Day #117 - Jekyll Island

"No see-ums" galore here....

Went for a 3 hour bike ride with Gail and Jim. What a beautiful island it is, but full of hungry no see-ums.  Weather is about 70's, a bit cooler than usual, but sunny. We hope to do some more exploring and maybe going to Brunswick, GA to explore the big city near by.

Day #116 - Jekyll Island, Georgia

We arrrived @ Jekyll Island, Georgia about 1:30 pm. Seemed like a long and winding road to get here. Just got off course once today and the friendly security boat, with their blue light on, steered us in the right direction, something to do with changing the numbers on the buoys....Go figure.  Warm, muggy and buggy.  Nice little marina with swimming pool, hot tub and restaurant. Hope to ride bikes to explore the island tomorrow with Jim and Gail, who are coming tonight around 6:00 pm.and staying on our boat. Planning on  staying here until Sunday, but everything depends on the weather.....

Day #115 - Fernadina Beach

Stayed another day to enjoy the bugs bitting us up!  The winds did die down so it was a great night for sleeping despite the paper mill humming all night and, of course, a couple trains coming through. We felt like we were at home just like it was at Harbortown in Ft. Pierce.
Gail and Jim are planning to meet us @ Jekyll Island tomorrow night for the weekend.
Thank goodness that we  made reservations here and at Jekyll Island because there are lots of boats traveling through.
Can you believe that we got $1.00 PBR's drafts today and sat in a beer garden?

This is our last night in Florida.........

Day #114 - Fernadina Beach

Left anchorage @ Ft. George River around 8:15 am. It was a little tricky guiding our boat back to the intercoastal waterway due to low tide, but we inched our way out!
Got to Fernadina Beach near Amelia Island about 11:30am. A bit breezy out of the NE.

Cruise ship docked

We are on a mooring ball for a couple of days here before heading to Jekyll Island by Friday.

Day#113 - Ft. George River

Anchored @ Ft. George River, north of Jacksonville, FL. We cruised about 43 miles today.  Sunny, but a bit windy out of the north. Another familiar boat "Castaways" anchored near us. We first saw them at Cape Canaveral and also at St. Augustine. Heading for Fernandina Beach area tomorrow. Kinda buggy around here....."flys" who like to bite!

Day #112 - St. Augustine

View of St. Augustine

Got up and went to mass @ 9:00am at The Cathedral Basilica of St. Augustine. It was a beautiful church. Afterwards, we walked around town admiring the old historical buildings. The streets were not crowded like they were yesterday. Very windy today...winds west @ 15-20 mph and its blowing our boat around in the mooring field.

Day #111 - St. Augustine

Left our anchorage about 7:45ish wiht a nice sunrise and  heading up to St. Augustine. It was a fun trip observing the scenery along the way. Not much sun but a nice breeze out of the west. The current is against us today so we are averaging about 6 mph. We have reservations for a mooring ball which should be interesting living for a couple of days.  Ventured to town via our dinghy after registering our boat. What a fun, busy town and so much more to see that we will go back tomorrow for more history and pictures.  Thank goodness that all the rainy and stormy weather went north and south of us. We lucked out and only got a few drops of rain.

Maintenance today:  replaced potable water pump, thank goodness we had one on board.

Day #110 - Cement Plant anchorage

Yes, That's an alligator!

Beautiful sunrise...before take off.

Left New Smyrna harbor about 8:00 am. The dockmaster helped us with our lines. Scot did a fantastic job backing us out of a tight spot and heading up the river again. Beautiful ride along the river with some gorgeous houses to dream about. We had to open one bridge today otherwise the bridges have lots of clearance, usually nothing to worry about down here. We tried to go in a designated anchorage but it turned out to be to shallow.  Of course, we hit the bottom but was able to back out in spite of the crab pot that was directly behind our boat. So we ventured onward to the next designated anchorage, which is a man made canal which leads to an old cement plant. There is also a Sea Ray factory and testing facility located here. We anchored at about 2:00 pm. Another day of sunshine and wind behind us is all we could ever ask for!  Hoping to  anchor on a mooring ball @ St. Augustine for a couple days, which is about 35 miles north of here.

Day #109 - New Smyrna Beach Marina

Left our anchorage near Cape Canaveral around 7:30 am. Other anchored boats took off already.
We are looking for another anchorage along the way. There were lots of fish camps along the way and very interesting scenery, I even saw a huge turtle swimming by our boat, which was a first for us.

Another beautiful, sunny and warm day for traveling. I call it "swimsuit" weather. Why wear anything else especially when you don't know where the next laundromat will be.
The boat has been running great!

Day #108 - Cape Canaveral Space Center

Here we go again.........it sure was hard to say good-bye to the people and the good life here in this part of Florida!

We left Harbortown Marina around 7:40 am. There was a 40% chance of rain, but we figured we go anyway. It turned out to be a windy day out of the south with no rain. We were going as fast as 7.7 mph.


More barge traffic

Indian River

We checked our various anchorages but decided to keep going until we got to the Cape Canaveral Space Center viewing area near just south of Titusville at approximately 7:00 p.m.  Thank goodness we had some leftovers for dinner because we sure didn't feel like cooking after a long day on the Indian River.

March 20, 2012 Happy Spring!

Getting ready for an early departure from Harbortown Marina tomorrow morning. Boat is all packed and ready to head north. Looking forward to add more adventures of the Nancy Jo.
It's a long way home!