

.... still more turtles

.... a snake (we asked the locals if they knew what it was, but they didn't -- however, we think it might be a red rat snake)

.... and a gator (click to enlarge to check out his smile)

After getting settled in and our dock walk, we headed to the restaurant -- Outback Crab Shack

After lunch we took a dinghy (and fishing) trip. We have seen lots of moss covered trees, but these were different. They looked fuzzy. Some other kind of plant growing on the trees.

Here's a closeup of the plant -- you can see flowers blooming

Water flowers were everywhere

This and the following 3 pictures are shots along the shoreline.

On our dinghy ride we found no sign of civilization except for this small dock, with a broken chair, and a for sale sign for property

We found ourselves in the middle of lilypads as Gerry tried his luck at fishing

As we settled in for the night, this was our view out the window

Click here to listen to what we heard -- no video as it was dark, but you can listen to the sounds of the night