Eyes on the Road

Anchored off Fernandina Beach, Florida. 
About to cross St Mary's Inlet into Georgia

Three days north of St Augustine found us safely out of Florida and up river in a sheltered Brunswick.  Tied to a transient dock.  With electricity and water, no less.  Bliss, when you’ve spent 9 hours travelling 50 miles daily along a narrow ICW corridor of lakes, rivers, and canals that can come with surprises all of their own, especially when crossing inlets.  And we’ve lost count of those… 

Well, it was a sun trap until the morning we left in 1⁰C

Brunswick Landing is a wonderful sun-trap. It is boater friendly and best of all, they have an easily accessible supermarket a few blocks over.  Our marina plan is usually to stay 3 nights.  By the time we arrive, often late in the day, then complete check in formalities, find conveniences, set up electricity and water connections and perhaps refuel (to save time on departure), our first night is chalked up.  Our two days were otherwise busy, spent washing clothes, shopping for groceries, reporting in to the Coast Guard, and fixing broken boat bits.  At least we were able to exchange a few good books in the Sailor’s Lounge and have long, long hot showers to get our blood circulating.  

Anchored in the marsh off Bear River, in Georgia.
Can you see the white mast of a cat anchored further round the bend?

Squeezing our way through some serious
bridge constructions at Thunderbolt

Getting to our first stop in Georgia had been something of an ordeal.  We managed to sort out our nav problems at St Augustine and were now glued to the blue dotted line (Bob423 overlay on Aqua Maps) following Bob’s good guidance.  The weather had other plans, and after those few sunny days in St Augustine, it was now somewhat wild and wooly, hitting lows of 1⁰C.  Crossing the St Johns River at Jacksonville, we’d encountered a nasty storm with rain, and strong, chilling winds up to 31kts.  At least the bridge with furious eddies was kind to us this time – we luckily, had arrived at slack tide.  And we didn’t bump into submarines crossing St Mary’s River Inlet either.  Always a bonus. 

Not exactly flattering, but at least we're warmish.
 (The Cap'n reckoned this pix will scare small children!)

All this cold weather was enough to send us ferreting for our down sleeping bags and jackets.  On any given day now, we are wearing up to 4 layers – long john thermals, tracksuits with hoodies, puffy jackets, wet weather gear.  All topped off with a fashionable beanie or two.  And you all thought this was fun!!

With quite the audience, unhappy at the disturbance, at some bridges