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