Thursday November 29: Fernandina Beach, FLORIDA!!

 Darien, GA,  is really an interesting place! As you can see, shrimp boats line the waterway south of the free town docks. This is our second trip up here (it's about an hour off of the main ICW waterway) but once again found it worth the trip.

Our plan was of course to travel back to the ICW at high tide instead of coming in at low tide. I put a note on the chart that says "don't enter unless at least half tide"! There will be no more running aground in this river for us :-)

And finally a day that we weren't up at the crack of dawn - even though it was drizzling and cold. But what it did mean was that we had time for breakfast at BJ's. Just our kind of place.

We did not riding around though as it really was just a dreary cold day. We need to get farther south :-)

If you are interested in the history of Darien, click here. It was surprising to learn it was settled by Scottish Highlanders.

The high tides were CRAZY high due to the full moon so travel was very relaxed. It seemed like the marshlands were all just full of water.

We ended a rather short travel day about 2:30 or so. When traveling at high tide, there are no worries about Little Mud River which was a very stressful passage last year at low tide. Never went aground but traveled at idle speed. This time it was so much nicer!

The only other problem spot yesterday was Jekyll Creek - which we were traveling AT LOW tide. The marina at which we were staying said it would be no problem and they were right - lowest I saw on the depth finder was 5.5 feet (we draw 3.8).

The Coast Guard seemed to think stopping us at the worst time though must add to the experience! Fortunately we produced the paper from May of this year when we were boarded in Jacksonville and we were good to go. More 12 year olds ...

When we left this morning from Jekyll Island, the moon was full on our right and the sun was coming up on our left.

The worst part of the trip was first thing as we crossed the Jekyll sound with the tide coming in and the wind blowing out. Never a good thing.

Three foot waves bounced us about a bit - roughest water we have been in for quite a while. Once we made the turn back into the Cumberland River, things were fine.

As we crossed into Florida, there was a security warning that ships were leaving Kings Bay. That meant a sub was headed out to sea. Fortunately,  we were far enough behind it that we didn't have to wait for it. Lots of other warships around as well as small protective go-fast boats with guns. Glad they are ours.

Made it to Fernandina Beach in time to meet up with former East 55th St Marina dockmates: Joe and Joy and Mike and Cathy. Joe and Joy are living aboard High Spirits and are headed for the Bahamas. Mike and Cathy seem to live on cruise boats during the winter months but still have a home in Cleveland. They just happened to be in Jacksonville visiting family.

Nice time :-)

We are at a mooring ball right being Joe and Joy's boat. Even though they are blowboaters, we're going to travel with them for a while :-)

It was really good to see them again as it's since this past winter that we had been together in Marathon.

Joe was kind enough to come pick us up in their dinghy so we didn't need to drop ours. It was VERY windy so it was much appreciated.

Nice lunch with everyone and then we hung around until 4:30 or so to go to the show (saw Lincoln - what a powerful movie).  Tomorrow we'll stop at Jacksonville Beach for the day and then head on down to St. Augustine for a couple of days. Nice and sunny today but still not warm .....