I checked Google and the ferry is still in operation, but our route to Mayport with Rosie, our Airstream trailer, bypassed the boat. I guess that would have been too adventurous while pulling a trailer. I’ll admit that I looked for a reason to cross the river at least once via the ferry while camping in Pelican Roost. Somehow, it didn’t happen this time.
Ever since we started camping in U.S. Military FamCamps, we have heard about Pelican Roost at Mayport Naval Station. Several people said we needed to get reservations along the water so that we could watch the Navy's warships pass by behind our trailer. Our attempt to make reservations there were successful.
Pelican Roost is behind Mayport's gate. That meant we had to first register at the base's Pass and ID office before presenting our credentials to the gate guards. We called before we arrived at the Naval Station and we were told to park Rosie, our Airstream trailer, on the side of the road before reaching the Main Gate then walk to the Visitors Center to get our base clearance. We were not fans of that idea, but we realized that we probably were not the first people to be told that.
It only took about 10 minutes to get our credentials in their files. We were told that it would take about 15 minutes for our information to migrate to the handheld systems used by the Military Police at the gate. We decided to walk back to Rosie and wait there.
We were inside Rosie for just a few minutes when we heard a loud and authoritative pounding on Rosie's door. Two armed MPs were there wanting to know why we were parked just outside the main gate. After explaining that Pass and ID told us to park there and showing them our newly created passes, they were very professional and told us to move on to the gate where the MP there asked why we parked just outside so long. It appeared that we caught the attention of the guards at the gate and the MPs by simply following the instructions given to us by the Pass and ID office. Maybe we were the first people to park a camper on the side of the road just outside the gate.
It was easy to find the campground once we were on the base. Most of the sites had concrete pads. We were assigned one of the few sites paved with gravel. It didn’t matter because we had a great view of the mouth of the St. John’s River as it flowed into the Atlantic Ocean. There were two shipping lanes. The one farthest from Rosie went to the Jacksonville Port and we watched commercial freighters and cruise ships move in and out of port there.
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| Pelican Roost RV Park |
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| Cargo ship passes by the sign |
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| Campground office |
The shipping lane closest to Rosie was for the Navy’s war ships and they were impressive. We watched everything from destroyers to submarines enter and leave the port. It was easy to tell when a big ship was in the channel by the sudden surge of people running towards the waterfront to see what was passing the campground at that moment.
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| Cargo ship on the St. Johns River |
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| The fishing around the campground must have been great |
Equally impressive were the dolphins who enjoyed swimming in the St. Johns River while the youngest dolphins played in the water in front of Rosie.
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| A cruise ship that left the Port of Jacksonville |
People who served in the military remember the annual PT (Physical Training) test. A group of veterans camping in this FamCamp spotted what appeared to be the Navy's version of the PT test and enjoyed watching the current people on active duty being put through the various phases of the test. The frequent comments from the "old" vets was about how much more difficult those tests were back in "the day.”
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| Rosie in Mayport's Pelican Roost RV Park |
We were curious about the strange looking buildings near the campground. Our questions were answered as we were riding our bicycles one morning. We saw a sign that said "Fire Fighting School." To make sure we believed the sign, there was a group of sailors fighting a fire on what appeared to be a mock-up of an aircraft carrier's deck. A Navy veteran camping near us said that fires on ships are scary and every sailor must pass fire fighting training.
To add to the emphasis on fire fighting around this campground, we watched the "fire tugs" practice spraying water on an imaginary fire. We were impressed with the amount of water these boats were able to spray on their targets.
We both grew up near Florida's Atlantic coast, but travel to the Gulf coast now once or twice a year. Somehow we forgot about Atlantic tides. We were surprised at the vast difference in the beach area between high and low tides. The other difference between the Atlantic and Gulf coasts was the sand. We are now used to the soft white sand along Gulf beaches. The hard-packed sand of the Atlantic was dramatic at first until we started talking about going to the beach as children.
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| Walking along the Atlantic Coast |
Speaking of children, I was able to visit several friends from my elementary through high school days while a we camped at Mayport. A planned one hour visit suddenly turned into more than four and would have gone longer if we hadn't encroached on dinner time. It was great to see my childhood friends and talk about our shared memories.
It was easy to see why people kept recommending this campground to us. We enjoyed the sea breeze, watching the ships crossing in front of Rosie and biking around the base. And to make the camping experience at Mayport better, the weather was great. Yes, this was a good FamCamp.
Here are some specifics about this campground:
- We found one loop in this campground
- Our site was a pull-through with a waterfront view
- Our site was "full sun" as trees were few and far apart
- Most sites had some space on both sides
- Our site was paved with gravel and we needed to use leveling tools to correct a side-to-side lean in Rosie. Most sites in this FamCamp were paved with concrete
- Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service
- Our site had a water connection
- Our site had a sewer connection
- There was a dump station in this park.
- The trash dumpsters were across the street from the campground. It was easy to walk there with your trash
- There was a bathhouse in the campground. It was clean and well maintained
- There was a laundry room with free washers and dryers in this campground
- The park provided WiFi service. It had a download speed of two mbps. The WiFi seemed to work better from one end of Rosie and poorly from the other end
- AT&T provided 3 bars of 5G voice and data service over our campsite
- We were able to watch ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. Digital channels seen were Antenna-TV, Bounce, Charge, Circle, Court-TV, Dabl, Decades, Get, Grit, H&I, ION, LAFF, ME-TV, MY-TV, Movies, THiS
- There were restaurants and shopping nearby
- This was a pet friendly park and it had a dog park
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