Monday-Wednesday May 16-18: Florida to Georgia 

     We have made good time traveling so far this week!
     Monday we paused for a few hours at the free dock in New Smyrna Beach, FL.  Dan changed the fuel filters while I walked uptown through the historic district looking for wifi.  I found it at a cute little coffee & ice cream shop - Donna's Canal Creamery.  Here I could update the blog and take care of other business.  Dan joined me for a bowl of ice cream when he was done.  We got back on the waterway around noon and eventually dropped the hook in a small creek our anchorage guide book calls "cement plant creek."  We had stayed there on the way down last December, and remembered it as a narrow, fairly quiet place.  It once was home to a cement plant, and some of the old buildings are still there, but now that property belongs to SeaRay manufacturer, and the docks are filled with large motor yachts waiting to be sea-tested and finished.  Last time we were here we saw evidence of building and planning.  This time a new, very large home with a dock sits where there was once mostly mangroves, and the planned marina next door to it is further along in development.  Next year this creek will probably not be usable as an anchorage.
     We had met Randy from the trawler Slack Tide at Great Sale Cay - they were one of the vessels Dan talked to who planned a slightly different crossing than us.  We had been leap-frogging with them since Fort Pierce.  On Tuesday as they came astern to pass us by, Dan asked them to take our picture, as we had the drifter up.  They were happy to do so, promptly emailing them to us.

Motor-sailing up the ICW.

     We put in a long day on Tuesday, cruising past familiar sights.  Neither of us felt like stopping anywhere, so we just kept up a steady pace.  Dark clouds were rolling in and the air was humid and oppressive; we wanted to get as far as we could before the thunderstorms began.

St.Augustine's famous cross.  

A bald eagle sits on a sand bar.

   We made it through the Jacksonville area, where the currents always seem to be against you no matter which way you go, and continued on to a small anchorage in a small creek.  Lightning and thunder were rumbling ominously to the West of us, and just as we dropped anchor, it started to pour.  Rain was pelting us from all sides and continued well into the night.  We had to close all the portholes, which made it rather steamy inside.  Neither of us slept very well.  

    The North wind on Wednesday morning was most welcome.  The air was cooler, a bit dryer, and though the sun rarely made an appearance all day, things dried out by mid-morning.  We had a very pleasant trek up through the rest of Florida.  We began playing leap frog with another trawler -Tinacious - with whom Dan struck up a radio friendship.  We wondered about the name.  Was the wife's name Tina?  Were they retired from tin sales?  Was it a misspelling of tenacious?

     St. Mary's River is the border between Florida and Georgia.  We spotted a couple of sail boats milling about.  In the inlet itself was a tug boat escorting... Dan took out the binoculars... a submarine.  We recalled there was a submarine base just up river in Georgia, and that traffic would be halted when one was moving.  Dan hailed one of the sailboats whom we remembered seeing in George Town.  We wanted to exit the ICW and travel up the Georgia coast from the Atlantic.  Was there a security call we had missed?  The vessel - Good Morning Vietnam (Robin Williams fan?) - let us know that the sub was leaving the area and as long as we stayed at least 500 yards away we would be fine.  We don't know why he and the other sailboats continued to mill around, but we followed in the sub's wake out to sea.

     The ICW in Georgia is very winding.  Tides and currents switch back and forth depending on which bend you are in, and the bottom is shifting and often very shallow.  We enjoyed the straight run outside in the ocean.  There was a light breeze and a small swell; we put up the mainsail and had a great motor-sail.  We thought about continuing all the way to Beaufort, South Carolina, but Dan was worried about fuel.  The last time we'd filled our tanks was in Spanish Wells, at least two weeks ago, and we had covered a lot of ground since then.  So we turned back inland at St. Andrew's Sound, bound for Brunswick Landing Marina in Brunswick, GA.  We had been there during Thanksgiving weekend.  It's a reasonably priced marina that offers a lot of free amenities and cheap fuel.  Many cruisers spend weeks or months there, and some leave their boats there during hurricane season.  It has a large live-aboard community and the atmosphere is very similar to that in George Town, Bahamas.  There are potlucks and parties, activities like yoga and karaoke, and there will be a large cookout on Memorial Day.   The clubhouse offers free beer every night, and wine is free on Wednesdays.  We fueled up, tied up, and made straight for the happy hour.

     Here we met up with Naimh (whom I spelled as Nieve in a previous blog - it's pronounced 'Neeve') from Freed Spirit, and we met the folks from Tinacious who had arrived minutes before us in this marina.  Tinacious, it turns out, is named for the boat and their determination to get her built.  She is made of aluminum.  Freed Spirit is here for a couple of months, Tinacious for a couple of days.  We will probably leave in the morning.  

Brunswick Landing Marina, dock # 1 (of 15).