Thinking of hauling your boat at Green Cove Springs Marina? Here are a few factoids to consider. To reduce the potential of surprise when you show up there.
Green Cove Springs is located about 35 miles south of Jacksonville, Florida, on the west side of the St. Johns River. To get there, a boat must be capable of traveling under 65' fixed bridges and one or two lift/bascule bridges - 7 bridges, total; most of them in the short stretch passing through downtown Jacksonville. Sometimes one or the other of the lift or bascule bridges is being repaired or has been hit by a boat (seriously), so there may be no access whatsoever up/down river until what's busted gets fixed. Which can take days, or even weeks. Plan accordingly; call the marina to ask if they know of any current problems with any of the bridges; and keep tuned to the bridges' working channel, VHF 9, before you commit to travel upriver.
Although the St. Johns River is plenty deep for most drafts, the final approach in to the Green Cove Springs Marina is barely 6 feet deep at low tide. The Fox's draft is 6'2".
The marina facilities are located along the shore between two former US Naval piers. The pier most closely associated with Green Cove Springs Marina was condemned several years ago and is so dilapidated that only a handful of transient boats are legally allowed to tie alongside while waiting to use the TraveLift or preparing for departure from the marina. The marina's rule is that no vessel should stay tied up to the pier for longer than 48 hours, to minimize access problems to and from the TraveLift.*
*However, while waiting for our haulout date we saw 4 or 5 boats refuse to leave the pier and its water spigot -- for 10 days, all of them claiming "emergencies" that prevented them from leaving and making space for incoming boats. In short: expect poor behavior from some boaters unwilling to share severely limited space and access to water. This in turn may severely limit the marina office's ability to coordinate your own haulout/splash times. Anticipate snafus and delays - especially if your deep draft prevents you from approaching the TraveLift at anything but a high tide during business hours.
The approach to the marina's TraveLift is in the deepest water (7' at low tide in lots of silt, the marina says; 6' silt or no silt, I say) close alongside the entire length of this very long, broken-down Navy pier. If the wind is blowing from the wrong direction, the sterns of some of the boats on moorings may block this access and you must take your chances going around their bows in shallower water. Depths get as shallow as 3 feet the further away you go from the Navy pier.
The marina itself has about 25 slips for shallow-draft boats, but there are no transient slips and no vacancies in the long term slips. Generally, transient boats that are not hauling-out immediately, take a mooring buoy (availability and draft permitting) or anchor in whatever space is available outside the mooring field and inside/between the former Navy piers, to avoid the 24/7 commercial traffic that passes by along the river just outside of the ends of the piers. For a deep-draft boat like The Fox is considered in these parts, it can be difficult to find a spot.
The marina's TraveLift is 30-tons, but its upper cross-beam is unusually low so vessels of The Fox's size (40' LOA) must either drop their forestays or their backstays, as well as any other equipment that exceeds the height of the lift's crossbeam. In The Fox's case, this meant that GB has to dismount the blades of our wind generator, and our GPS antenna. We were about 2 inches away from having to dismount our radar. You can get an idea of the tight tolerances in that pic on the left - GB is in the process of pulling down everything on the stern he can reach. Had anyone told us about this problem at any time before they were actually pulling us out of the water, GB might have not been so flustered and might have not let one of our wind generator's blades slip from his hands into the silty murk in the TraveLift's bay. So if you are considering using theGreen Cove Springs Marina's TraveLift, have a screwdriver and some pliers handy at your assigned haulout time. But rest assured that the lift operator and the shore crew will be relaxed and patient with you. The Green Cove Springs Marina's best feature is all the fine people who work there.
Would we haul or store The Fox there again? Yes, if circumstances were right. Green Cove Springs has its disadvantages and its inconveniences, but if you prefer doing your own work - you can; the yard and dry-storage prices can't be beat; and the people are laid-back and pleasant to be around. Study it a little and see if it's a good fit for you....
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