May 4-5, 2010

St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach

Our last night in Florida was at Fernandina Beach. We had a long and hot (90 degrees and following wind) cruise from St. Augustine to Fernandina Beach. In fact, Mark took unusual measures (blue gel cool pack) to try to stay cool, but didn’t look so cool.

The farther north we have traveled, the greater the tidal change has been. It was about 5-6 feet in St. Augustine, and was 7-9 feet at Fernandina Beach. The docks lining this ten-mile, no wake canal near Palm Valley were evidence of the huge shift between high and low tides. We were passing these docks at near low tide, and noticed that some folks had rather ingenious dock designs.

As we crossed the St. John’s River – major inlet to Jacksonville – we passed before the tanker, Golden Energy, and under the bascule bridge. These two photos were taken by BeJay & Mike (s/v Carolina Moon). We are the little white boat......

I returned the favor and took a picture of them. We enjoyed dinner with them in Fernandina Beach at an Irish Pub – chicken pot pie - yummmmm.

Soon after crossing the St. John’s River we met this towboat and barge on the ICW. Mark was squeezing over to pass starboard to starboard and the captain hailed us to warn us that we were heading into a very shallow area. He told us to hold to the red marker and he would be able to get around us - Southern consideration. We were GratefulJ

Meanwhile Mark was really trying to stay cool, and really not looking cool!!

We arrived at Fernandina Beach around 2:45, took Porter for a walk and then the rain started at 4:00. Good timing. We only stayed one night, but the town is quite quaint and would be worth a longer look if we come back this way.

We have made it to Georgia – Jekyll Island! More on that later.