Enjoying the Islands

* Beaufort, SC to Fernandina Beach, FL *

* Ladys and Amelia Islands *

* 190 miles – 3 ports – 1 anchorage *

Good to be back to Beaufort, we kind of like it here. We were greeted by one of our favorite dock masters Aaron at Lady’s Island Marina, enjoyed dinner at Dockside, a great restaurant, right at the marina, and called it an early night.

The Marsh of South Carolina

Lunch on board the following day had us splurging with a ½ brownie each for dessert. Ooey gooey oh so soft, it was good until Tasha heard crunch and felt something hard. It took us a minute to figure out what it was as it was covered in chocolate, but her crown fell out. Front right, can’t miss the hole when she smiles, tooth.

What the heck were we going to do?  Tasha tried using the harbor host network through our loopers group to no avail. One host actually laughed and said “What do you want me to do? Can’t you look up google on your own?” 

Yes, we can, but the question posed to them is “do you have a dentist you would recommend?” as Tasha really didn’t want to go in blind folded. We then asked the owner of the marina, and he shared a great referral of his dentist. We had an appointment for the following day, less than 24 hours after the incident.

Making our way to Beaufort the next morning, we crossed over the bridge linking Lady’s Island to Beaufort, the bridge in Forest Gump, where he is running, and the sign says Welcome to Mississippi. We would ride over that bridge daily and think of Forest.

The morning included a fabulous walking tour with guide Janet in Beaufort. Her knowledge, enthusiasm, and storytelling abilities made the best adventure. We walked along the waterfront, amongst grand southern houses, in the back door of two Inn’s and out the front, through a Church and its gravesites, and out front of a beautiful mansion that was commandeered in the Civil war to be a hospital. We met the mayor leaving his home, it seemed everyone knew our guide on our tours path. If you find yourself in Beaufort, you must join Janet’s walking tour.

Leaving the tour quickly, we hustled down a busy road on our bikes near the hospital to make it to the dentist office on time. We were met with a very accommodating, friendly staff and dentist. Evaluating the circumstances and concluding with a quick, temporary fix until Tasha could get home in December for a more permanent solution, has a temporary crown in and us on our way in less than an hour. And it didn’t break the bank.

Thankful for the referral and a dental team who would see an out of towner last minute.

We were preparing to leave the following day but were waiting on our ballots for our home election. Frustrated that they didn’t arrive, we delayed our departure another day. We don’t have many “extra” days in our schedule right now and didn’t really want to use one for a postal delay but pride ourselves both in voting in every election since we were granted the ability to at age 18.

We didn’t realize, but we needed the extra day to prepare for our next 10 days of travel. There is always something to do. And we waited for the mail to no avail. It’s amazing in a world of so many technologies that the pony express, one of the oldest business intuitions can’t deliver two envelopes 700 miles in a week.

On the bright side, we were able to head to the Fillin’ Station, and hit the $5, now inflated $8 burger night. With views like they have, it’s still a killer deal.

Tasha purchased a large envelope, put a bunch of postage on it and left it with our dock master Aaron and asked him to mail it on. Hopefully they can be delivered to New Smyrna Beach in a week – that’s only 275 miles. Certainly, it can beat us there on a slow boat to China (the ballots took eight days to reach Beaufort!).

We left Lady’s Island and Beaufort, in the darkness at low tide. We had one big hump to clear just outside the marina waters and before the bridge. The alarms went off and we saw the depth shallow to just 1.5 feet below or keel, and then it began to go up, we made it through. Just the prior day, a sailboat coming to our marina, ran aground and had to wait for the tide to raise them off. They sat for a couple of hours, something we had no time for. The tides in the Beaufort area and Georgia regularly swing 7- 9 feet, even higher with the King tides.

The Captain had timed our day out precisely for tides and a bridge south of Savannah that has very limited openings each day and we needed to be there at noon to get through and then spend the rest of our daylight getting as far south as possible to move away from winds coming in and our destination in Brunswick GA the next night. The rising tide came at the right time of day for our journey ahead.

It sure is a long drive through Georgia each time we head south on the interstate, but we will only be spending two nights in the state by water. Two very long days, but a quick state to navigate by water.

Passing Parris Island with the constant loud hum of the Cummins diesels, we heard a melody, faint, but wandering what alarm was going off on what device aboard the Now or Never. Upon further investigation, it was coming from Parris Island, it was their morning colors ceremony. The bugler playing the melody drawing us in, making us dam proud to be Americans. Again, bringing Tasha back in touch with her Dad and his time at Parris Island, and his love of our flag and country. Kurt always had a BIG flagpole in the front yard and flew our colors proudly.

Nearing Hilton Head Island, the dolphins came out in droves, morning feeding and frolicking, and following along the Now or Never. This will never get old to us, and we will keep telling you of our sightings.

We could see the iconic Harbor Town Lighthouse from a distance but would not be going near it as our travels would be taking us north of Dafuskie Island.

The day started off with cool water but quickly warmed with the sun after a few cool days in Beaufort, this was welcomed.

We tackled Hells Gate late in the day but much more prepared than on our trip up. Just past high tide, the captain maneuvered Now or Never masterfully through a sea of red on our charts at about 6.5 mph. Last time we crept through with the low water alarm continuously alerting us. Less stress this day. It was also a day of very little traffic. We saw maybe only three other cruisers the whole day, a few runabouts passed us and only one other looper on NEBO in a wide vicinity of us, keeping pace about 5 miles ahead.

After 72 miles, we found an anchorage on the Ossabaw River on Ossabaw Island for the night. We dined on Tasha made white chili and the best darn tomato pie from Lowcountry Produce Market & Café in Beaufort. We devoured large part of it and Tasha doesn’t even like tomatoes. This will make a tomato eater out of anyone.

Another long day was planned the next day along with winds coming in so it was early to bed to rise before the crack of dawn to weigh anchor and motor on to Brunswick, GA. This was our first night in Georgia, state #5 in 19 days. It was wicked dark at our anchorage. Tens of miles of marsh surrounded us and nothing else. It was an eerie darkness, the kind that you don’t want to start hearing banjos dark.

The following day would take us through 4 sounds on our 75 mile voyage. The sounds are the open inlets to the Atlantic Ocean in between the barrier islands. We travel the intracoastal in mostly protected waters except for these sounds and inlets. In Georgia, the sounds are larger leaving one exposed a few miles to the conditions of the ocean. The first mate always has trepidation in these areas as the waves and wind can really build up. A cold front was coming in, rain and wind building through the day, our hope was to get to Brunswick, GA before worst of it arrived.

We left before dawn, pulling up anchor with a flashlight and spotlight we were rewarded with a sky full of stars. What a show! Overnight had been calm, just how we like anchoring and the predawn spectacular. The wind was just starting to kick up and building easy 1-2 foot waves after a night of flat seas.

The seas were building all day and gusts of wind picking up each hour. When it was time to dock, they were roaring. Later we learned we docked at the height of winds and gusts. A crew of 4 from the marina were on the dock to help us in and we needed all of them. Backing into a slip beside a beautiful, large, Kadey Krogen didn’t help either. The winds were pulling us off the dock as the captain put her in reverse, too much for the bow thruster to compensate for. The first mate got the mid lines to the dock crew, but it was still pulling us off and our stern was headed towards the Krogen. Tasha had to run from the bow, down the spiral stairs to get the stern cross line to the third dockhand before running back front to get bow line. Whew, we made it in without disaster. We have a friend on our home dock, who always says, turn it off before you kill someone. The captain turned it off and no one died. The wind howled through the afternoon cutting across the Brunswick River hitting us on our port side. It then laid down for the night.

Brunswick Marina is known for its happy hours with free beer and wine. We arrived in time for happy hour and were ready for it. The libations were flowing as we arrived at the clubhouse to a few dozen boaters. We enjoyed meeting new people and engaging with a crew we met a few ports ago. Too tired to explore the area and there only one night we retired to the boat for soup and disappointed we know nothing about the area. Another time.

Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island was next on the itinerary. We’ve heard lots of good things about this island, and this would be our first visit. Our cruise took us by Jekyll Island two hours after low tide, not long enough after low tide. For a couple of miles, the captain zig zagged and crawled along the narrow, shallow intracoastal, we touched bottom once, put the boat in neutral and slowly coasted off. If one would have been watching from the beach, we looked like drunken sailors crawling along the waterway. Dolphins joined us again, it’s great being back in dolphin territory, like lots of dolphins. St. Andrews Sound needed to be crossed before getting to Amelia Island, our last crossing wasn’t Tasha’s favorite, as it’s a large sound and you have to venture way out into the ocean before heading back in to avoid any shoaling. This day was uneventful, and it was the epitome of pleasure cruising.

Leaving the shallows of Jekyll behind we cruised by Cumberland Island, a national seashore and home to over 200 wild horses. Unfortunately, we did not see any of the horses this day. As we crossed the Cumberland Sound on our way to Amelia Island (Fernandina), we were back in Florida. Our fifth state in 3 weeks and 164 days since we had left in May. Guess you could say the cruise North was a little more leisurely (3.5 months). In the past 164 days we have cruised 2591.9 miles.

Several days of cruising had Now or Never pretty crusty, let’s just say we found Jimmy’s lost shaker of salt! A thorough cleaning outside including the flybridge and aft deck had our boat less than salty and we were able to walk into town to catch Oktoberfest. It was their first annual and who doesn’t like a good Oktoberfest Prost! After enjoying Oktoberfest and dinner, we returned to the boat for a clear signal and David’s Saturday night Svengoolie show. Tasha read a book for a short time and then crashed. We were also treated to a beautiful sunset.

The marina is located in the heart of Fernandina, we were so close to this charming seaside village.

It is very walkable, but we wanted to explore a bit further and broke out the bikes and pedaled our way across the island. Encompassing over 30 miles in two days we visited Fort Clinch State Park meandering under the large live oaks that adorned the roadway. The only wildlife we saw was a snake slithering across the road.

The beach in the afternoon was bustling with activity and it was the first time in a while that that we felt that warm sunshine upon us. Welcome to the sunshine state! We enjoyed just sitting and soaking it all in.

As a young girl Tasha read the Astrid Lindgren stories of Pippi Longstocking, her pet monkey Mr. Nilsson, and her unnamed horse. What young girl couldn’t relate to the unconventional, superhumanly strong young girl? She lived in a house named Villa Villekulla and when they turned the book into a movie in the late 1980’s they used a house on Amelia Island as Villa Villekulla. Tasha had to make the ride to see it, David had never heard of Pippi Longstocking let alone cared about the house that was in the movie. But being the mister wonderful that he is, he went along for the ride. That’s just how he is. While Tasha never saw the movie (she was a bit old for it by the late 80’s), it was just as she imagined as a young girl reading the books. The homeowners gave a great nod to the history of the house and Pippi was featured on the front door. With a view of the intracoastal, what a fun house to live in.

One of us had the hair brained idea of riding to the beach for the sunrise and conned the other by throwing in breakfast on the way home. So, we took off in the dark of predawn (stupid) and made our way 4.5 miles in the dark to the beach. It was dark, hard to see, and more traffic than we hoped. Tasha only rode off the path once (about into a culvert), and the captain kept going indicating we were behind schedule. We made it (a tad late) but were treated to a magical time on the beach and the beautiful colors of dawn. The captain was treated to his favorite meal, breakfast. As we returned to the marina, the dockmaster indicated she saw us on 14^th street and knew we were boaters. We guess boaters are the only ones who would ride the funny, fold-up, clown bikes. She welcomed us home.

We’re not ones to miss out on watering holes, and we came across of few worth noting. A visit to Fernandina would not be complete without visiting the Palace Saloon, Florida’s oldest bar and sipping the pirate punch. Started in 1903, much of the original fixtures are still in place. You gotta love a place whose signature drink flows through a tap. It’s hard to describe pirate punch as they won’t tell you in anything that is in it rather than an orange slice and a cherry that you can see. Rumor has it they make 55 gallon batches each morning including the flavors of 7 -8 liquors. A patron at the bar told us two was the recommended amount to not be flat on your ass, but one did us just fine.

We ventured to the Amelia Island Brewing Company and were not disappointed, the food good and custom brews flowing. They provide custom crowlers bottled (canned) right in front of you. What a unique experience! We just may have gotten a few to go.

And another dive bar favorite was the Green Turtle Tavern with its big porch with a beach honky tonk vibe, live music, and adjoining Florida’s oldest hotel. With the bright sunshine and the warm breeze, we could get used to this.

Our island time respite came to an end all too soon, and we’re off on adventure moving southward and making memories.

Cheers!  David, Tasha,  

                  & Remy forever in our hearts!

 

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