Day 318 Thursday, May 4, 2023
Fernandina Beach, Florida to Morningstar Marina Golden Isles, Brunswick, Georgia
We are day 318 of our trip but have traveled 118 days. Two hundred days of our trip have been spent experiencing each of our stops. Very rarely have we stayed just overnight at any spot. We have seen a lot of great areas along the way. People always ask what our favorite stop has been - I don't think I will ever be able to answer that truthfully. There have been so many great stops and we still have more to come.
Today we traveled for about 5 hours. We left Oasis Fernandina Harbor Marina at 9am. Friendly dock hands -- "just honk and we'll help you off". We left a bit later trying to time the tides. What a difference a day makes. We left the dock with near calm water, not like the raging winds trying to dock yesterday! We are officially leaving Florida. Hard to imagine we are moving on to a different state. We discovered that Georgia means horse flies .........
We met 3 Coast Guard boats with lights flashing and 50 mm guns on their bows. We also saw a blimp and wondered if it too was military. King's Bay Naval Station -- SUBMARINE!
Sub docking area?
Security boat guarding the sub.
We hit Jekyll Creek (very shallow) 1 hour before low tide. There is an 8 foot tide swing there -- very important to know if you plan on anchoring anywhere in Georgia. Thankfully we didn't have any issues with depth. We had a great crossing for potentially nasty St. Andrews Sound and St. Simons Inlet with little influence from ocean waves or tide.
Easy into the marina and our slip. No "pucker" factor today; big change from yesterday. We were lucky to get the courtesy car for a quick trip to buy some milk.
Pirate Ship tour boat
Sailboat from Rouses Point
Day 319 Friday, May 5, 2023
Solomon's Island, Brunswick, Georgia to Midway, Georgia
We were helped off the dock by the dockhand, Mary. Staff were great at Morningstar Marina Golden Isles. They were very capable, professional and helpful. Today we are traveling alone to Sunbury Crab Co. and Marina. Call Me Curly weren't able to get in Morningstar Marina last night so they were at Jekyll Harbor Island Marina about 1 hour south. They will be catching up with us.
6:40am start to our 7.5 hour day.
Todays' travel was very winding through lots of marsh grasses. That means LOTS of huge horse flies. We had slow travel with a lot of debris in the water. We also saw many dolphins and some shrimp boats. Passages across Altahama and Sapelo Sounds were calm and uneventful.
Marsh grasses
Lots of debris
At one point Jerry decided to run the engines a little faster to "blow out" the engines. We ran at 15 knots and 30,000 RPMs for about 10minutes before an engine alarm went off. This happened when we were traveling to Key West too. Jerry checked it out but nothing seemed wrong... Once the engine was restarted all was okay.
Elaine from Sunbury Crab is the model of Southern hospitality. When we called to make marina reservations she was actually bringing her husband home after a medical procedure. She asked if we could call back in about 10minutes (after she had her hubby settled), instead Jerry offered to call back the next day. When we hadn't yet called back the following day, she called us! She was very sweet and made sure that we had made dinner reservations too. She also gave us instructions on when to call for directions in the shallow channel to the marina. Don't worry about coming up to register or pay; you can do it when you come up for dinner.
Grant and Sharon arrived about 1 hour later than us. Sunbury Crab Co. was a fun place to eat, but not our traditional Cinco de Mayo celebration of the past. We did have a margarita. Elaine visited our table and shared info about the marina and restaurant. The restaurant is a family business. Her sons cook, fish and maintain the property. Their wives, nieces and nephews wait on tables and host. They originally bought the property for a retirement home and decided to build the restaurant and marina. Needless to say, they haven't retired.
Grant getting a lesson on how to crack a crab.Tomorrow we head to Savannah Georgia.
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