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                        March 18, 2023, Brunswick Landing Marina Brunswick Georgia:                                                                                          

We arrived in Brunswick Georgia on this amazing adventure Thursday, traveling from Fernandina Beach Florida, our first day out of Florida which we entered on November 20, 2022. Therefore, we have spent 4 months in Florida which is a first for us. This week we had the good fortune to spend our days in St. Augustine, Fernandina Beach Florida and now our second night in Brunswick Georgia which is our 16^th state.  So, let us review the week and see how we got here.

 

Saturday March 1, 2023, Travel Day # 104 Palm Coast Marina, Palm Coast FL. To Augustine FL. Total Distance 28 Miles, Total Time 3.5 Hours, We had a wonderful last supper with Peter and Lisa Hatch aboard Blueprint on Friday night and many great laughs, it was fun catching up with the two of them. They will be back in Maine about the same time we are planning to be home so we may have the pleasure of joining them northbound at some point which would be fun, I know they do Docktails!

We had a short journey to St Augustine on Saturday of less than 30 miles, but we had to time the tide correctly. The current at the Municipal Marine is very strong as the St Augustine Inlet is a major opening to the Atlantic Ocean. We left at our normal time, 8 AM but only cruised at 6-7 MPH so we would arrive at 11:30 AM which was slack tide. It worked out very well as it was extremely windy Saturday, so to only have to fight the wind was much better than battling both the wind and current when docking. The ride down from Palm Coast took us though some very nice areas lots of homes on the shorelines and narrow passageways. It was very nice day with a stiff wind which was on our stern luckily! We cruised by Ormond Beach, Crescent Beach, and Daytona Beach, on the Matanzas River. We stopped at Halifax Harbor for fuel in Daytona Beach and paid the least amount per gallon on The loop. We are loving this new trend of Fuel prices going down, just hope it lasts! It was a most enjoyable leisurely morning cruise. We docked without an issue and the crew at the marina were very helpful.

 

We washed the boat down, had lunch aboard and went out for a long walk around the town. The marina is right in the main part of town next to the Bridge of Lions. It was a perfect location. We found out the Basilica was having a mass at 5 PM so we went back to the boat changed and went back to mass. This is the oldest Catholic Parish in the United States with the first mass being celebrated in 1565.

 

Basilica pictures

 

 

We really enjoyed our time in St Augustine, I had been there years ago Meredith never had been, but we loved it. We have some Maine friends who live there one couple (The Burkes) full time, another that winters there (The Landry’s) and we certainly understand why. The history is amazing I had no idea what a rich history it is. Being from New England we tend to think we have all the old stuff but that isn’t the case.  The city is easy to walk around, they have two pedestrian friendly streets that are very well laid out, full of shopping, bars, restaurants, and anything one would want. Sunday we took a trolley tour of the city a hop on hop off which Craig Burke had suggested (as well as 100 places to see and restaurants to eat in, Thanks Burke’s). The trolley worked out great as it gave us a full overview of the city then we could go back to the places on Monday and take a deeper dive. I will not bore you with the details but there was a fellow: Henry Flagler (Standard Oil, Florida East Railroad, and numerous Hotels) who really was instrumental in putting St Augustine on the map. He was the South’s Rockefeller, (my editorial only)! At any rate in the middle of the city is Flagler College and if I have a chance to go to College, that where I’m going. What a great college town this would be, (well maybe not really for me), but it sure was a town we enjoyed.  We will be back (by car!). Overall St Augustine was a wonderful place to spend three day and explore the city and we didn’t even put a dent in all the recommendations we had. We ended Monday by walking two miles to a Winn Dixie and grocery shopping then taking an Uber back to the boat, grilled dinner on the dock, and got ready for our next adventure as we were headed to Fernandina Beach Florida.

 

Track  

 

Pictures

 Draw Bridge on the ICW

Homes on the Atlantic Ocean, East of the ICW

Western Bank of the ICW

ST. Augustine Pedestrian Walkways 

Oldest Street in St Augustine

The Old Senator

Beautiful Trees and Canopy 

An old concrete wall with oyster shells . No one is climbing that wall!

Flagler College

Henry  Flagler

Bridge of Lions

Bridge of Lions from our slip at the Marina

Tuesday March 14, 2023: Travel Day # 105 St. Augustine FL. To Oasis Fernandina Beach Marina Fernandina Florida Total Distance 62 Miles, Total Time 8 Hours, We departed at 8 AM Tuesday morning as we had a long travel day of 62 miles to Fernandina Beach Florida. In this part of the state, we are beginning to pick up more tide and current. To date in Florida, we have only had 1–3-foot tides and very little current (except when you go by the inlets from the ICW and the Atlantic). Therefore, the tides and currents have not been impactful to our travel. Over the next two travel days we will be having 6-foot tides in Fernandina Beach and 8-foot tides in Brunswick Georgia. When we started out the tide was going out, low tide was at 10:30 am and so running at 1400 RPM, we normally cruise at 10 MPH, but with the current against us, so we were only doing 6.5MPH. Therefore, we now must take into consideration if the current is against us or helping us. By 1 pm once the tide started to push us, running at the same 1400 RPM we were cruising 12 MPH, so it’s a meaningful effect to us. Just what we need is another consideration in figuring our travel days but tide and current and now important.

Most of the morning we traveled on the Tolomato River. We crossed the St John River mid-day as we decided a while ago that we would by-pass Jacksonville. The ST John rivers runs from the Atlantic Ocean through Jacksonville and then another 30 miles south to Lake George. Jacksonville is a busy city, with lots of commercial traffic and a busy port, so it wasn’t on our bucket list. Jacksonville is almost 15 miles off the ICW and so we had decided to spend our time checking out Fernandina Beach. 

We also passed close by TPC Sawgrass, it’s not on the ICW but very close. Some genuinely nice places in the Ponte Veda area. Once we crossed the St John river where we passed a large container ship the ICW was narrow and full of beautiful homes. Most of the homes were on the Eastern Shore and the Western Shore was very rural and undeveloped, so the homes look across the Amelia River to a wonderful landscape. We cruised past Amelia Island just before we got to the dock at Oasis Fernandina Beach Marina. The marina which was on the eastern side of the ICW provided a very easy landing this afternoon, which is always a good thing. They had two stewards on the dock when we pulled in, so Meredith did not have to get off the boat to tie us up. We also were pleased, now that we have higher tides that the docks are now back to floating docks vs. fixed height docks. With floating docks, we can walk off that swim platform and step on the dock rather than on the fixed docks we must set up a step latter to get on and off. Much easier!

We chose this marina as it located right in the middle of town. We really enjoy being able to get off the boat and walk to town and explore. This location did not disappoint. We had lunch while we were underway and so once we cleaned up the boat we were able to go out and walk around Fernandina Beach which is on Amelia Island. We found the Palace Saloon which is the oldest bar in Florida and sampled their Pirates Punch (excellent).

 We were contacted by Jill and Joel from Smile With The Rising Sun when we arrived Tuesday afternoon. We had traveled with them a lot of last summer in the Erie Canal and always enjoyed their company, just great folks. They fell behind us in the Great Lakes and then “loop” frogged us in Mobile when we went back to Maine.  It was great to hear from them and they came to Her Idea for breakfast Wednesday morning. Smile With The Rising Sun will cross their wake in North Carolina, and they have family in the area, so they are going to stay here on Amelia Island for a month so unfortunately we said good bye to them. Hopefully, our paths will cross again. We really enjoyed our time here in Fernandina Beach. Lots of pictures in this section!

 

  

Track

 Pictures

 Meredith Favorites While Pelicans

Western Bank on ICW

 Houses Along the Way 

This is a picture of the western bank that the house look at

Jill and Joel from Smile With The Rising Sun 

Fernandina Beach 

Cooking Dinner on the Dock

Thursday March 16, 2023, Travel Day # 106, Fernandina Beach Florida to Brunswick Landing, Brunswick Ga. Total Distance 42 Miles, Total Time 5 Hours.  Departing the marina was just as easy as pulling in and we were underway just after 8 AM. It was a beautiful morning, a bit chilly at 51 degrees, very breezy but from the south, (on the stern) however, it was sunny and warmed up all morning long. We crossed into Georgia (after 4 months in Florida) right away as we crossed the St Mary Inlet, which is a big body of water, then we entered the St Mary River. When we started out from the marina we had the tide against us and so we were not making our normal speed until 10 AM an hour before low tide. The Georgia section of the ICW is very curvy, lots of twist and turns. Also, it is extremely shallow in many places, it is the shallowest part of the ICW from Stuart to Norfolk, (New Jersey is very shallow, but that is not part of the ICW). We have considered going outside in Georgia, but the seas were forecasted to be 4-6 and the winds were 15-20 Knots, so not an option for us on Thursday. We only had four bridges to pass under on this section, the first was 65 feet clearance, the second a Railroad swing bridge that opened (our last bridge in Florida), and the next was 65 feet clearance The Jekyll Island Bridge was just outside Brunswick, then in Brunswick The Sidney Lanier Bridge which had 185 feet of clearance (one big bridge, picture below).

 

After departing the Amelia River and crossing St Mary Inlet, we joined the St Mary River for 5 miles then rejoined the ICW for 20 miles then we entered Saint Andrews Sound which took us out into the Atlantic Ocean for 5 miles. The first 3 miles on The Sound was fine as we had the wind behind us but, as we had to turn 90 degrees back onto the ICW we had 20+ knots on the port beam, which was lumpy. Fortunately, it was a brief tack, and soon enough we were coming around Jekyll Island. Once we went under the Jekyll Island Bridge we entered Jekyll Creek which was extremely shallow. It was a slow pass area as we had less than 5 feet of water (we saw 4’3” at one point) and our propellers sit 3’8” below our hull so it was a nerve wracking half hour.  Thankfully, no bumps!

Overall, it was a pleasant journey, the Georgia shoreline is very swampy, and as I mentioned it full of curves. Once we passed Jekyll Creek we were on the Brunswick River which required us to departed the ICW and ran 5 miles up the Brunswick River to the Brunswick Landing Marina.

 We were able to get into Brunswick around 11 am, got settled in and had lunch on board. Once again we chose this marina for its location, right in town. We went for a long walk and were able to get our 10,000 steps in exploring Brunswick. We had dinner on board and an easy night watching some of the NCAA Basketball tournament. We have a family Men’s NCAA Basketball bracket challenge, which is in its 4 season so lots of smack talking going on yesterday before the games began. It’s always a fun time of year, (historically we were all in Colorado for the tournament so the trash talking is now Trash Texting), It’s a team event, Bailey & I, CB & Meredith, Ashley & Crosby, and finally Cody & Bode! Bode has TCU winning, I wonder how that happened! 😊. I have Houston (winning in Houston), but also had Arizona & Virginia!

St Mary River

More homes along the ICW

St John River Passing a Container Ship

Commercial Ship Yard on St John River

Last two Bridges in Florida

The Sidney Lanier Bridge

Brunswick River 

Entering Jekyll Creek 

The sunsets and sunrises we have seen are unforgettable 

We are here in Brunswick for three nights and so had some time to relax before he head out Sunday. Today we did a bunch of boat projects, I am working on the Blog, we did laundry and took a 3-mile (one way) bike ride to Winn Dixie for provisions. They have free beer at this marina on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights, that’s a first. Tonight, being Friday, Saint Patrick’s Day, free beer, and many boaters here in the marina, I am going to wrap this Blog up now and go meet some new friends!

I already checked it out it’s PBR, and how bad can that be!

Cheers