Jacksonville Free Dock

Returned the Enterprise car in the morning. Once we get back to the boat we see the fuel dock is empty. After we get the boat squared away we head into the marina for fuel, pump out and water. Of course there is now two large power boats on the dock and a sailboat pulling in a head of us. We have to wait a few minutes before we can pull into the dock. The sailboat that pulls in ahead of us is “Antares”,a Lake Champlain, Vermont boat, who we last ran into at Cumberland Island two years ago on our return north. 

 

By 4:30 we are tied up to the Jacksonville Free City Dock and again are greeted by the sound of “Snapping Shrimp” under our boat. Sounds like we are sitting over a bowl of Rice Crispy's in milk, snap crackle and pop. 

Jacksonville Free Dock

My cousin, Bill drives over for a visit and stays for dinner. We have a nice quiet evening on the dock, except for the “Snapping Shrimp”

Fernandina

In the morning we drive to the north end of Amelia island to fort Clinch State Park. We have now passed this fort 3 times and I am curious to check it out and learn its history. I decide to drive there without the iPad navigation so we can get to randomly see more of the north end of the island. After a half hour or so, Linda has decided she has seen enough dead end roads and I turn on the navigation.

Fort Clinch was never fully finished. Building started in 1847 and it was used in the Civil war, Spanish -American War and World War II.

For more information

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Fort-Clinch

In the afternoon we head back to the mainland to do some food shopping and to get hair cuts. We are both getting rather shaggy., specially me. It must be the humidity, but my hair starts getting curlier as the day goes on. Linda likes to mock my “bozo-the-clown” look when it sticks out from under a baseball cap. I have to admit she is right. We find “Great Clips”, a high production high salon. They must have 6 people cutting hair and a line of people waiting. My name comes up and I sit down and my female “Edward Sissors Hands” fly’s into action. I was half expecting to see an ear lobe or two falling down in the growing pile of cut hair. She asks me if I want my eyebrows trimmed, but before I can really answer she says” they need it” and its done. Well, no more making “Andy Rooney” eyes at my wife. Ah, the problems of becoming an old fart. When we pay the bill, the time it took to cut our hair is printed on the bill. The employees have their hair cutting times tracked. Needless to say, there is not allot of conversation while your hair is being cut.

Fernandina

Finally the weather system creating all this wind for the last 5 days or so passes and we wake up to a relatively calm morning. We have breakfast and go ashore to grab a coffee and wait for the Enterprise person to pick us up. That afternoon Linda and I drive to my cousin, Jan's house on the Nassau River. Beautiful house and location, with a long dock out onto the river. Lots a current and shoals in the Nassau River, but without local knowledge I wouldn't dare take our boat there. That evening we all have dinner at her brothers home, my other cousin, Bill and his wife Deb on Amelia Island, were Fernandina is located. Linda and I finally get our turkey dinner and a very good one. Although Linda and I do miss our low brow favorite, Cranberry sauce with ribs. Rib's ? not what you are thinking. The ribs are molded from the can that the jellied cranberry sauce comes from.

Fernandina

We have a leisurely breakfast and were planning to go ashore for the morning. After calling Enterprise Rental Car in Fernandina and finding that they close at noontime on Saturday, instead of the afternoon when we plan to rent a car, we decided to get moving. Arriving a Fernandina Friday night would allow us to get the car Saturday morning. The forecast was for a sunny day with a 20% chance of showers. Well, we have rain, wind and fog most of the way to Fernandina.

Green can a little off the mark, Cumberland Island, north

Fernandina Pulp Mills

Fort Clinch

We arrive at Fernandina around 4:30 and get the last mooring which we had reserved. The last two times here the moorings were full and we anchored. Had dinner at the Salty Peligan. The wind was still blowing hard from the north so we had to cross from the mooring to the dock slowly because of the waves to avoid getting wet. Well, 50 percent of the people in our dinghy stayed dry and I was one of them. Linda was not happy with me.

That night with the opposing current and wind at the tide shift we have the mooring ball bouncing against the hull for about two hours until the current over came the forces of the wind and pulled us away from the ball. Kind of hard to sleep with the constant knocking on the hull. One advantage of anchoring, no mooring ball to bounce against the hull at the tidal current shift. With minimal wind this is not a problem, but it is still blowing.

St. Simon Island

Wind still blowing hard when we leave in the morning. Another day of wind and following seas as we pass between the Georgia sea islands. The autopilot can not handle these kinds of conditions so we have another day of hand steering. Following seas and surfing on waves requires a lot of wheel movement to stay on course. I'm going to sleep well tonight. We arrive at Fort Frederica on the Frederica River on St Simons island, which is a national monument. Prior to the ICW the Frederica River was the only way north or south in this area without going out into the ocean. The British built a fort and town here around 1736 to block the Spanish in Florida from traveling north and making claims on present day Georgia which was then a no-mans land between Florida and British South Carolina.

Fort Frederica

Click here for some interesting history on Fort Frederica

http://www.nps.gov/fofr/learn/historyculture/index.htm

This was not where we had planned on spending our Thanksgiving. We had hoped to make it to St Marys in Georgia for the town's Thanksgiving dinner for boaters heading south, but weather and circumstances delayed our arrival.

Wahoo Island

We leave at sunrise so we can pass through a shallow trouble spot called Hell Gate, a couple hours past high tide. Two years ago we passed through there at low tide and saw depths under 6 feet and passed another boat hard aground. We are now near the full moon and the tides in Georgia are over 9 feet. We gain another 5 feet or so passing closer to high tide. The downside is, the tide is declining so running aground, now would be a big problem. Supposedly this area has gotten shallower. The wind is blowing 20-25 miles per hour and Hell Gate is in the open Ossabaw Sound, so we are getting some significant waves as we motor-sail through this area. It was not a boring passage. We are also back to wearing our foul weather jackets, hard to stay warm with this much wind without a good wind resistant jacket.

Arriving, Wahoo Island

 We reach our anchorage for the night, Wahoo Island, about an hour earlier than planned, due to the speed boost from the high winds. Wahoo Island has tall trees and blocks the wind from the north at this anchorage. We still dance around all night as the tides and wind opposes each other. For awhile our stern is pointed into the wind as the bow is pointing towards the strong current.

Herb River

Got up early and prepared to leave this morning. Paid up our bill with Steve the marina manager. When we came into Lady's Island Marina 9 days ago we were quite happy that Steve is back with his wife Gloria managing Lady's Island Marina. They make this place a pleasure to stop at. They are the reason this place has been nick-named the “Hotel California” by other cruisers, because it is hard to leave and many stay more days than they had planned on. Steve has a fabulous smart ass sense of humor, which we of course love. After you sign the marina sign-in document at the bottom, which no one actually reads, Steve tells me to look up and read the last line, which is something to the effect “The signer of this document must provide the marina manager with an unopened bottle of high quality rum”. Unfortunately, for him, he did not specify the size and on the office window sill he has a growing collection of 1 oz airline size sample bottles, from equally wise-ass boaters.

Because of the current through the marina we get some help from Steve leaving the docks. Once you clear the slip you have to power up the engine to clear the rest of the docks. Can not be indecisive or slow, can not have commitment issues leaving here. We time it just right to make the 9:00AM opening to the Lady's Island Bridge. We maintain cruising speed all the way through the opened bridge without having to slow down.

Lady's Island Bridge

We manage to avoid wearing our foul weather jackets today. As we get further south on the Port Royal Sound south of Beaufort we pick up a lot more wind. I wear two fleece jacket to avoid the foul weather gear. That evening we anchor in Herb River, just past Savannah, Georgia. Even though it was sunny today, it takes awhile for me to warm up after we anchor and I get out of the wind.

Praire Sloop, Herb River

Moon Rise, Herb River