Day 94 - Farewell to Florida

At 7:30 am Captain Randy called Brunswick Landing Marina and learned that they had a slip for us – Yay!  The water in the Amelia River was like glass as we pushed off at 8:05 am.  We turned north on the ocean passing Cumberland Island, GA and the shrimpers just outside the inlet.  We had been in Florida since before Thanksgiving (when we were on the boat, and except for our trip to the Bahamas) and though we loved it, we looked forward to moving on.  It was warm and hazy and we could not see too much on shore.  When we reached St. Simon’s Sound, we turned west and made our way past Jekyll Island to Brunswick, GA.  We saw jellyfish and dolphin in the channel.  Captain Randy and I don’t even slow down for dolphin any more, but we did so for Laurie and Greg because the sight of wild dolphin “playing” near the boat is still very new to them.

 

By 11 am we were docked and cooked breakfast before exploring Brunswick, another historic town, named for one of its English founders.  Brunswick was first settled in 1738 and is one of the largest ports on the East coast.  During WW II, 99 Liberty Ships were built here and put into service as merchant marine boats to supply the troops.  Because it was Sunday, nothing was open.  We were impressed with the Ritz theater building and the downtown squares which were designed by James Oglethorpe.  On the advice of our dock master, we walked to Union Street to see the historic homes.  From here we planned to walk down the main street bisecting Brunswick on the east-west axis to Overlook Park.  Captain Randy decided this was not a very “interesting” street and decided to go back to the boat (so he could wash it).  It was quite hot by now but the rest of us pushed on to the park.  We walked out onto the pier overlooking the marshlands.  It was low tide and a family was pulling up blue crabs, collecting quite a few in buckets. 

 

 

 

We are now in “the low country”, which includes parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and the islands off their coasts called the Barrier Islands.  Later we reserved our car to drive to one of them, Jekyll Island, the next day. 

Note from the crew: I mentioned before how cozy and luxurious our cabin is; however, there is one slight issue with the temperature.  The Captain likes to keep it cool – real cool – and entering the cabin after a day in the heat is something like stepping into the polar vortex.  Luckily there are separate air controls for each compartment or I would be buying a parka!

 

Day 93 - Amelia Island Adventures

Captain Randy left the boat to return the car while the crew cleaned up, filled the water tank, and made breakfast.  We were on our way to Amelia Island via the ocean by 10:04 am.  The day was bright, sunny and the waters calm.  There were mostly homes on shore from St. Augustine to Point Fedra, about an hour into the trip.  Here we saw more mid-rise properties.  Soon we were at the St. John’s River and the Jacksonville area where we saw a large nuclear plant.

 

It was about this point when Captain Randy pointed off the starboard and said “There’s a whale!”  The rest of us raced to the starboard side of the boat and were amazed to see a large black whale with white markings on his head rise up out of the water and slowly sink back in.  It was a Northern Right Whale. Greg and I grabbed our cameras and were able to snap a few quick ones, proof of our unique sighting.  There are said to be only 350 left – what are the odds of that! Crew member Laurie wanted to go after him but apparently that’s against federal law – darn it.

Shortly after the whale sighting we were on the Cumberland Sound to the St. Mary’s River, the inlet to Amelia Island.  Sand dunes comprised the shore to the port and there were beaches to the north, but no buildings except Fort Clinch, a mid-19^th century coastal fortification.  We turned south onto the Amelia River, passing a large wood pulp plant on the east bank and arrived at Fernandina Beach Marina at 12:20 pm.  The marina was almost full, and had a few large yachts.  It is located right in the heart of the town of Fernandina Beach and we found some of the best local shopping we had come across in all of Florida.  Laurie and I had a fun afternoon browsing and making a few purchases.  We made dinner reservations at Lulu’s, a small restaurant with lovely outdoor tables that we later had to cancel as there was the Captain’s deal-breaker:  no rum.   Captain Randy and Greg didn’t last too long shopping, but somehow found a Mexican place called Peppers to get some cold beverages that put them in a much better mood.

Captain Randy was concerned about our plan to go to Jekyll Island the next day as the waters were very shallow near there.  He talked with one of the boat towing services for “local knowledge” and they advised against it.  So we changed our plans and decided to go to Brunswick, GA, instead, as long as we could get a slip.  Jekyll Island was only a 20 minute drive from Brunswick, and we could rent a car to get there.

Later we went to Brett’s Waterway Café, right in the marina, for dinner  (they had rum and food that was not fried) and a nice view of the sunset.  Had some yummy peel and eat shrimp and some Southern grits and collard greens. Greg was ready to go back to the boat after dinner, but the rest of us walked back into town.  We ended the evening outside the Green Turtle Tavern, listening to the Davis Turner Band cover songs from the 70’s. The band was a funky husband (vocals and guitar) wife (bass) and daughter (?) (drums) trio.  He had a really good voice and their song selection was excellent.

Note from the crew (Laurie)  about sleeping arrangements: Greg and I are snug as a bug in our mattress over the cabin table/bed, and we are getting the system down. The first night we bumped butts a few times but it’s very cozy and we are sleeping well. The boat is just beautiful and more importantly the bathroom works like a charm.        

Day 92 - Picking up the Crew

We left Daytona Beach at 7:47 am on a warm and sunny Florida day, heading 50 miles north to St. Augustine.  As long as the boat was ship shape, we decided to move it a little closer to Jacksonville before picking up our “crew” at 2:40 pm that afternoon.  We went south on the ICW to the Ponce Inlet, arriving there at 9:23 am.  Captain Randy had talked to the marina and Tow  BoatUS to get local knowledge regarding shoals or other hazards around the Inlet and we were very cautious, especially passing marker “G7.”  Safely out on the Atlantic, we stayed further off shore as we were in protected waters.  The Northern Right Whales come close to shore in the northern part of Florida to calve and there are tight regulations in this area.

The shoreline at the Daytona Beach area is filled with high-rise buildings, changing to low-rise and private homes north of the town all the way to St. Augustine.  We had visited St. Augustine by car on our last leg and found it to be a quite charming and interesting town.  There were tall ships in the harbor, near where we would dock.  By noon we were filling up with diesel at the municipal marina and in the slip shortly thereafter.  We settled in quickly and made our way to the street to wait for the car rental company to pick us up at 1:00 pm.  When they had not arrived by 1:15 pm, we called and were told that the driver was 45 minutes behind schedule.  Great!  This meant we would be late picking up Laurie and Greg at the Jacksonville Airport.  We told them the problem when they landed and they waited patiently for us to get there.  We all had to be patient on the way back as there was an accident ahead of us and it delayed us even more. 

 



After stocking up at Publix (the local grocery store), we finally got back to the marina and unloaded and stowed our groceries.  Everyone was hungry and we walked into town for dinner.  Although St. Augustine has many restaurants close to the marina, it was not an easy task to choose one.  The captain and I had a wonderful meal at Collages on our earlier visit, however they did not have rum and that part did not go over well with him.  Laurie and I did not want fried food.  So these were our deal breakers: lack of rum and lack of food other than fried.  Greg was flexible and (thank God) had no deal breaker.  The first restaurant we came to, A1A Ale Works had a nice menu, but it was only the first place – surely there would be others that could be better.  Famous last words……….we walked for half an hour and ended up back at A1A .  We had not checked to see if they had a full bar and I crossed my fingers as we went in and asked.  Luckily they had rum and we enjoyed a fine welcome dinner of grouper, lobster mac and cheese, paella, and shrimp and grits.
 

 

One last task before retiring – we prepared the bed from the couch and table in the cabin, even supplying a memory foam “mattress” for our guests.  At the time, I was not sure if they were truly happy with it or if they were simply so tired from travelling all day, but they smiled and said it was very comfortable.  At last: crew assembled boat stocked, and ready to go!

Day 91 - What a Relief!

It was in our heads all the way to Jacksonville Airport and Aquamarina in Daytona Beach:  is all the work really done on the props and engines and will everything work right?  We had moved up our return date by one day to make sure the boat was ready to go.  My sister Laurie and her husband Greg were flying in from Phoenix the next day to accompany us on this leg of the Loop. 

The “prop guy” met us at the marina and we got ready to take the boat out for a sea trial.  Captain Randy lifted the hatch door to the engine room and instead of staying up, it fell forward.  This was new and raised some concern.  The same thing happened with the rear engine room door.  Hmm…..We weren’t even out of the slip yet when the captain noticed that one of the transmission controls did not feel right.  Not a good sign.  I know I held my breath as Captain Randy powered up the engines.  No vibration – yes! Prop guy was in the engine room making sure all looked good there and that there were no kinks in the linkage (possibly causing the transmission issue).  Back at the dock, the captain went down into the engine room and manually shifted the transmission in and out of gear and checked the connections of the linkage to the transmission.  Although he did not see anything unusual, when he shifted the transmission at the helm, the transmission control felt normal.  What a relief!

 

 

There were several projects we wanted to get done that afternoon and we added replacing the gas shocks for the engine room doors to the list.  In the scheme of things, the shocks were the least of our problems, just ordinary maintenance.  That meant a trip to West Marine to get new ones.  They did not have the stainless steel shocks that Captain Randy wanted, but he was able to get two that would work in the meantime.  On the way back to the marina we stopped at the Chrome Bar for some lunch.  This is a new bar and grill near the beach that was getting excellent reviews on Trip Advisor.    We both had the mahi tacos and they were delicious. 

Back on the boat, the captain (with the assistance of the first mate) installed the shocks, the new fresh water pump we had sent down, and a new snap on the rear drop curtain.  We had also sent a new wiper motor down for the center wiper that had gone out, but decided we could leave that job for another day. 

We cleaned up and went to Caribbean Jack’s on the ICW for dinner.  The popular bar and restaurant is part of the Loggerhead Marina.  We sat at the outside tiki bar and had Ahi Tuna, mussels, and a seafood bowl, while listening to a reggae band.  We celebrated our successes with the boat and looked forward to the next day when my sister and brother-in-law would arrive.