Ft Pierce to Fernandina Beach

Music on Center Street
Street Party!

Courthouse -- beautiful

Shrimp boat coming in

Mosquito plane!  Lookout!

Arrgh!!

Sunset on anchor!

After the sunset - left with a beautiful sky

This guy buzzed us along the waterway!

This is the barge that caused us stress!
Coming up on his port!

St Augustine lighthouse

Pirate boats shooting it out
in St Augustine!

Beautiful night

Fresh shrimp tonight!

This marks our voyage into "new waters"!

Interesting guy with quite a collection of boats......

Green Turtle - Fernandina Beach

Old Fort on Amelia Island

Wild horses on Cumberland Island

Beautiful Cumberland Island
too bad it was so hot!

View of the waterway from Cumberland Island

This guy was getting pretty close to shore!

Lots of beautiful architecture in
Fernandina Beach

Another beautiful sky!

Interesting information

Railroad Station

Love this place!

Part of downtown Fernandina

More homes

NautiNell tied up tight
She's getting quite a mustache!

Tie up for a nuclear submarine!

Lonesome guy on Cumberland Island
He actually walked out to the water -
see he's hot too!

 August 4 – Tuesday   After spending a couple of months in Ft Pierce, we finally had decent weather and had finished our “chores” so we cast our lines and headed north.  Yea!  That is “after” we fueled up – pumped out and loaded the scooters.  We were on the waterway by 10:00 a.m.  We had planned to go about 50 miles to Dragon point but we decided to pass that by and we went 62 miles to another great anchorage – Honeymoon Lake.   Mm 904.  “Fairyland”.  That is what it says on the charts!  Honeymoon Lake in Fairyland!  We made it there by 5:30 p.m. and was on the hook in no time.  A full day for us!  Along the way we started seeing lots of dolphins and manatees.  One of the guidebooks referred to the manatees as “Nature’s Couch Potatoes”.  I like that!  It really fits these gentle creatures.  We also saw a spinner shark.   He spun up right in front of the boat! If you haven’t seen one or aren’t familiar with them – definitely Google them.  There are several you-tube videos.  They are very cool!  This one looked to be about 6-7 feet long.  We won’t be having any mosquitoes on our boat either, I hope.  We were buzzed several time by the mosquito plane.  I think he was just trying to entertain us.  Another area we traversed through had hundreds of huge jellyfish.  This was an interesting day!  We enjoyed a beautiful sunset and had dinner on the sundeck.  It’s nice to be traveling again. 

August 5 – Wednesday   We left the anchorage about 9:00 a.m.  It was a great anchorage but now we remember why we don’t usually travel in August.  It was so hot!  We don’t run our a/c at night so all we have to rely on are several fans.  Believe me, it takes quite a “fan club” to make it through a hot August night….!  The water was like glass today – sunny and no wind.  Hmmm, no wind = no breeze tonight.  Again we saw several sharks, jellyfish and sting rays!  Very cool!  Anyway we made it to Rockhouse Creek near New Smyrna by 4:15 = 62 miles.  We were the only ones anchoring here all night.  That’s the thing about traveling in August – you don’t see many other boats either.   We’ve been here before in May when we had a hard time finding a spot to drop anchor!

August 6 – Thursday   We left out about 8:00 a.m. this morning.  At least it wasn’t quite so hot last night.  We headed to St Augustine – about 64 miles.  We made it there – I fought with the mooring ball a bit but we were secure by 4:30.  It took us a little longer to get here because of all the slow manatee zones.  We did have an interesting experience though. There was an area where the tide was really low so it was a really narrow pass.  It was just before Matanzas Inlet where it shoals really badly.   We were doing fine until we came up on a tow with a huge barge.  Of course, we needed to pass him and that shouldn’t have been a problem.  We tried him on the radio but no response.  So we were doing pretty good  - but then we found ourselves meeting an oncoming sailboat (on motor).  This area was really tight but we couldn’t get over until we were way pass the barge  - and the sailboat wouldn’t slow down.  He passed us way too closely and way too fast!  He also told Mike he was “number one” so Mike gave him the BIG HORN!   J   There wasn’t anything we could have done.  He should have slowed down so we wouldn’t have met each other along with the barge!  Oh well….!  

Mike wasn’t feeling well tonight so we just relaxed on the boat.  We’ve been to St Augustine before and really enjoyed it but we can pass this time.  BTW  Did I mention it was hot!

August 7 – Friday  We left out about 8:30 this morning.  We are going to a marina in Fernandina Beach!  Three nights – it’s time for some air conditioning!  Another 63 miles – but we’ll make it!  It turned out to be a great day to travel – it wasn’t so hot.  We did have to weather out a storm just as we got to a large opening just a few miles from the marina.  The Coast Guard was forecasting 33 knot winds.  It was that or more!  And it rained!  Luckily it didn’t really last too long – just enough to get our blood pressure up.  We made it to the marina by 4:00.  We are now in “Virgin Territory” – at least for us!  As of Sister Creek (mm739) which is at Jacksonville Beach we entered into uncharted waters.  It’s the start of another adventure!  Once we were tied up and secure we decided to enjoy the night!  Four days of traveling and anchoring we were ready for a stop.  It was nice to get off the boat!  We plan to stay here the weekend.  We hit the town and found there was a “Concert on Center Street”  -  live music street party.  We also hit the Palace Saloon (pirate punch), Dog Star Saloon and the Salty Pelican.  We had dinner at the latter and enjoyed visiting with a nice young couple who were locals.  They told us about the Green Turtle which has good music.  We’ll make it there tomorrow. 

August 8 – Saturday   Checked out more of the town.  We walked to the Happy Tomato for lunch.  It isn’t what it sounds like – it’s a bbq place!  Really good too!  There is a fishing tournament going on so it’s really crowded here.  Someone checked in a 6 ft. kingfish – not sure of its weight.    I went shopping for a while.  There are several really fun shops in the downtown “historic” area.  Later we took a scooter ride to check out the rest of the area.  We did go to the Green Turtle but were disappointed because the band canceled.  It’s a neat place but we had a couple of beers and left.  Went back to the boat and relaxed. 

August 9 – Sunday   We dinked all day!  We packed a picnic lunch and off we went.  First we rode out to the Inlet – the ocean looked pretty calm.  Beautiful beaches!  Then we went back around to Cumberland Island only a few miles away but we did cross in to Georgia.  We hiked around the Island – it is really beautiful.  We saw several of the wild horses.  It would have been fun to stay longer but again it was really hot.  We dinked around some more and saw a huge alligator sticking his head out of the water not far from shore.  We went around to the other side where we stopped and had our lunch.  What a nice day!  The sun was shining with hardly a cloud in the sky. 

Tomorrow we’re leaving here and heading to Brunswick Landing in Brunswick GA.  It’s only about 36 miles away.  Short trip but a good stop, we hear. 

Till next time!

Admiral “C”