Charlston - Fernandino Beach, FLORIDA

Fernandino Beach Harbor

Check out the house, tree and gardens

Well this week finds us in the northernmost part of Florida ... 450 miles or so to go..
We seem to be averaging about 250 miles per week with 4-5 days out on the hook and 2 days at a harbor, so we can stretch, provision and recharge the boat and "our" batteries.
Highlights this week:
- issues with low water, several soft groundings but able to get unstuck...   One grounding was particularly bad and I ended up hitting the wheel but Joanne ended up halfway down the companionway, lost her wind and has a sore rib cage. No bruising but tender.. Tides are high here about 8'  with 2 -  3 knot currents. We are averaging about 8 knots when running with the current and try to not drop below 5 knots  when going against it. Currents change direction whenever we cross an opening to the Atlantic. The ICW runs anywhere from 0- 5 mile s from the Atlantic. We try to stay in the 1600- 2000 RPM range to get about 8 miles /gallon of fuel.
We have been keeping an eye on Hurricane Fay and Gonzalo.. appears they are heading out to Bermuda, so no real immediate concern.
We went through Beaufort, Georgia, Port Royal, Savannah and last 2 nights in Fernandina Beach, Amelia Island, FL. King's Bay submarine facility.As mentioned tides are high, we anchored off Jekyll Island  in low tide and actually ended up moving the boat after 2 hours when we saw only 1 foot under the keel. To be safe we moved out 20 yards or so into deeper water for the night. As it goes, the wind was high that night , constant 15 knots with gusts to 20plus. Next morning when we weighed anchor , we found ourself on the bottom. Boat  moved off the bottom , by giving some power and by my me healing it over to the side a bit.
Other interesting point with tide was anchoring up some river off the ICW at low tide, to find 3-4 hours later, the river twice as large and the area not looking anything like it did when you anchored.
Many dolphins, eagles, herons, osprey, egrets, saw our first pink flamingo's... but no gators yet.
Family celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday... we called home and wished everyone a great day...
Till next week.

House in South Carolina

Typical anchorage at Low tide

Ocean going freighter

Submarine

Fernandino Beach