A Grand Morning On the Beach

Thursday, 20 December
Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: LO 58F / HI 75F (14C / 24C)

The rain, which started minutes after we returned from the Christmas potluck dinner in the clubhouse, has been increasing steadily.  The rat-a-tat-tat of raindrops on the roof is deafening at times.  What a change from conditions earlier today — all sunshine and blue skies.

Looking west through the windshield, we can see a few of the ships in the
turning basin — USS Simpson in the foreground; USS Hué City behind it.

The plan this morning was to go for a walk on the beach we discovered when we were out triking yesterday.  But first, Mui wanted to re-shampoo the carpeted areas of the Phaeton — he wasn’t happy with the results of the first cleaning he did before we left Bull Run.

Mui’s efforts paid off; our carpets are looking good now.

And what was I doing while Mui was working so hard.  Well, since I was banished outside, I took my camera and went bird hunting.  I wasn’t dressed to go jetty-hopping, unfortunately, so I had to be satisfied with taking pictures from a distance this time.

I guess these birds can’t read the sign that says they are in a restricted area
and use of force is authorized.

Left: Great Blue Heron; Top Right: Osprey preening its feathers;
Bottom Right: Royal Tern on lookout duty.

Great Blue Heron hunkered down by the jetty.

Around 9:00a, we were ready to head to the beach.  The distance from the campground to the beach access we found yesterday is easily walkable, but we wanted to take our beach chairs with us, so we drove instead.  There are seven access points on the approximately 1-mile portion of the beach that fronts the east side of NS Mayport.  But the beach doesn’t end there; it continues for miles and miles down the east coast of Florida.

This Google Maps image of NS Mayport shows our campground (circled) in relation to the beach.  The arrows show the beach area that fronts the station on the east.

Arriving about an hour after high tide, we had a wide expanse of white sand beach to explore.  No toppled trees here to add interest to the scenery, but there were enough other things — including lots of terns, gulls, and pelicans — to keep my shutter clicking.  We encountered very few people as we waded along the shoreline.  It was like having our very own private beach — love it.

Looking south from access #1 where we entered the beach via a boardwalk and steps.

There’s not much to say about our three hours on the beach other than — it was a grand time.  So, I’m going to let Mui’s video and my photos do the talking. I have so many photos I wanted to share that I relied heavily on collages this time.

Don’t mind the sign, come along for a stroll on the beach — 3 hours in 2.22 minutes.

There were a lot of jellies on the beach — even  a new species called Werther’s Original!

P.S.  There was quite a bit of trash on the beach — hence the candy wrapper.  Not so much that it was a major detractor, but enough for us to comment on it several times while we were there.  Next time, we’re going to take a bag with us and collect what we can; I did stick the candy wrapper in my pocket.

One of the three puffer fish we found on the beach; this one looks like it was
giving me the eye, but I’m afraid it was quite dead.

Razor shells on the beach — these were a first for me as I had never seen them Before.
I couldn’t resist having fun with a few of them — think it’s long past time I get a manicure!

We all know that birds sometimes tuck a leg under their feathers; that’s not the case
with the ring-billed gull in the foreground.  It really is a one-legged bird!

Love the rippling effect the movement of the water leaves on the sand.

Scenes from our turnaround point; south of the pilings (bottom three photos)
is the public area of the beach.  you can see that a series of pilings and a sign is
all that stands between the average joe and the restricted portion of the beach;
oh, and yes, a camera was monitoring this area, too.

As is often the case, the walk back to where we started was relatively quick — fewer photo stops.  We did stop at one point to watch a kiteboarder prepare to go out on the water.  The breeze was pretty stiff once he got out on the ocean and soon he was flying over the waves, turning somersaults.  Fun to watch — as you will have seen in the video posted above — but definitely not something that we plan to try our hand at.

Back at beach access #1, Mui brought down our beach chairs and we settled down to relax in the sunshine and eat our snacks.  A great way to conclude the activities portion of our day.

We rounded out a cozy afternoon at home with dinner at the clubhouse here at Pelican Roost.  The dinner was organized by the MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) unit, which operates this campground, as well as another one called Osprey Cove (for long term stays of 1-6 months).  They provided the turkey and ham; and the campers provided side dishes and dessert — our contribution was a pumpkin pie that Mui picked up from Costco yesterday.  There was quite a spread laid out; and the food was better than what we’ve had at some buffets.

To wrap up … a little something my friend MBZ drew and sent me.

Doodling on the ipad — made me smile when I got it in my email this morning!

Although the temperature is supposed to dip down to 46F (8C) tonight, the rain is supposed to be gone by morning and we’re supposed to have a sunny day tomorrow.  If that holds true, we’ll go exploring; if not, there are plenty of projects to work on at home.

Flying the Coop and Landing at Pelican Roost

Wednesday, 19 December
Pelican Roost RV Park — NS Mayport, Florida
Temps: Lo 50F / Hi 66F (10C / 19C)

(Credit for the blog title goes to my friend MBZ.)

Did I give myself a day off from the blog yesterday?  You could say that — but only because it was moving day and there wasn’t much to say about it except that it was uneventful … which is the best kind of travel day.

We dragged our feet leaving Hunting Island State Park on Tuesday.  Several things led to our delayed departure … it was another great-weather morning and we wanted to enjoy it there ... we loved the park setting and had a hard time pulling up stakes … we had to complete departure day chores that were rained out when the storms came through late on Monday.  As well, we wandered the campground loops one more time, map in hand, marking off possible sites for a future stay.  Anyway, it was 11:00a by the time the tanks were dumped and we were on our way to the next campground — Pelican Roost RV Park at Naval Station (NS) Mayport near Jacksonville, Florida.

A 211 mile (338 km) drive takes us to our new home at NS Mayport.

After setting up, we headed over to the commissary (off-base) to fill up our near-empty larder, stopped at Subway (on-base) for a quick meal, and called it a night.

After a good night’s rest, we woke up to a water-view shimmering as the sun rose to our east.  We’re in site 15, one of 19 pull-through waterfront spots that can be had for $21/night ($2 more than the sites in the back row).  This is a small RV park … 49 sites in total; all 30/50A FHUs; and there is free, blazing-fast internet through Go-Wifi, which we can access from the Phaeton.  The setting is very different from Hunting Island SP — certainly, there will be no deer leaving droppings at our site as they did at HISP — but we like it so far.  It has all the makings of being a convenient home base from which to explore lots of interesting places.

Site 15 will be our home for 14 nights.

Welcome to NS Mayport, home of the Navy’s fourth fleet, reactivated in 2008.

The clubhouse organizes lots of activities for those who wish to partake, but the major pastime here is watching ships — military and cargo — traveling the St Johns River as they make their way to/from the Atlantic Ocean.  If you have a waterfront site, you don’t even have to leave home to see the ships pass (as seen in the above photo).  Today, we had several cargo vessels and three military ships go by.

Passing ships are a major source of entertainment at Pelican Roost.
(Top Right: USS Roosevelt; Bottom Left: USS Hué City)

In particular, we had the privilege of welcoming USS Hué City back from a six-month deployment during which the ship served as escort for the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.  With cheers and waves we saluted the sailors who lined the rails of the ship, which came upriver with cheery Christmas carols blaring from its loudspeakers and Santa hitching a ride!

We are amongst the first to welcome the men and women of the USS Hué City back home.
(If you look real close, you’ll find Santa in his red suit about midway on the ship.)

30 Seconds of Homecoming.
(Between the wind and our excited chatter, the audio was not useable; but this is
a version of what was blaring from the loudspeakers as the ship sailed by.
Oh, and yes, the ship really was moving that fast!)

We didn’t spend the entire day ship-watching; we did some dolphin watching, too — with our binoculars, we got a great look at a foursome playing in the water right across from us.  Pelicans were flying and diving, too.  This might be a good place for me to haul out my long lens; we’ll see.

Somewhere in there, we took care of chores.  Mui did a bit of maintenance on the trikes … they needed it after our beach rides at Hunting Island.  I, in the meantime, did several loads of laundry.  (There is free laundry with nice machines here, but I still prefer using our onboard washer and dryer even if the smaller size means more loads.)  Then it was off to Costco and Walmart for Mui while I dealt with some bookkeeping.  Yes, I know — not very exciting, but just because we’re retired it doesn’t mean that the mundane stuff magically disappears.

Doing chores in this setting is not much of a hardship!

We did manage to squeeze in a trike ride mid-afternoon.  Mui wanted to see if some stuff he had ordered from Amazon had arrived at the NS post office, so we geared up and went to find out.  No luck with the mail, but we did find one of several boardwalks that provide access to the nearby beach.  And, even better, we got to see — and even capture a halfway decent picture of — an osprey resting on an antenna before flying off to its nest with a rather big fish clutched in its claws.  Now that was an unexpected treat!

An osprey's version of "bringing home the bacon."

Not sure what we will do tomorrow.  Mui’s making noises about washing the Phaeton — allowed here at Pelican Roost — but if the weather permits, I’d like to go to the beach.  I don’t think I’ll have to twist Mui’s arm too much to convince him to join me.  But first … need to find a good tide table for the area.  Anyone know a good website for tide tables?