The community of Fernandina Beach is located on Amelia Island at Florida’s northeastern tip where it borders Georgia. It has a well maintained historic district nestled between two large paper mills that are not particularly offensive once you are onshore. There are dozens of shops and restaurants within easy walking distance of the marina where we spent our first three nights back in the land of plenty. Plenty of hot water that is. We had our first indoor showers since Canada won the gold medal hockey game at the Olympics!
There is also a wonderful farmer’s market on Saturday mornings where we were able to buy fresh local produce. What a treat.
Visitor at the dock in Fernandina
Before we could start our journey north we had to go south again. Armed with our job list of 103 items we headed down the ICW to St. Augustine and Sailors’ Exchange in search of bargains on boat parts.
St. Augustine sky line
We made four trips to Sailors Exchange on foot up King Street and across the river to dig through the dusty bins of new and used treasures. Our best finds were a new helm seat and a self tailing winch to replace the one at the mast. We saved about $500 on those two items alone! It was well worth the trip
The original helm seat
So much more comfortable and one item crossed off the job list too.
On each one of our trips we passed this giant soccer ball anchored in the river near the bridge.
If you want to build one you can find instructions at www.earthball.org
While in St. Augustine we deciphered the Sunshine Bus Company’s system and treated ourselves to some extreme retail therapy at Wal-Mart and the Winn-Dixie supermarket. There were too many choices and we came away without too many bags full. The other controlling factor was the idea that when we haul the boat we will need to empty everything out while we do the interior work. The less we have to pack up the better. An unexpected bonus was our very first seniors’ discount ever! The sign on the bus indicated a discount for ‘over 60’ but the driver asked if we were over 55 and gave us the reduced rate of 50 cents instead of a dollar.
We have been told that anyone who claims to have taken a boat down the Intracoastal Waterway without going aground is a liar. Okay. We can’t be called liars anymore. Yes, Polar Pacer has been aground on the ICW. Just a couple of minutes of not paying enough attention and one of our bows was stuck in the mud at the side of the channel. The embarrassing part was having to ask the power boat to ‘wake’ us and make a big enough wave to wash us off the bottom after asking the captain for a slow pass as he approached from behind at a high rate of speed.
Shortly afterwards we came across a family in need of a little assistance. They were out for a nice Sunday afternoon of fishing but had some motor problems and were adrift in the ICW. We had them throw us a line and gave them a tow as far as the Sisters Creek Bridge.
Tow Boat Polar Pacer to the rescue.
Someone was out to remind us that we had missed a certain nephew’s birthday earlier in the month and had a sky writer do the job.
First Word
Second word
Self explanatory
There is a lot of residential development along some parts of the ICW and many of the homes come with private docks.
Boat houses as far as the eye can see.
Some do not match the elegant architectural style of the homes they belong to.
As we had missed the big cruisers Thanksgiving pot luck gathering at St. Mary’s, Georgia on the southbound trip we made a short stop to have a look and meet friends. We arrived the day before the second annual Fun in the Sun Festival that coincided with the Memorial Day Weekend. The line up of events included . . . . .
A pet fashion show,
A climbing wall,
A rubber duck race in the tidal current (Our duck, number 2576 in the middle of the pack, did not win despite our words of encouragement from shore.),
The blessing of the fleet
And patriotic entertainment by the Navy band from Jacksonville.
One piece of advice we had been given before we left Canada was to avoid travelling the ICW on a weekend. That’s when all the crazy people come out and cause havoc on the water. A long weekend would be especially bad. Time for another offshore passage. Thirty hours offshore would take us from St. Mary’s Inlet to Charleston. The same trip southbound took almost two weeks.
We left St. Mary’s at sunrise on Sunday morning and headed out to sea.
We have come to appreciate the reliability of American aids to navigation.
Three hour watches on an overnight passage seem to work for us. That gives the ‘off-watch ‘person enough time to update the ‘on-watch’ person and wind down enough to get some REM sleep. We record our position and plot it on the paper chart every hour. That way, if anything should happen to our electronics we will still have a pretty good idea where we are and can put a backup plan in operation.
Sticky arrows don’t damage the chart and can be re-used for the next trip.
Charleston is one of those cities that deserve a repeat visit and the nice man from Customs and Border Patrol who checked us in at the marina told us about the Picollo Spoleto arts festival. We decided to stay an extra day and treat ourselves to some culture. As we walked through the well preserved historic district we happened on a lunchtime performance by the Dancentre South Company at the Footlight Players Theatre, and an exhibit of works from the ‘70’s and ‘80’s by artist Terry K. Hunter and a wine tasting at the market Street Winery. We were exposed to some extreme architectural contrasts in the Customs House and the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge.
Terry K. Hunter was on exhibit in the lobby.
Column detail.
Crossing the Cooper River
At one time it was not considered proper for ladies to entertain company when their husbands were not in residence. When plantation owners returned from trips to the islands they would put a pineapple on display at the entrance to their property as an indication that they had returned home and it was time to party.
Charleston is always ready for a party
Cooling down
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