Jacksonville Fla /St. Johns River

Well, what should of been a short day turned into the longest day so far. It was a pleasant day of travel from Fernandina to Jacksonville about 3.5 hours and the tides with us the winds were gusty but not bad in the ICW. Until we got to the Florida East Coast RR bridge on St Johns River which is suppose to be open, unless a train is traveling on it. It was closed, and when we radioed to request an opening we were told, it won't open again for 4 hours (work was being done) bummer for us. BUT! right before the bridge was Jacksonville Landing and FREE docking in the heart of city. GREAT! It was a bit of a job docking (HEY Dorothy we're not in the ICW anymore) 20-25 kts winds and no one to toss a line too. Bummer...
It actually was not that bad once I tuned out this voice from the helm yelling at me to get the line on, get the line on! So anyway we walked around and enjoyed a nice lunch (fish and chips) then hung out on the boat waiting for 5pm bridge opening. Now a few things were about to happened that we hoped would never happen and some we never even thought of.
Now its 4:50 the sun is getting lower in the sky the wind was whipping 30kts and pushing us firm against the dock the current here is crazy and oh yeah its now low tide! But we have a plan on how we are going to do this without dock hands. It actually went quite well, the captain was very aggressive getting us off the dock and it was very impressive I think the audience thought so too. The bridge is now opening and once through about 2miles up you are on the Ortega River VERY shallow and lots of shoaling in areas. The starboard turn into the Ortega puts the setting sun right in our faces and we can't see any of the channel markers. We know not to far ahead is a lift-bridge but we can't see anything except the big white signs DANGER SHOALING but where is the channel? and where are the markers? The chart plotter doesn't show any markers but does show we are in 3.5 ft of water and a bridge ahead. So Jim calls the bridge tells him we need and opening he says he will open when we get to the green marker.....What marker? Where are they? by now the sun is setting so I can find the red but still no green just more BIG white signs Its got to be here I see the red! As I am scanning the water with Binoculars looking, looking, Jims got his eyes on the plotter (looking for water) and the depth finder reading depths (out loud to me) OH CRAP! Finally there she blows green marker to the port behind the BIG white sign. We get lined up the Bridge is open and we both say at the same time....are we going to fit man that's tight! At least now we have a whooping 7' of water under us. Well we made it through found our marina and managed to fit our 45' x 15' boat into a 40'x 14' 10" slip.... in the dark! Mission accomplished!
Time for dinner ...tonight is Scotch and maybe some crackers! And we can sleep soundly as we listen to the squeak of the rub rail on the piling, at least its easy getting on and off the boat.
As the saying goes from members of the AGLCA Its not about the destination is about the experience.

week 12 Finally in Florida!

Fernandina Beach just steps from the marina
Oldest saloon in Fla. Try the pirates punch!
Not an amusement ride
This guy was sitting right behind Jim as he was plugging in to electric
The shopping find!
Since returning from home for the holidays we are now in FLorida!!!! It only took 3 months! We are now docked for the night in Fernandino Fla. just barely over the Ga./ Fla. line. It was a beautiful day at sea warnm and sunny completely enjoyable. We docked at Fernandino Harbour marine and took a quick walk thru the town what a beautiful town. All along the way (east coast) we have been in search for a glass for Jims scotch.. you see Jim recieved a scotch glass a couple of years ago for christmas from my sister, he loves this glass and has bonded with it, since then we have been on the lookout for a similar glass since the one he recieved has since got a chip in it. Well today we found it... (only took 2 years and 1200 miles from home) so anyway we bought 4 of them, the funny thing is after buying and unpacking them we looked at the box and saw where are they from??? 1 mile from our house (Reed and Bartons) go figure! But, if the captain is happy so is the crew (ME!) Anyway, tomorrow we head for Jacksonville, we will be spending a few days there in anticipation of our daughters arrival from MA. She will be spending a week or 2 with us. Once she is aboard we will head south, to somewhere where we can lose the sweatshirts and long pants. Jim has his speedo ready in anticipation! Gee, I hope we don't end up in Cuba!

week 11 HAPPY ....NEW YEAR!

fireworks at Beaufort Marina New Years Eve
Hunters Island SC

taking a stroll on the beach New Years Day
chapel of ease built in 1740

Back onboard (New Years Eve)


Dec 17th


We rented a pickup to travel home for the Christmas holiday 1980 miles round-trip pretty much uneventful other than the ticket speedy got in Maryland UGH, 83 in a 65 zone ouch! The trooper was nice enough to write it up at 71 mph saving big bucks! Merry Christmas LOL.


We arrived home and brought the first real snow for the season with us, hey, consider it a gift. Christmas Eve is always great fun spent with the Moura's in Barrington RI and Christmas Day at home with my family.



Jim and I bought new wheels for each other for Christmas. They are in the form of bicycles for the boat, the pickup came in handy. So now we are back on the boat and its New years eve Beaufort is celebrating their 300 year Centennial tonight with fireworks, music and other entertainment (great timing for us). We will be restocking, cleaning and reorganizing the next couple of days and moving on down the waterway Monday. The plan right now is Jacksonville in the next 7 days to pickup our daughter who will be traveling with us for a week or so.

week 10 home for Christmas

This is a pretty park on the waterfront in Beaufort SC

You can see the marina in the background

Yes those are poinsettias planted with the pansies

Update.....for the last 2 weeks the short of it

The weather cold and wind held us up for a week so in the end we decided to stay put in SC as the calendar was catching up with us. The marina was nice enough to deduct our daily rate for the last week from the monthly saving us big bucks. FYI if you stay say 10 days at a marina (or so) it equates to what a month would cost. When we left SC it was 70 degrees the warmest in 2 weeks.

So now SweetPea is in SC and we rented a car for 2 weeks and are in Ma for Christmas. And wouldn't you know we arrive home to the first real snow of the season (go figure). Tis the season and lots to do, luckily Ashley and I put the tree up at Thanksgiving and did some shopping for gifts then as well. I also did alot of online shopping from the boat and shopped at shops that ship.

Jim and I will be hosting Christmas dinner so still tons to do. Tonight we are going out to the Sandbar a local pub to see our friend who is the piano man there, so it Christmas music and cheer!

Jim just got the computer back from the Apple store so here are some pictures........

Day58 Charleston SC

Entering Charleston Harbour

Homes on the ICW

Downtown Charleston

Beautiful home on the waterway to Charleston

SO peaceful and beautiful in every direction

as far as the eye can see

Just SweetPea and this view !

We have been in Charleston for a couple of days and it is really nice here, lots to do and most of my Christmas shopping is done. We are at the Harbourage at Ashley Marina in downtown it is nice to have use of a courtesy van to pick us up and drop us off. It is very strange to us to see all the holiday decoration and palm trees, just something we are not use too. It has been quite cool here about 20 degrees cooler than the, norm tomorrow promises to be in the 60's so we will head out and continue further south. Beaufort SC is the next stop then after that we will be in Savannah Georgia, (Saturday) the weatherman is saying it should be 70 degrees we shall see. Our internet connection still is not great and we are having trouble with the Apple computer so again pictures will have to wait.

Day 56 Georgetown SC

Yes! We finally moved, we traveled 55miles and are now in Georgetown, tomorrow we move on to Charlestown SC. Due to the Coooolllld and the calendar we will just be making pit-stops (1 nightstands) till we reach Florida. We will be in the sunshine state Thursday hopefully. It was brrrrrrr today and more of the same tomorrow, at least the sun is shining but the wind is howlin too. The internet connection is not the best so pictures will be added with tomorrows post.

Day 54? Myrtle Beach

We have been back from our trip home for Thanksgiving. Hel....lo baby its cold outside. AS we now prepare ourselfs and the boat to move on down the waterway, we are rethinking our travel plans. We will travel south in search of warmer weather that we know. But where is our next destination? Further south to ports unknown. I guess we will know when we get there. Stay Tuned!
Jim got his new anchor today and will install it tomorrow, now we can anchor out and hopefully sleep on the hook. Options are a good thing. We are planning on leave MB in the next couple of days, it will be a day to day thing, ideally the plan is to travel a min of 50 miles a day and if weather cooperates the more miles traveled the better.