ISLE OF HOPE, GA

  After an hour of picking our way out of "Deliverance River" avoiding crab traps, we once again resumed our trip north on the ICW. It was a beautiful,  easy going day despite passing through areas called Hell Gate and the Skidaway Narrows. We took a walk around this pretty old south town.  Even saw the Wormslow mansion where Forrest Gump did his famous running scene.

                                              CHALLENGING, LONG DAY

Imagine dodging these crab pots hiding just below the surface and some of the most shoaled areas of the entire ICW......for 7 1/2 hours. We arrived really tired at the Sunbury Marina on the Medway River (7 miles off the ICW). There is nothing between St. Simons and Savannah. We are in "banjo-playin" land tonight.

                                               IT'S A RAINY DAY IN GEORGIA

We woke up to a very rainy morning........pouring. We decided to stay here another day. When we opened the cabin door to take Dorsey out, there was a newspaper and muffins waiting for us on the aft deck. Not a bad start to the day :-) Later on, we used the marina courtesy car to drive around St. Simons Island... another quaint, resorty, seaside town.

                                                     ST. SIMONS ISLAND

Started out with a nice breakfast in town in quaint Fernandina Beach before we hit the waterway. We wanted to take full advantage of the high tide while passing Jekyll Island.....very shallow area. As we cruised along, we did not see any of the famous wild horses on Cumberland Island. Guess they didn't like the rainy, chilly weather. Our biggest challenge today was the St. Andrew Sound. It is a wide open area with waves coming in from the Atlantic. Let us just say that Jake did NOT enjoy it. As a result, I have a rug to wash.
Tonight we are staying at the Morningstar Golden Isles Marina on St. Simons. Since the weather is poor, and town is a car ride away......we'll just hunker down and enjoy watching the Oscars tonight.

                                                        FERNANDINA BEACH, FL

We awoke this AM to big wind, big current and low tide. We waited until 11:30 to move up the island to FB.We are so glad we made the move. We have a good spot here and have had a great afternoon walking around FB. We had a beer at the oldest bar in Florida....the Palace Saloon.

                                                                 CHART CAT



                                               AMELIA ISLAND YACHT BASIN

After 10 days at Jax Beach, we departed for Fernandina Beach this AM. However, due to high winds and pending storms, the dockmaster from there called us and advised us to "seek shelter elsewhere" because of the docking conditions there. So here we are in the AIYB tonight. It is a pleasant marina with friendly staff, but not near anything. If we to stay an extra day due to weather, we'll rent a cab to see the sights. Looks like dinner on the boat tonight instead of that cute little place I had picked out in FB.

                                               

                                               JACKSONVILLE BEACH, DAY 8

What's this, you ask. It is the inside of Knotugal's transmission. Since we picked up our car from Cape Coral this past weekend, we are doing field trips. This morning we headed over to Twin Disc to see the progress on the transmission work. The good news it that the problem is not with the gears, but the 2 pistons needed replacing. We should be back on the ICW by friday mid day.

                                                  JACKSONVILLE DAY 3

Not much new to report. They hauled out our transmission.....took them 4 hours to remove it.

We rode our brand spankin' new folding boat bikes to the movie theater this afternoon.

                                            JACKSONVILLE, DAY 2

Whereas last week was the week of currents, this is the week of tides. Yowza, what a tide range there is here. We had the transmission guys here this AM and took Knotugal out of the slip to run the engine....the depth showed  .3   ............that is VERY shallow. Needless to say, we returned to the slip. It turns out they are going to rebuild the transmission. We knew this was going to happen when we bought the boat. This means we'll be here several more days. We will rent a car, drive back to Cape Coral and pick up our car that's there. That way, we'll have a car here.

As a follow up to yesterday's faulty power pole event, we have since found the Satelite TV was blown out, as were several outlets:-( John has been busy fixing it all.

                                                              JACKSONVILLE

After an uneventful trip up to JAX, we are settled in at Palm Cove Marina.....nothing glamorous, but acceptable. We have to be here, as we are having some routine transmission work done, and this is where Twin Disc is headquartered.
Our major event of the day, was that we hooked up to a faulty power pole and blew a couple fuses. Initially, there was panic all around, but after checking things out, it wasn't too major.

                                                      
                                                    SAINT AUGUSTINE, DAY 2

FUN, FUN, FUN........started out the day with a great breakfast in a "greasy spoon" and headed into old town SA. We saw the sights and took some tours. Later in the day, took the marina (Camanchee Cove) courtesy car to get some groceries. We met some people staying on our dock from the Chesapeake area......shared stories and dinner at a local restaurant. A Good Day :-)

                                                                ST. AUGUSTINE

No pictures today.....way too cold. It was a 27 degree windchill this AM as we departed. Did I mention we are "fair weather" boaters? I think that means HOT and SUNNY. Good news is we had the heat on, so we stayed toasty inside the boat.
One observation we're making......Florida waters have a LOT OF CURRENT.  Docking continues to be an adventure :-(
We will stay in port tomorrow to explore St. Augustine.

                                                            

                                                               DAYTONA BEACH

We got an early start this AM......worried about the high winds predicted (30 knot plus). We had a short trip up here, arriving by 10. The boat handles the chop and wind just fine. It is docking in those conditions that isn't much fun. We are staying at the Daytona Municipal Marina.....super place and close to stuff. We went to the local farmers market right away. This afternoon, we did a long walk to the beach. It has been a gorgeous day, regardless of the strong north wind.

                                                   NEW SYMRNA BEACH

Had a pleasant morning cruising the north end of the Indian River on a virtual "Mill Pond". There wasn't a ripple anywhere. Later in the day, we were happy to be inside with AC as we passed an area with lots of black flies everywhere.
We're currently docked as Knotugal is having a fresh water rinse (it's raining).

                                                       COCOA, FLORIDA

                                                 Cute......Quaint.....Friendly

                                         

                                                          VERO BEACH

Staying at the VB city marina tonight. We walked into the "town" to see the sights. Our observations are: beautiful beach, beautiful, old live oak trees, lots of real estate offices, and lots of wealth management companies!

Tonight we are happily docked at the Nettles Island Marina just north of Stuart. It is a quaint little place and a 10 minute walk to the Atlantic. The picture above is the view from our boat. We are on a beloved T Head.....so easy to dock on those :-)) We have pretty views all around.

Whoa, baby....we had our fill of adventure today. We started out heading north again . After a long day of very slow cruising through manatee zones and many bridges where we had to wait on opening times, we headed into our marina for the night on Lake Worth. Did I mention it was raining hard and the wind was blowing HARDER! Well....that brand new stern thruster we put on was no match for the wind and current. After many tries to get into a slip, we headed back out to the T head on the dock. Two guys came to our assistance, and we are finally tied up for the night. Wine at nine may start a bit earlier tonight :-)

We've a couple busy days. Yesterday, we attended the Trawler Fest . It is always fun to board a bunch of different boats, and John enjoyed "hobnobbing" along the way.
Today, we arrived at Sunset Harbour Marina in South Beach. Docked right across from us, just steps away, is a 130' yacht. The owner has it listed for 14 million $$$. Yes, we are not in Kansas anymore. It is a different world here. We walked our buns off and saw the sights. We felt like we were in a European city somewhere.....a very fun interesting day. Tomorrow....super bowl watching on Ocean Dr.

Whew....a long day.....8 hours of mega yachts, many,many bridges to wait to open, many condos and instead of TRAWLER SPEEDS......we did CRAWLER SPEEDS :-(( It is very slow going between Palm Beach and Ft Lauderdale. We are glad to be finally docked at Bahia Mar for 2 nights!

Today we had a leisurely cruise going by the McMansions of Jupiter Island. All I can say is, that even though the rest of Florida has pretty much brown grass.....these palaces have lush, green lawns!
Tonight we are enjoying Old Port Cove Marina in Palm Beach. Pets were quite happy with the slow, uneventful ride today.