Jekyll Island 5/5/09

We bid farewell to Florida today. We first saw the ‘Welcome to Florida” sign on the ICW on 11/19/08 on our way to Pensacola. It seems like yesterday but yet light years ago. Since then, we have traveled the entire Gulf of Mexico west coast of FL, went down to the Keys, and then after the Bahamas, journeyed up the Atlantic Ocean east coast. It has been such diverse and interesting boating. Florida municipal marinas have been great and the Florida State Park system is #1 with us. We’ve walked, at least, a hundred miles of FL beaches, eaten 50 pounds of grouper each and had the best winter ever. As if scripted by Hollywood, the palm trees start to thin out and the ICW water turns a darker brown when you cross over to Georgia on the ICW.

As I mentioned in the previous posting, the 7-8 foot tides on the Georgia section of the ICW command respect. Put this together with the lack of dredging of the GA shoal areas and you get a recipe for going aground. Our strategy for today was to leave Amelia Island at 11:30 am on a rising tide and only go 32 miles through the difficult sections of King’s Bay and Jekyll Sound. Here’s a picture of a Trident submarine being accompanied by tugs near the King’s Bay base—security boats track your movements and if you veer, they will definitely get your attention. There was some shoaling at G75 and R76 where we did see 5 feet on our depth sounder but we did fine. Our biggest problem was a war party of huge black flies surrounding us, attaching themselves to the flybridge bimini and periodically attacking. Bug magnet Bob was camouflaged in his Buzz-Off shirt, long pants and was wearing Deep Woods Off cologne so they started to notice me…… oh…….no……

Jekyll Sound Inlet is similar to the Whale Passage in the Bahamas as it is open to the Atlantic Ocean and today was mild with only a 3 foot chop and no breaking waves. We had to do a 90 degree turn to port and our speed shot up to 11.7 mph with the following sea. Wheeee!

We pulled into the Jekyll Island Marina at 4:10 pm, registered quickly and took the courtesy bikes out for a 2 hour ride to explore this 19th century playground for the rich and famous. The Jekyll Island Club was established by millionaires and luminaries who built mansion “cottages” to enjoy the Georgia seashore and the tranquil island beauty. It is now a National Historic Landmark District and can be accessed by carriage, tram or walking tours.

We enjoyed meeting up again with Dan and Myla aboard “Kairos”. We last saw them in Marathon and had a great evening talking about our collective Bahamas adventure.

Amelia Island 5-4-09

I have not mentioned much about boating in the ICW so far as it has been pretty easy—just connect the numbered red and green buoys and stay in the channel. It got a little more exciting today with shallow water due to 7 foot tides and even with our draft of 3’9”, we bumped 3 times in 5 seconds at red buoy # 43 in the Little Amelia River section. That definitely got our attention. We’ve been doing 50-60 mile days, leaving at 6:30 am so that we could do the most distance which would also allow us time to visit towns if we could dock by 2pm. The tides have been cooperating so far but not with the upcoming section of GA—stay tuned for our strategy.

Amelia Island with quaint downtown Fernandina Beach is right on the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway) and is also a good entry port from the Atlantic through the St. Mary’s Inlet. With its deep harbor, it can even accommodate submarines headed for base at King’s Bay. The downtown historic area is a 4 by 10 block area filled with registry homes, restaurants, parks, a museum and unique shops—how about a Trailer Park Collectible store? We walked 2 miles to the Amelia Island Lighthouse only to learn that it is only open on the first and third Wednesday of the month. There were some serious “No Trespassing” signs so this is the best picture that I could get.

The town is recovering from last weekend’s 100,000 visitors for Shrimp Fest where everything had a shrimp on it. If you are in the area the weekend of May 15-17, you can go to the Wild Amelia Festival which features nature tours. The wild horses of Cumberland Island are right across the Inlet. We did not get to the southern part of Amelia Island which features luxury resorts, Amelia Island Plantation, Summer Beach Resort and the Ritz-Carlton, where you can get pampered and spoiled –not for me this time as I am a working boater and might stab myself with those fancy nails.

Weekend in St. Augustine 5-3-09

Old St. Augustine, rich in 400+ years of Spanish, French, British and American history, is a boating destination and a good place to get away from the weekend crowds on the ICW. Its old town section has narrow cobblestone streets lined with historical registry homes with courtyards and overhanging Spanish moss-laden trees and the air is fragrant with flowering jasmine. We took a tram tour late Friday so that we could get orientated. The tickets are good for 3 days and when there is so much to see and do and only 2 days here, the tram is the way to go. We had dinner with Peg and Dave from “See Ya” at O.C. White’s which is right across from the St. Augustine Municipal Marina. Even though there is still construction on the Bridge of Lions, it is a good marina with helpful staff and a great location.

On Saturday, I toured the Dow Museum of Old Homes which has 8 homes from the 18-20th Century—the coral jewel is the Murat House which was once occupied by a nephew of Napoleon. The décor is simple compared to Henry Flagler’s Ponce de Leon Hotel, now Flagler College. The elite dined in an exquisite room lined with Tiffany glass windows and imprinted with gold-leaf murals depicting religious and nautical themes. Flagler developed 3 luxury hotels in the area and also built the FL railroad to transport the elite here for the winter season. Stepping back in time, Bob and I toured the Castillo de San Marcos which is a 17th Century Spanish fort that withstood many sieges but never surrendered in battle. The National Park Service oversees it now and volunteers reenact battles complete with cannon fire.

Our tram tickets included a bus ride to Anastasia Island and so early on Sunday morning, we packed up for the beach and went out to Anastasia State Park, rented beach chairs and an umbrella, read the Sunday paper and enjoyed a brunch on the beach—heaven. In the afternoon, we toured the Leitner Museum which has displays of the Flagler hotel opulence, including the 3rd floor Ballroom and the Turkish baths. We definitely enjoyed the San Sebastian Winery tour as an experience but their wines are very young and a bit sweet. The winery does have a Jazz Bar on the upper floor deck and it was a great place to spend Sunday night.

Got zincs????? Here’s a picture of a new zinc (used to protect the underwater metal parts of the boat) and here’s our old one eaten away by the warm salt sea water but hopefully, sacrificially sparing our boat parts.

I couldn’t resist this picture of Bob in front of the Bob t-shirt display.