St. Augustine

Todays video to St. Augustine

https://www.relive.cc/view/vMq5jwpkR8v

 

 

 

The boat in front of us “Freedom” left the dock ahead of us, which made it much easier for us to leave with the early morning current on our stern. The morning is sunny, but I keep watching the weather radar which shows a front/squall line sweeping across the panhandle of Florida and slowly coming our way. The local forecast makes no mention of rain and implies it will dissipate before reaching the east coast of northern Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just before we get to St. Augustine it starts to cloud over. The clouds are getting darker while we are waiting for the Bridge of Lions to open at 1:30PM. I forgo going to the fuel dock and get our mooring assignment and head straight there, which is at the far end of the south mooring field. This means we have a ½ mile ride to the dinghy dock.

 

Squall line coming through

Mark and Karen get mooring number "1" which is right next to the dinghy dock and fuel dock, but they decide to head to the fuel dock first to pump out their waste tank. After we are secured on our mooring we quickly put up the enclosure just ahead of the approaching squall. It lets loose with 25 knots of wind and rain for about 30 minutes. Mark and Karen unfortunately could not get tied up to their mooring in the wind and had to motor around until the squall finished. They had a couple hatches open so they and their boat got rather wet.

 

 An hour or so later we head into town and walk around. Had dinner at “Harrys”. We got to visit with Bob and Deb, “Infinity”, Vermont friends who are on the dock for two days. We last got together in Yorktown, Virginia.

 

 

Jacksonville Free Dock

We leave early, by 7:00 am. 

 

 

Sunrise

 

Fernandina Pulp Mill

 

We only have a short distance to the Jacksonville Free Dock, but I am concerned with all the boat traffic we have been seeing that it will fill up fast. There is a good alternative anchorage close by if the dock is full. We get to the dock at 11:00 and there are already 3 boats there. One of the boats are our other Canadian friends on ‘Mananna”. By 1:00PM the remaining three spots are taken. After another warm day, Linda decides she can put away our watch caps and gloves. 

 

Jacksonville Free Dock

 

Jacksonville Free Dock

Fernandina

 

Early morning on the mooring field

 

We all head back into town in the morning for a little window shopping, coffee and a pastry at the local coffee shop. Mark and I scope out a place for lunch and meet Linda and Karen there. Another nice warm day. Last time here four years ago, we were at a dock for heat, we had a couple a very cold days then, windy in the 40’s and 50’s.

 

Pulp mill train crossing main street

Main Street, Fernandina

 

 

We leave Jekyll shortly after 8:00 am and take the Alternate route on St. Andrews Sound that avoids the normal ICW route that takes you out in the ocean which can get rather rough under certain conditions.

 

 

Once back on the normal ICW route we get a VHF call from our friends Betty and Wayne on “Bright Ayes”. They are heading north in the opposite direction having spent Thanksgiving at St. Mary’s, Georgia, Cruiser Thanksgiving. They are heading to Brunswick Georgia to leave their boat there for the Holidays and come back after January. They will then head to the Bahamas later in the winter when the cold fronts are less frequent.

 

High tide is mid-day, so there is not much excitement. My old favorite navigation aid, Green Pole 59A, is motionless as we pass by at high tide, with little current. Normally between tidal extremes the current rips and pole 59A wags back and forth faster than the tail on a dog happy to see it owner. It gets replaced often.

 

 

 

We get to Fernandina around 2:00pm. Manana and Sea Vu Play get the last two available moorings at the Marina. Still quite windy and rough, but it finally calms down enough to go ashore to meet my cousin Bill and his wife Deb and my other cousin, Jan for dinner at Pablos Mexican restaurant. This is the warmest day we have had since we left Vermont, near 80 F, which is good since we still got a little wet on the dinghy ride in. Excellent dinner, even though, we are a little damp.

 

 

Current ripping at our mooring

 

My cousin Jan, Bill's Wife - Deb and Jan's brother Bill

 

Jekyll Island

This morning Mark and Karen sign out one of the golf carts and take us along for a tour of some areas of the island we missed on our last visit four years ago.

After lunch, Linda and I sign out a golf cart and we all go to the Jekyll Island museum and Turtle rescue farm. 

 https://www.jekyllisland.com/activities/georgia-sea-turtle-center/

Then back to the Marina for an afternoon card game. Later we walk to the Irish Pub for dinner.

Jekyll Island

After Breakfast on the boat, we work on a number of projects. Linda continues her on going battle with Express Scripts on getting her medicine orders shipped to marina’s and/or Florida friends. They are a royal pain in the ass to deal with. They can not seem to grasp the fact that there are people over 65 who travel. Must drive people in RV’s crazy. Linda gets a different story from each person she deals with over the phone, its maddening that this organization can be so disorganized.

 

 

For dinner we all go the Zachery’s a restaurant at the Marina that has been closed for the Thanksgiving Holiday until today. They are always crowded with locals, for a good reason. 

 

 

 

Some of the Holiday lights at Kekyll

 

 

Jekyll Island

Thanksgiving Day. I make popovers for Breakfast. “Shore Line Traveler” our French Canadian friends, traveling on a Bay Liner, we first met at the Dismal Swamp, stop by  for fuel and we have a short visit.

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Linda, Rene & Pierre, "Shoreline Traveler"

 

For Thanksgiving dinner, we have reservations at the Westin for their Thanksgiving Brunch.

Busy dock

Jekyll Island

 Today's video to Jekyll Island

https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOdem8yBk6

Up at 6:00am on the “road” by 7:00 am. We arrive at Jekyll Island Marina around 10:00 am. We pull up to the fuel dock and then after fueling and pump-out Manana is moved backwards down the face dock after a couple boats leave. Check on deliveries at the office. The part that Patti found at our house and mailed to me is there. The Amazon packages are delayed beyond our time here and have not even been shipped yet, so I change the new address to St. Augustine Municipal Marina.

 

 

After we all take showers, we head to “Downtown” Jekyll Island to the stores, shops and restaurants. We return to the Wee Pub, an Irish Pub we have been to before. Bangers and Mash for lunch. Then back to the boat to do laundry at the marina.

 Face Dock

Wally's Leg

 Today's trip to Wally's Leg

 https://www.relive.cc/view/vZqN7EBLQGv

 

Another Cloudy overcast day. We are covering about 50 miles today, so we will have a short day tomorrow and to take advantage of morning high tide over a couple shallow areas, by Jekyll Island.

 

Kilkenny Creek

 

 Today's video

 https://www.relive.cc/view/vrqDgNKmVw6

The plan was to leave by 7:30 and meet up with Mark and Karen who were staying further south on Hilton Head at Windmill Harbor. Well, now the current was in the opposite direction, now on our stern. I was not too concerned about that, but the bigger problem is it’s very windy and before we can back out into the current with any speed the wind is pushing us sideways towards another boat. I tie us back up and decide to wait for the marina staff to show up to handle the dock lines while I drive the boat out. With someone controlling the bow line we don’t have to worry about the wind pushing us sideways before we exit the slip.

 

Sea Vu Play

We catch up to “Sea Vu Play”, Mark and Karen. We lead the way since our draft is a foot less. Another cloudy cool yucky day, but fairly comfortable in our vinyl enclosure. 

 

Old Thunderbolt Bascule Bridge, to be dismantled

 

New 65 foot, Thunderbolt Bridge

We get some rain and fog south of Savannah, just before Hell Gate. An area that was always difficult to get through near low tide and we would frequently find boats aground there. Well, a couple years ago, it was finally dredged and it is no longer an issue. As we approach, it starts raining and the visibility is greatly reduced. I notice an AIS target on my plotter, not visible in the rain, of a small cruise ship near the south entrance to Hell Gate. The boats in front of us also noticed the cruise ship and wait for him to pass through and avoid sharing the narrow passage.

 

Waiting for American Cruise Line ship to pass through narrow Hell Gate

 

American Star

We are heading to Kilkenny Creek for the night. 4 years ago we did not see any boats there, now there are about 8 boats already anchored near the entrance. We head a mile or so beyond, for a little more space. Another cold afternoon, so our happy hour libation is Hot Chocolate and Amaretto. Left over pizza for dinner and early to bed under those electric blankets.

 

American Cruise Lines

 https://www.americancruiselines.com/cruises/southeast-us-cruises/historic-south-and-golden-isles-cruise

Skull Creek

 

 Today's video

 https://www.relive.cc/view/v26Mrodk23q

Ladies Island Bridge

Ladies Island Bridge

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have a short day to Hilton Head Island and Skull Creek Marina.  On the weekend the Ladies
Island Bridge opens on demand instead of hourly like on the weekdays.

Linda’s old boss Bill and his wife Lynne moved to Hilton Head a couple years ago and we are going to stop for a visit. The Marina is only about 3 miles as the crow flies, but with all the gated communities it’s about a 12 mile, speed limited, slow meandering drive. Since Skull Creek Marina is in a gated community, we have to give “permission” for Bill to come pick us up.

 

Skull Creek Marina, selfie

The current is ripping pretty good when we get to Skull Creek around 1PM and I have to ferry the sailboat at an angle down the fairway between docks before I can drive into our slip. Bill picks us up at 4:00 PM. They have a beautiful house that they had built. Lynne makes us pizza on the grill, really, really good and their daughter, Lindsey joins us for dinner. We have a very enjoyable visit and Bill gets us back to the boat by 9:30

 

Bill, Linda, Lindsey, Lynne

Ladies Island

 

Ladies Island

 

Waiting for swing bridge to close

 

In the morning we return our rental car to Enterprise at the same time that Mike and Ivy returns theirs. Ivy drives the Ladies Island courtesy car which we all drive back together in. Later in the morning we take the courtesy car to Publix and work on inventory and putting everything away. Late afternoon we walk to Grayco, one of my favorite hardware stores.

 

 

 

 

The Marina got a new owner a couple years ago and he personally manages it. It is not as inviting as it use to be. They use to have a nice work shop for working on boat projects, but they closed it and removed the equipment. They use to have a nice Captains lounge, but last year they gutted it to build another shop, but have not done any further construction. I would not bother to stop here again, but since this is our last trip that won’t be a problem.

The Fill'n Station deck

 

Ladies Island

 

Our goal today is to get and Enterprise car and head to Costco outside of Savannah. Enterprise doesn’t pick you up, so we have to take an Uber there. On our return we stop at the “Fill’n Station” a dive bar near the Marina to sign up for their Friday “steak” night, which we have done in the past. Unfortunately they stopped that a couple years ago and here I made a big effort to be here on a Friday for "Steak Night"

I spend about 1/2 hour on the phone with our good friend Patti who waters our plants while we are gone. I have an old electronic device that I removed, because I thought I no longer needed it for our updated navigation system that I installed last spring.  Well, it turns out one of our Navigation App's still use the old format data that this device puts out. It was rather entertaining guiding her through my storage rack of marine junk with one of our WiFi cameras.  

 

Patti retrieves that part, to ship ahead to Jekyll Island Marina in Georgia.

 

The part is in the mail

On the recommendation of our dock mates Mike and Ivy, we meet them at the “Brick” in Beaufort for dinner.

Ladies Island

We have reservations at Ladies Island Marina, one of our past favorites starting tomorrow the 18^th and 19^th. Had planned to anchor about 20 miles short of Beaufort. We have another cold and dreary day and tonight's forecast is for temperatures in the lower 30’s. Not to thrilled with that. By afternoon we are making better time than I expected and have a chance to make it all the way to Ladies Island next to Beaufort by 5:00 PM. We call and are able to move our reservation ahead by one day. We get to the dock at 5:20. We are plugged in tonight and will have a nice warm boat.

 

Leaving St. Johns

Yonges Island, SC, Stevens Shipyard, The biggest travel Lift I have seen.

 

St. Johns Yacht Harbor

Todays Trip

https://www.relive.cc/view/vRO7Je2QXKv 

 

 

Short day to St. Johns Yacht Harbor on the west side of Charleston. We leave late to time a rising tide at Island of Palms a notorious shallow area just east of Charleston. It gets dredged occasionally but areas quickly fill back in. We cross Charleston Harbor, but have to slow down a bit to time the Wappoo Creek Double Bascule Bridge that opens hourly on the half hour. Then just beyond the bridge we go through Elliot Cut which connect two rivers. At the wrong time the current can rip through this narrow cut.

 

 

 

Isle of Palms Bridge

Fort Sumter

 

Wappoo Creek Double Bascule Bridge

Just beyond Elliot Cut we head for St. Johns Yacht Harbor, a very nice marina and arrive just before 2:00 and head to the fuel dock. Once we finish there, we head for one of their T-Docks. Nice place to come and go from in an area with lots of current. Some of the inner docks you might have to wait for a favorable current to safely leave.

 

Checking in at St. Johns Yacht Harbor

 

 

They have a courtesy car and we make a run to Food Lion. We considered a longer run to a Costco, but we were getting near rush hour.

 

 

 

Meanwhile back home