Sail Jacksonville - May 29-31, 2009

[Metro Jacksonville]

Sail Jacksonville - May 29-31, 2009



This maritime festival will highlight the essential roles the St. Johns River and maritime community have played in the history of Jacksonville and will be anchored by the visit of ASTA Tall Ships

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-may-sail-jacksonville-may-29-31-2009

[thelakelander]

Nice video.  This will be the first time that I've been in town during the same weekend.  I'm looking forward to checking Sail Jacksonville out.

[rjp2008]

With a downtown area crying for attractions, these ships should be anchored there at least 75% of the year if not year round.

[mtraininjax]

these ships should be anchored there

city leaders were floating the idea of placing the USS Saratoga downtown in the late 90s, then the residents of St. Nicholas flexed their muscle and the deal went away. 

[oreo0579]

Great story and information. You have more info than jacksonville.com and coj.net combined. Thanks

[urbanlibertarian]

Walked by all the ships and vendors on my way to RAM this morning.  Nice event.  Loads of stuff for kids. The Landing was quite busy. 

[reednavy]

Descent fireworks show, 4th of July up next.

[mtraininjax]

Mediocre fireworks, cutbacks evident.

[BridgeTroll]

Great evening... the landing and surrounding area were full of people having fun... Two barges of fireworks were pretty good for a relatively small event.  Clearly July 4, the boat parade, and New years are better.

Just what exactly do you like mtrain???

[reednavy]

Mediocre fireworks, cutbacks evident.

What'd you expect, a boat parade type show? For a samll event, I was expecting only I barge, like the Xmas tree lighting. I was at the Friendship Fountain, that way I could watch the reflection from Modis.

[blizz01]

This quote from the T-U sums it up -

"I'll give it a seven just because I had to hear [about it] from a friend from another friend."

We cruised down there on the the way to RAM Saturday & it looked well done.  We had posed for a picture in front of the Bounty last year in Baltimore, so we wanted an update from a different vantage point.   It wasn't open for tours at the time - I swear it looked like ants on a sugar cube on Sat.

[Lucasjj]

My girlfriend and I went down there Saturday. We checked out all of the boats and had lunch at Cinco De Mayo. We had a good time and there were a lot of people down there.

[jason_contentdg]

Mediocre fireworks, cutbacks evident.

Good lord, it wasn't supposed to be a holiday fireworks extravaganza.  Congrats though, you're the first person I've ever heard complain about a Jacksonville fireworks display.  Which, I have to say, doesn't surprise me.

[BridgeTroll]

  Exactly!!

[Jason]

I drove up on Saturday with my wife and 3 kids and had a great time.  The event, from a St. Aug resident viewpoint, was decently advertised.  There were multiple mentions on Channel 4 and even a pirate raid live on the Morning Show.  Also, parking was clearly marked and the city even produced very informative pamphlets detailing the entire event along with information on the shipping history of Jax.  There was plenty to do, plenty to see, ATMs and facilities on hand, cheap vendors, and lots of happy people.

My only complaint was the lack of shade along the northbank riverwalk.  It was a very warm afternoon but it was nothing that couldn't be cured by a cold pitcher of beer at Hooters.    I guess the only thing I would have added were some sort of signage along the highway to lure in passers by.

Kudos to the city of Jax for putting on a great event full of cheap fun for the whole family.