![]() After an early morning meeting with some dockmates at Jekyll Harbor Marina, we decided to take an alternate route and follow a group of three other boats. Fairly high winds from the east were predicted and that makes traversing Saint Andrew Sound and around Horseshoe Shoal challenging. We skipped going out to the sound and took Floyds Cut which is known for some shallow areas and requires careful navigating. We had to pick our poison today. Before leaving, a barge pushed by the tug, Sun River City passed by the marina. Around 9:00am (we had to give the tide enough time to rise) everyone started to take in their lines and depart the marina. We followed the three boats through some strong currents and waves, but after getting through the shallow cut, we made it through successfully joining up again with the ICW. We thanked our new friends for leading us through and slowly passed them to start making better time. Trawlers are not known for running at high speed. We made good time going down the ICW. Not too many obstacles to slow us down. We got to the submarine base at Kings Bay and had to slow down and avoid getting into trouble with the security boats. Martha took a picture of one of the submarines through the windshield and some other Naval facilities out the back. When we got to Cumberland Sound on the Saint Marys River, and began our crossover into Florida, we passed Sun River City pushing his load. He seemed a little annoyed when I radioed him about passing on his starboard. His reply was, "go ahead, everyone else has." Finding the entrance to the ICW was a little tricky. The sun was low in the sky and there was a haze. On top of that, another tug towing a barge was coming out and there was other pleasure boat traffic. We went through the Fernandina Beach area, admiring some large yachts at the marina that was recently rebuilt after being destroyed by Hurricane Matthew. There were also many boats anchored out across from the marina. We immediately recognized the smell of pulp mills, so common in northern Florida. Fernandina has its share of industry, odor and all. We continued around Amelia Island on our way to the St. Johns River and passed a railroad bridge that stays open until a train comes along. Fortunately, there was no train today. As we passed, we got a few waves from the waterside bar near the bridge. A little later I heard Sun River City announce on the VHF that he was approaching the railroad bridge. A little later I looked back and saw him in the distance. We continued our trip and crossed the St. Johns River. Once across, we got back on the ICW and headed to our home marina for the next couple of months, Palm Cove Marina. After fueling up, we got into our slip, adjusted all of the lines and settled in. Martha was anxious to use their new washers and dryers and quickly gathered up the dirty clothes. She also took a walk down the street to Publix to get a few things we need.
The boat is filthy and will get a good wash tomorrow if the weather cooperates. The salt water environment is very different than our brackish Chesapeake water. The salt gets all over everything. The humidity is also noticeably higher and everything feels damp. Turns out that tomorrow is the Florida Georgia football game in Jacksonville. We made sure to put up out Gator burgee and have already gotten a couple of "Go Gators" from other boaters in the marina. The Florida Georgia game used to be considered the largest outdoor cocktail party in the world. I think the pandemic may be having an effect on that this year. This will be the last blog post as we have reached our intended destination. We will return home for the holidays and come back here in January. We hope to spend a few weeks going to south Florida and hopefully the Keys. Thanks for reading!
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