Day 110 busy day in Brunswick, GA

We set off at 8:15 am on the electric scooters for a 2 mile trip to West Marine and Winn Dixie Grocery. At West we got a new switch for the aft bilge pump. We had diagnosed the problem yesterday (switch and pump are separate). Then a "few" groceries for the boat. When we got back, we went next door to the weekly Farmer's Market on the waterfront next to the marina.

The market was in a covered picnic area (first picture). Also, there was quite a pretty reproduction lighthouse next to the market.

There was also a large model of a Liberty Ship, which serves as a memorial to the 16,000 men and women who built 99 of these in Brunswick during WW II. After returning to Lucky Us, I went back to bed, but before she could join me, the Admiral got a call that her new glasses were ready. Lucky me! - she went and picked up the new glasses while I slept!

At Noon it was time to change into our TAMU maroon shirts and get ready to watch the Aggies play Rice on ESPN. The aTm flag proudly flies from the radar mast (just below the Texas state flag). Yes, we are hooked up to cable at this marina, and in case you've forgotten, we have both 32" and 24" digital TVs on Lucky Us. Aggies won 52-31. Whoop! After the game we walked two blocks to the restored historic main street for dinner

Both on the way to dinner and on a different route on the way back, we passed two local theaters, and both of them had (live) plays tonight. We chose the "Boeing Boeing" production at the Brunswick Arts Theater. For local theater, this was an excellent production. Here we are pictured in the lobby during one of the two (short) intermissions.

Well, it was a long, busy but FUN day, and oh yes, did I mention that the Aggies won!!! (ha, ha)

Day 109 to Brunswick Landing Marina

Before departing from Jekyll Island Marina, we took our scooters on a tour to the south end of the island. The trip was 11 miles, which exceeded our normal 8 mile range. Six weeks ago we had purchased a backup set of batteries, but thanks to the Admiral who rewired the scooters to accept a second set of batteries (green plastic containers on rear platform), we were able to do the trip with "electrons" to spare. The trip was well worth the effort!

Near the end of the island we passed the fishing pier complete with a roof. The bike trail was along the waterfront and crossed several marshy areas as well.

This trip had been recommended by several locals who said that we should not miss the beautiful driftwood that had been used in scenes for several movies.

Personally, I found the driftwood to be not only beautiful but also useful...

We saw lots of birds including black skimmers. A first for us was this horseshoe crab.



We returned along the Atlantic side of the island where we were treated to some wonderful views of dunes, the ocean, etc. Then it was time to return to Lucky Us and continue our journey northward...

Our trip to Brunswick, Georgia was only 10 miles, but we got some different views of Jekyll Island along the way. Here is the Jekyll Island free (for day use) pier with Latitude 31 Restaurant where we ate dinner the night before.

We also got a great view of the Jekyll Island Club. When we reached the north end of the island, we turned to the west and headed up the Turtle River to Brunswick. We arrived at Brunswick Landing Marina at 1:20 pm, which is right on the edge of the old downtown. Our early arrival left plenty of time to explore part of the town. We were able to order a new pair of glasses for the Admiral (to be picked up tomorrow), and then we went to see the new movie "Getaway". I will carefully phrase my words to reflect our summary of the movie. It had lots of action but little redeeming value...



Days 107-8 Two days at fabulous Jekyll Island

Two full days at Jekyll Island is not enough! Today Jekyll Island is owned by the state, but when the Jekyll Island Club (picture) opened in 1888, the exclusive limited membership of 50 consisted of many of the world's wealthiest families at the time. The list included names like Henry Hyde, Marshall Field, John Pierpont Morgan, Joseph Pulitzer, William H. Vanderbilt and several Rockefellers. They say that if all members were present at one time that it represented 1/7 of the world's wealth. The "Club" lasted only 54 years, but all of Jekyll Island is now a National Historic Site owned by the state of Georgia. They have preserved much of the original beauty and charm. There are few roads with limited access to most of the island, which is about 7 by 1.5 miles. Each member was allowed to build a "cottage".

The cottages were plain by the owner's standards, but the ones that we visited had 6 or 7 bedrooms upstairs with kitchen, butler's pantry, library and separate sitting rooms for men and women. It was a place for families, and women even hunted, fished, etc. Not all members built cottages, but they were able to stay in the big club building. Golf became popular here in the early 20th century, and there are now 63 holes.

We had lunch (less formal) in the Club where they still have live music at high tea and more formal dinners. The grounds are beautiful, but some buildings, such as extensive accommodations for staff and servants, are long gone.

 

The church (above) was quite beautiful, and not all of the "cottages" were plain. This is one of several Gould houses.

The Admiral (Teresa Gould Spang) found all of this interesting. However, these Gould's must be from the "other" side of the family since our guide referred to them as railroad (robber) barons...

Here we are sitting in a child's electric toy car from the early 1900s. At the insistence of the women, a small steam power generator was ultimately build, but the island remained a relatively rustic getaway spot.

As I said, access by car is still fairly limited, but they have wonderful, wide new walking and bike trails. This picture shows one of the boardwalks over a marsh. Before we leave in the morning, we plan on taking about an 11 mile ride around the northern end of the island on our electric scooters. On the Atlantic side there are miles of public beach and several new resort hotels, but the natural landscape is still preserved

So, what else did we do/see?

This picture shows part of the view from dinner this evening where broiled Mahi Mahi was the "Catch of the Day". Our marina has an excellent (small) pool and whirlpool. We also did a lot of regular maintenance type jobs on the boat so it was nice to jump in the pool after a stint in the engine room.

We rode along the ocean side several times on our scooters, and here we are on one of those trips. Today, we had lunch on the beach and went swimming several times. The beach here is real (quartz) sand as opposed to the famous white sand (broken sea shells) of Florida. I like real (quartz) sand beaches, but the downside here is that the sand in the water is quite muddy. The "mud" is washed out from the beach sands, and it makes the bottom just offshore kind of "squishy" with the mud/sand mixture...

I will close with one last picture of the beautiful sand dunes with the Atlantic Ocean in the background. Whoop!

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Day 106 onward to Jekyll Island, Georgia

We left Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, FL at 8:30 am bound for Jekyll Island, Georgia. Yes, after 87 days in Florida, we finally left and entered he Peach state of Georgia. As usual, it was not quite that simple. I docked and undocked three times each today. As we left the marina, we went to the other end of the dock for a pump out. Then we went to a commercial fuel dock for 436 gallons of diesel fuel. Their price was nearly $0.50 per gallon cheaper than most marinas, and we were able to sign a form stating that we were leaving Florida so that they could waive the 7% sales tax. Thus, we saved a lot of money! Then, we set off north to Georgia just a few miles away.

Fort Clinch at the North end of Amelia Island protected the channel out into the Atlantic. The fort was very large, and as you can see in the picture below, their cannons had a clear shot all of the way across the harbor.

You can see the white spots in the ends of the barrels where they have been filled with cement. We went part way out the channel to get these pictures, and when we turned around to go back to the IntraCoastal Waterway, we were immediately "surrounded" by four 25 foot Coast Guard boats. It turned out that they were divided into pairs, and they were training on how to overtake and stop a vessel. It was quite a show with machine guns manned, etc. Fortunately they were chasing each other and not us, but it was still a relief when they all waved... A short distance further up river, we passed a nuclear submarine base, which had more (and larger) patrol boats coming and going everywhere. They were dredging the channel into the base, and at one point we had to go VERY close to one of the docks to avoid the dredge. We went slow and followed all of the channel markers, but it was still a little unnerving... However, just for good measure, I did walk out on the fly bridge and looked up, smiled and waved just in case there were any spy satellites going over.

We arrived at Jekyll Harbor Marina about 2:00 pm after our trip of 33 miles. The last 2/3 of the trip were in coastal salt marsh with virtually no signs of civilization. It was one of the nicest part of our whole trip so far. Scenic, remote, beautiful weather, etc. Jekyll Island is remote, but it has long been a vacation destination. In spite of this, it has very few homes and hotels. So, it has retained a lot of its original charm. The marina has a very nice pool and whirlpool, which accounts for the 'happy face" on the Admiral.

Low key is the operative word(s) around here.

Here is the view of the marina office, restaurant and pool from our dock. Everything is tucked back in the trees, but there are still lovely views from the restaurant and pool. Very nicely done!

We will be here for three nights as they have a Summer Special of three nights for the price of two. We are about 0.8 miles from the beach and a little over a mile from the old downtown so we plan to start exploring tomorrow.

This was just after sunset tonight taken from Lucky Us. You can see the highway bridge from the mainland on the right. Yup, the beauty of this place seems quite extraordinary...

   

Day 105 A full (and busy) day in Fernandina Beach

Day 105 marks the end of 15 weeks on our voyage. Whoop!

First, a train picture for Grandson Will who is crazy about trains (and trucks and...). There are only about 2 trains per day for the paper products plant. The tracks run along the waterfront. The picture also shows the restaurant where we had dinner (no trains). I had my first ever salad with fried oysters on it for dinner. Pretty good and definitely different.

On the way downtown for lunch, I met a new friend. It turns out that he is also the symbol for the local high school athletic teams. We ate lunch at a small cafe specializing in seafood. I had the "Catch of the Day" broiled fish sandwich. I try to avoid eating much bread, but this sandwich was quite good.  Then after lunch, we loaded up the electric scooters and headed 2 miles due East across Amelia Island to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean where I tried my hand at body surfing...

As far as my body surfing goes, the start (shown here) was much more graceful than the finish (never to be shown). The winds from yesterday were still strong enough to generate some decent waves, and the water was about 85F so we had a good time

The Admiral looks like she might be cold, but she is just seeking protection from the wind and blowing sand. The beach was still the famous Florida white sand, and with most local schools back in session, it was practically deserted. Definitely a highlight for the day!

I could or should have titled today's post as "Admiral's Birthday Celebration -Day 3"... When we walked to dinner, we just happened to take about a 5 block detour to do some shopping. Here is the Admiral sporting a big, happy smile and showing off a shopping bag full of clothes.

I do believe that the Admiral's birthday celebration can now be called a success!

Tomorrow we are leaving Fernandina Beach (as well as Florida) and heading north. We both really enjoyed Fernandina Beach (and Amelia Island) and would gladly have stayed longer. However, Florida has a 90 day rule. If we keep the boat in Florida for more than 90 days in any one year period, then we would have to pay tax on the value of the boat and register it in Florida, and we are very close to the limit.

Day 104 to Amelia Island (Fernandina Beach)

We bid a fond farewell to Ortega Landing (and Jacksonville) and headed down the St. Johns River to the IntraCoastal Waterway. The tide was going out so we "flew" along at nearly 10 mph. Our trip for the day was 47 miles with about half on the river and half going north on the waterway. After about an hour, the wind suddenly picked up to a brisk 15+ mph out of the northeast as a front came through as a dry, high pressure area with cooler air. Since our trip was east down the river and then north along the waterway, we were basically going into the wind. Since we were in narrow bodies of water, the waves were small, but the noise from the wind vibrating the fly bridge enclosure was pretty loud/annoying.

Our destination was the town of Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island. Fernandina Beach is the northernmost town on Florida's east coast. The waterway went through large areas of salt marsh with numerous small stream channels. Thanks to the early arrival of the railroad, Amelia Island has long been a resort area. However, by today's standards, it is somewhat isolated and has retained much of its nineteenth Century charm.

The first photo is of Main Street, which has over 25 restaurants and many stores in about 7 blocks. The Admiral really wanted to take my picture with this old anchor, and quite frankly I am worried that she has plans that involve both me and the anchor....



     We visited four stores and had dinner on the outdoor patio at a Mexican restaurant. We plan on staying here at least 2 nights so I can see us sampling several other restaurants as well as taking a swim in the Atlantic Ocean.

After dinner, we walked back through a local neighborhood , and passed many beautiful old homes. I particularly liked this one with a octagonal corner porch with carousel horses on the rails. We definitely plan to do more exploring on the electric scooters tomorrow.

The sunset over the mainland to the west was very pretty. Incidentally, when I said earlier that we were far north on Florida's east coast, I was not kidding. That mainland to the west is actually in the state of Georgia...

Day 103 "It's all about the Admiral"

...it should be all about the Admiral on her birthday!!! The birthday greeting from the grand kids (Sarah, Will and Katie) certainly was the highlight of the day. Otherwise, it was the Admiral's day to do whatever she wanted. It turns out that one of those things was to go to Sam's Club WITHOUT me. It seems that I have a bad attitude about going there... Anyway, I will chalk that one up to a win-win for both of us.  She put the pick up in good use loading it up with cases and cases and cases of water.  It also made it easier to deal with the scooter when returning the pickup. 
     Otherwise, it was a quiet day, but we did manage to have another birthday dinner (the second one) at the Longhorn Steakhouse.

Yup, it is a lousy picture, but it was hard trying to find a spot to have our picture taken that did not have a "Longhorn" in the background...

Happy Birthday Terry. I love you!

Day 102 Whew! generator started on first try

We finished replacing the fuel solenoid on the generator, and it started on the first try. After diagnosing the problem, ordering the new part and having to get new mounting bolts, I was more than a little nervous when we tried to start the generator. Here I am emerging from the engine room with the old solenoid. I hope that I look happy (and relieved) because I am.

The big event of the day was a Pre- Birthday adventure with the Admiral. We went shopping, to the movies (Blue Jasmine) and then out for a "light" dinner. Why a light dinner? Well, you have to remember the movie popcorn... However, we did share a piece of birthday cake.

...and tomorrow the celebration will continue! Happy (almost) Birthday Terry!



Days 100-01 We've got mail...

Yesterday (Day 100) we loaded the dingy onto its "home" on the swim platform before leaving Green Cove Springs because we do not anticipate using it for a few days. We covered the 25 miles to Ortega Landing where we had left 10 days earlier to go up the St. Johns River. Our round trip from Ortega Landing to Sanford and back was about 280 miles, which does not include dingy trips of perhaps another 25 miles. In cooler weather when we would not need to run the generator for AC, we could easily have spent several more weeks exploring. In short, I think that it is likely that we will come back here again...

We arrived at Ortega Landing Marina about 12:45 pm just as the rain started and also just in time for a nap. We did have mail waiting for us at the marina. Our snail mail address for the town house in League City is actually a UPS Pack and Mail Store. Whenever, we can plan far enough ahead, we have them forward the mail. We also had ordered a part for the generator, and it had also arrived. Then we took the electric scooters to Enterprise Rent-A-Car to pick up, of all things, a rental pickup truck. I'm not sure about the significance of renting a pickup other than it is the Admiral's birthday on Sunday. Could I be in for a surprise or perhaps trouble??? Well, we then went out for dinner and then a movie. "We're the Millers" is really funny although the language was often crude. The movie theater has 20 screens, but it is over 10 miles away, which is well outside the range of our electric scooters. The movie ended at about 10:00 pm so it ended up being a long day.

Day 101 (today) started a little later than normal as we both slept in a little. Then it was down to the engine room to start installing the new solenoid for diesel fuel shutoff for the generator. Of course, after an hour or so, we needed to go to West Marine and ultimately Ace Hardware for some additional bolts, washers, etc. Along the way, we happened upon a Mexican restaurant just in time for lunch. Later, we went to the movies again and saw "The Butler", which was long but quite interesting from a historical perspective.

We plan to spend 2 more nights at Ortega Landing Marina before we start our journey north up the Atlantic coast.

Day 99 to Green Cove Springs Marina

First, let's start with a picture taken very early this morning at Georgetown. The picture was taken from Lucky Us showing the full moon reflecting in the St. Johns River with the dingy at the bottom. Both of us stayed up way too late last night so the day was a really laid back trip enjoying the wonderful scenery. We covered the 61 miles in about 7.5 hours. We made good time partly because we had a 1+ mph down stream current until we got to Palatka, which was the stop on our first night on the way up river. Then below Palatka, the river widened out to about a mile and we "lost" the current so we slowed down from 9.3 to 8.0 mph.

There is a high fixed bridge across the river in Palatka, and it was under going an inspection. There is a truck out of view on top of the bridge. The truck has 3 arms -one out, one down and one in under the bridge. There were 2 men in the bucket at the end of the arm, and one of them was relaxed enough to wave... As for me, I would put this job on my "no way" list. Anyway, I resisted the temptation to blow the horn... Nationally, we hear so much news about unsafe bridges that it was interesting to see one actually being inspected.

This picture shows Lucky Us at the dock at Green Cove Springs (City) at Reynolds Marina. The pier is indeed very high off the water (about 10 feet). Why so high? Well, this city took over an old Navy dockyard. There are eleven 2,000 foot long piers that are about 500 feet apart. They have a lot of room for expansion to perhaps 3,000 boats. Well, somebody is thinking big!

Okay, so these are "trick' pictures with the dock cleat (above) and the bollard (right) in the foreground and Lucky Us in the background looking tine. However, for scale the dock lines are 3/4 inch 3-strand nylon line. These are the biggest lines that we have, and they were purchased mainly to use during hurricanes. They do look small don't they. I don't know about battleships, but the Navy did bring aircraft carriers in here at one point.

   Tomorrow, we plan to go back to Ortega Landing Marina 25 miles downstream where we will complete out 11 day trip up/down the St. Johns River. It has been beautiful and FUN! 

Day 98 to Georgetown Marina

Here I am walking down the dock at Hontoon State Park as we prepare to leave for Georgetown some 42 miles down river. We took two "detours" on old cut offs of the river channel. Today we managed to pick wider channels than the one yesterday, and on one we saw this lovely house back around the bend of the river.

This house is totally invisible from the main channel, and it has this great view of a totally pristine river. Back out on the main river we also had miles of travel with absolutely no development, except for the occasional channel marker... 

Today's trip was 42 miles, and the last 10 were across Lake George. The lake is fairly large at 10 by 5 miles. About 2 miles out in the lake, we left the main channel to go over to the west side of the lake where another fresh water spring flows out into the lake. We had to anchor about a quarter mile off shore so that we could take the dingy (literally) into the spring. As I was turning the boat around and the Admiral was using the windlass to lower the anchor, we both managed to "forget" that we were towing the dingy and backed into the tow line. Yup! My worst nightmare - getting something caught in a prop... There was lots of good news in all of this. First, it was only one propeller, and we could have gotten safely to a marina on the other engine. Second, we were safely anchored in warm (90F), calm, shallow water. I decided to use my goggles and have a look at the ropes. It took several dives under the stern, but I was some how able to cut the right line and unwrap them without too much trouble. 

The picture show me holding the 3 pieces of rope from the propeller and shaft. The worst part was the St. Johns River and the connecting lakes are all "black water" or very dark red in color with virtually no visibility. This means that I had to do the work by feeling my way around. I do think that next time (and someday there will be one) that I will break out the scuba air hose for this kind of job.

Once again, there were lots of birds. The Admiral managed to get this closeup of a Red-shouldered Hawk. It was on a piling at the head or landward end of the pier where we were docked at Hontoon State Park.

We had our usual collection of "unusual" sights as well, such as this MG parked on a pontoon boat the has been lifted out of the water. They stopped making MGs back in 1980 so this is probably fairly valuable. I guess that if you are going out of town and don't want your car stolen, then this might be a doubly safe way to store it???

Georgetown and the Georgetown Marina are on the St. Johns River right at the north end of Lake George. This picture shows Lucky Us at the dock and was taken from the dingy as we headed off to a restaurant that was recommended by the marina. The restaurant sign on the dock said that they were open from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm so we docked and walked ashore to the restaurant only to find that they were closed on Mondays...

Well, it has been that kind of day... However, we did pass this cabin with grass/weeds growing on the roof. Too bad it was not for sale as it would be a real "fixer upper".

As we arrived back at our dock for dinner aboard Lucky Us, this was the view back toward Lake George with a (small) full moon just over the horizon on the left. Finally, a very pretty ending to a less than perfect day. In spite of the bumps in the road, we are thankful for each and every day on this fantastic trip!