Journey Part I, ended in Fernandina Beach, Florida

We are towed to Tiger Point Marina, Fernandina Beach by Tow Boat US. It's not like our planning but this is the best ending than so many bad situations could be happened...

The next day, the captain talked with the marina about the boat problem, get the part order, arrange to haul the boat as well other works are needed to be done when we come back next January. Next..arrange our flight back to Toronto. Done with all the hardware work, we continue with the fun work: to arrange our next 3 days trip to St. Augustine (Friday, Saturday and Sunday), book the hotel, call the taxi and..way we go...one and half hour trip..It's so interesting..here we are with short and T-Shirt, meanwhile our taxi driver with suit and Red Tie...hahah..we are special!

Our fancy driver

You will like Chuck to get you to destination..



We meet our buddies again...Stew and Tonny of Georgia E

St Augustine, beside very well known for boater as a place to stop to enjoy the historical places as well as a place to study, such as Flagler College or The Florida School for the deaf and blind

Historical Town St Augustine, founded in 1565 the oldest continuously occupied European sttlement in the United States. Traces of the city's Spanish herritage are everywhere..

Spanish puppies..hahah

Captain tourist..we walk in the shopping area, St. George

Enjoy the mexican food..tacos and salsa..

Ponce De Leon (the inlet named after this Spanish guy) came to this place (St Augustine) seeking the Fountain of Youth. According to him the people he met are bigger and taller, they must be drink a special water...he called Fountain of Youth

The best pizza we ever had...

With this trolley we went everywhere with same ticket for 3 days

 

Christmas in town already, open by the festival of light

Barbara, we will see you next year in Bahama

Feel interesting Christmas without snow and so warm..

St Augistine's Santa Claus

All night long town..

Fernandina Beach, Florida...the weather is warmer and more promising tropical paradise

Once you do long miles in good acceptable weather, you come to the point..you want to do more and longer..that's amazing!

We leave Beaufort, South Carolina Sunday, November 14, 10:15 AM. The 2 other boats (Georgia E and Klabara) has head of us because we meet a couple who has similar boat like us, the boat name is Windquest..spend time to see each other boat..mmm interesting!

The passage Beaufort-Fernandina Beach is about 125 nm dock to dock, about 22 hours with average speed of 5.5 kn...with an account of current and tide in both entrances..

The passage was easy, comfortable and beautiful..companied by sunlight, dolphins, sunset, stars and moon..what else do you need?

Sunrise in the entrance of Saint Marys, to Fernandina Beach, look at the crew..snoring away...hahah, the bed must be very very comfortable.. we switch every 2 hours ... with the support crew close at hand in the event of questions and support needs. It works really well.

 This is the old fort San Fernando as you enter Saint Marys entrance. Fernandina Beach is Florida's northernmost city, is on Amelia Island, discovered in 1562 by the French explorer Jean Ribault, who named it Isle de Mai, the Spanish settled the island in 1567 renamed it Santa Maria. In 1702 the British captured the island and gave it the name Amelia in honour of King George II's daughter.

The range marker inside the shoals and breakwaters or Fernandini ... those breakwaters which are submerged at mid to high tide ... some of the concerns of planning routes, passages through "skinny" waters and access points to harbors and inside routes ...

Landing in Fernandini Marina fuel dock .... coffeee in hand and great friends new and old (not age related at all) and everyone happy to have had a very very pleasant overnighter and safe landing in our planned destination. We even had a welcoming party of two from Boatel I, Ted and Dianne Greene (http://www.boatel.ca/).

One of the most important landmarks that we scout for reference later in the day ... the bar .. once the "yard arm" thing happens ... being this early in the day, coffee and beer would not do!

We do preliminary scout around to see what there is in town ... 

... and meet "them" again ... breakfast at "Jack and Dianne" (no not "Ted and Dianne's") ... though I am certain that the Boatel B&B morning fare is more healthy than here ... we do seem to be eating well ... though lost a little weight! We had a great breakfast and continued our scouting out the town.

One of the churches in town .... we get back in to stone buildings ... though not sure where the stone came from ... hopefully not from the ICW ... I thought it was all MUD ... hope so!

We conversed with the locals ... the theme always comes back to PIRATES ... this guy wa photogenic ... he did not move, blink or sneeze ...

Fernandini Beach has some Industry in the puld sector (not really sure what theyare doing with it) but with anchorage coices you can find fresher air (depending on where the predominant winds come from). So anchoring in this harbor added another level of complexity ... currents in the river, tides, winds and SMELL ... so we anchored outside of town about 3/4 mile and dingied into town ...

This is our "parting is such sweet sorrw" party ... can you imagine ... though beers are not on the table yet ... they had specials that night ... Guiness for $2.30/pint and they had another German import for $2.00/pint ... but we behaved ... realy we did. We all had a great time and showed the friendship that can develope in a relatively short time.

Here is the unfortunate part of the travels ... we plannd on getting to Indian River (about 140 miles south of here) ... and out about 6 miles off Fernandini we stopped the engine to check fluids and status (before the sun went down) and found that the engine oil level was rising ... OOPS! That is not a good sign!

Found that there might be water in the oil ... from where not really sure ... so we start sailing back to Fernandini and call ... Towboat US ... thankfully they were out to us in about a hour and brought us through the breakwater (on a dropping tide) and safely put us at dock in Fernandini.

That is the most ifno that we have at this point on this new chapter of the adventure ... so we fly from Jacksonville sometime after sorting out this latest detail on the boat ... thanks to you all for sharing these chapters of our adventure and hope to add more soon.

We are in Beaufort (pronounced: Bewfort), South Carolina

We left Charleston in the morning, took ICW route to Beaufort. It's not what we want but that's the better way to reduce your miles south..unless you want to battle off shore with the wind 15-20 kn plus the wave 3 - 4 meter high.

The challenge of inside route is the low tide and high tide hour especially in passing the cuts in some areas, the shallow could be 5 ft at MLW (mean low water) and is very unfortune for us since we draw 7 ft. We experienced most of the boaters are so helpful, the one in front will report to the one in back the situation in front.

One of the morning we have French Toast for breakfast..home made maple syrup (thanks Keith) add to the taste..yummy!

Pelican and Dolphin are our view everyday

This is the slaves Museum in Charleston, SC

Typical house in Charleston the veranda facing to left or to right to the neighbour, not to the street

Outstanding Church..so many churches in small city, about 180 churches, so they called this city Holy City

ICW Route, narrow channel and in the middle of channel a floating tree. One thing we really have to pay attention ... floating and semi floating debris.

Other thing is dolphin, they are swimming and jumping around your boat..here is the mum, dad and the baby dolphin..

Ladys Island Swing Bridge. You have to call ahead, request to open..just after this bridge is the Beaufort Downtown Marina, the place we stay for tonight

One corner of Beaufort downtown ... some more southerly vegitation ... just something to catch your eyes..

Captain enjoy the sunny weather strolling Beaufort City

Local Ice Cream being consumed by the "not so local" people .. hmmm...

Canadian Snow Birds..from port to port we will meet many Canadian Boaters..

The trees looked old and antique

Even the Blue Jay migrates to Beaufort, I guess the nuts are different..

Pumpkin House .. thanksgiving view

Here....the guardian of Tapestry .. one of the Trawler we met along the ICW

Snack in the afternoon... time for bed ... up early for an outside stretch ... will update on the planning and execution of these experiences ... wind, waves, currents, tides of the departing port and tides of the destination port ... then all the above all ovr again for the "plan B" port (if necesssary) ...