St. Johns River and Electro-scan MSD

[ybrad]

Does anyone out there have familiarity with how far up (south) the St. Johns the salinity is high enough to operate a Raritan MSD?

Considering making the trip to Silver Glen Springs, about 40 miles up river. I do not have the salt feed tank installed and would prefer not to do so at this time, but it could be done.

Waterway Guide describes this as a nice side-trip, any thoughts?? Apparently Silver Glen is about the cruise limit since we have more than 45' height and Shands bridge is the limiting factor.

Thanks

 

[Allan12210]

Can't help with the St. John's River but our ElectoScan gives low amp readings and a blinking red light quite often. Our solution is to toss a small handfull of salt in before each flush and it works fine. We even use this manual method when we go into the Sacramento Delta where the water is 100% fresh. A 50 pound sack of salt is $4.00 and we are on our fourth year of that first bag. We just keep a small (1 quart) wide mouth bottle with salt next to the head for use. That amount is good for about five days at a time.

 

[Claude L.-Auger]

Can't help you with the MSD, but just delivered a 41' from Cape Canaveral to Green Cove Spring up the St.John River (about 44 miles from the mouth of the river). And if you plan on taking your boat any higher up the river, you probably will need to unstep the mast as there is a 45' (+/-) fixed bridge right there in Green Cove Spring. As for sightseeing, from the ocean to Jacksonville is mostly industrial area and ship yards. The short piece of river in front of Jax is nice and the 20+ miles stretch from Jax is fairly wide with the channel mostly in the middle. Looks like pastoral shores, with fairly good depths on either side of the channel, one could possibly sail or even anchor and enjoy sightseeing but we did not have that time luxury and as luck would have it the wind was straight on our nose. Double check your mast height against bridge clearance between Red Bay Pt and Smith Pt just south of Green Cove Spring and (Chart 11492-2). Have a nice trip if you do go.

 

[ybrad]

Thanks for the input Allan and Claude-

Great tip on manually 'salting' the MSD. Will be putting it to test soon.

And oops... I referenced the wrong town for cruise limit, not Silver Glen, but Green Cove by the Shands bridge. Don't plan to un-step the mast at this time, so that will be it.

 

[Steve Walsh]

Metro Park municipal marina, located just east of the downtown Jacksonville drawbridge is free + $8.00/night for optional electricty. Busy on weekends if there is an event in the immediate area. Just west of the drawbridge is the Jacksonville Landing, free to tie up and nice spot for lunch, dinner, shopping, stretch your legs and there is usually a band playing on weekends. NE of Green Cove Springs marina is Hallows Cove, great place to anchor with amazing sunsets views across the river and very protected except from winds from the south thru west.

 

[gettinthere]

A 1 lb canister of salt is a couple of bucks at publix. A few tablespoons in each flush works fine when in fresh water

 

[ybrad]

Thanks all.
We spent 1 night Metropolitan Park Marina in Jax. Best deal doing; great floating dock facility, rest rooms available, free water. We didn't use shore power so there was zero cost incurred. they do have a couple of restrictive rules though including no use bbq grills (including propane) onboard boats or docks.

Appreciate the continued info on manually salting the MSD. More on that later.