We stopped at Port 32 in Jacksonville for a solid week to make final preparations for heading north and leaving Florida. We had the boat washed and waxed as it was so dirty after sitting in the brutal hot Florida sun on the hard. We had a leak into our cabin in the dining area and Pete did an awesome job cleaning out the old dried up cracked caulk and replacing it with brand new caulk. The next day it poured like crazy and his job held up! We picked up prescriptions and provisioned for our trip. We met Angie and Bill who invited us to Easter Service. We reconnected with Shelly and Ray from Shellerina who live at Port 32 half the time. And we met new Loopers, Josie and Robert. The Coast Guard was at the marina doing safety inspections so we took advantage of their service and we passed with flying colors.
A week later we went to Fernandina Island, our last stop in Florida. We walked around the old town and stopped at the Palace Saloon known to be Florida’s oldest saloon. There was a Trawler’s Group Gathering for the week so we met a lot of loopers on the dock. One looper was from Cincinnati and one was from Springboro.
Monday, April 13 we finally departed Florida and entered Georgia along the ICW. As we headed to Jekyll Island Marina, we were greeted by the largest pod of dolphins we have seen thus far. The dock hands were some of the best that we have encountered on the loop as well. They were very efficient and took our lines and tied us down promptly. One of them tied the line around the cleat like he was roping a calf. We borrowed a Golf Cart and drove around the island with a stop for coffee, ice cream, and a dip of the toes in the ocean. The old trees with the Spanish Moss were just beautiful and we rode rickety bikes back into town the next day to get some more pictures.
We left Jekyll Island and went to the town of Brunswick. We walked into town and had some delicious crushed ice concoctions 2 days in a row at the Vampire Penguin. The second night we celebrated our 49th anniversary and enjoyed a delicious dinner at the 1509 Restaurant. We had a mushy hose replaced on our Starboard engine/Frack by a young mechanic who lives on Dock 7 on his boat. He is known as a Live Aboard and so were many of the marina occupants. They live aboard their boat all year long and do not have a Dirt House.
April 17th we headed to the Sunbury Crab Company Marina which is another iconic don’t miss places on the loop. It was a very long day as we motored along the ICW. At times we were being pushed along with the currents and tides and then we would turn and the currents and tides were working against us. We arrived late in the day to the small Sunbury marina and the current was really flowing and pushing us along as we docked the boat. We walked along the dock and over to the restaurant. What a beautiful night!
The next morning the current was still flowing strongly as we left Sunbury and headed to Savannah. This segment of our loop along the ICW has proven to be narrower and shallower than what we have encountered before. Remember that the night before we depart, we always study the weather, the currents, and the tides. Well, Pete the pilot does! He especially checked it out as we were going to be passing through an area known as Hell’s Gate. This particular area is notoriously shallow and narrow and requires passing through at High Tide as there is shoaling, strong currents, and tidal ranges to deal with. Looking at the picture below, we had to follow the blue dashed line. Red is bad! Even orange isn’t great. There’s not much room for error and there was current pushing us sideways. We did it around 2 hours of high tide or it gets pretty low. As Pete said, it was about a third of a mile of “fun”.
I let Pete drive this section. 🙂