Time Flies!!!

We've had an absolutely fabulous week cruising up the East Coast of Florida and Georgia. Tuesday afternoon found us in St. Augustine at the City Marina, which is a delightful facility right downtown. We enjoyed a good walk in the late afternoon, but with insufficient time to enjoy the trolley tour, so we'll save that for another time. Then a delicious dinner of she crab soup & caesar salad @ Harry's with Marsha & Bob Povey, dockmates in Charleston. They are aboard Threadbare and also headed to Ripley Light, but will get there several days before we do. We "found" each other as we were waiting for the Endeavor lift-off on Monday in the Indian River Lagoon.

After an initial attempt to go offshore on Wednesday morning, we returned to the Intracoastal for the journey to Jacksonville. The weather reports were for 1-2' seas and 5 knot winds, but we had 3-5' with 15 knots on our nose -- no reason to get beat up! We took the 30+ mile detour on the St. John's River into Jacksonville and the Florida Yacht Club -- a lovely trip that we had made last fall as well. And there, across the dock, was "Ellie C" with Robert & Glenn aboard, who had been our dockmates the night before in St. Augustine. Robert has a beautiful 40' Legacy where we all enjoyed a cocktail and then the Pirates' Grill @ FYC.

Thursday morning, following a tour of Ivory Lady by Bob & Glenn, they tossed us our lines and off we went headed for Fernandina Beach. Jacksonville has an active port -- and we encountered traffic that we were more than happy to "give way" to.

At Fernandina Harbor Marina, we checked in with the HarborMaster, whom we had met the night before at Florida Yacht Club. I'm sure you're getting the "way it works" by now -- meeting new folks on the water is a daily event and re-uniting later is great fun! We stayed in Fernandina two nights -- giving us a chance to clean & re-group/ as well as take on CREW!

Barb Sammis, a dear friend from St. Pete, joined us on Friday afternoon ready for a few days aboard The Lady. Bob & Barb have boated all their married life, so able hands as well as treasured time together have been superb!! Across the dock was "American Star" from the American Cruise Lines, a coastal cruise line that traverses the coastal waters and towns from Maine to Florida.

From the quaint town of Fernandina Beach (second oldest city in Florida), we headed for Brunswick GA, on Saturday morning - a ride of about 55 miles on Saturday. Taking the side trip into the East River to be "downtown" was a disappointment, but the marina is new, clean and delightful showers!

Sunday morning, early, we're off -- passing "American Star" docked in Brunswick, who obviously arrived during our trip into town or after we retired for the night. Good to see a "neighbor" again! Sunday was a long day -- about 80 miles -- traveling with the dreaded horseflies that are prevalent on the Georgia Coast. Barb & Jann spent a good part of the day attempting to reduce the population (~325 kills), but this likely didn't make a dent in the big picture! The coast of Georgia provides great entertainment -- as well as views like this one, where the shrimp boat appears to be gliding through the marsh.

We pulled into to a real experience at the Kilkenny Creek Marina about 3:30p. This was Georgia redneck country to the extreme! Delightful people and a very active marina with a lift for trailered boats rather than a ramp. With an 8-9 tide, ramps don't work well! With the rickety floating dock and the "local color", Kilkenny Creek had great charm and Ivory Lady will likely be visiting here again!

The sunrise over the marsh got Barb out of bed early and our journey began (as most do) a little before 8a. This is was a short day, as our destination was 45 miles into downtown Savannah. We're harbored right on Riverstreet in "Old Town" at the Hyatt dockside. Arriving about 1p, we had to "give way" again to a container ship headed out to sea. Savannah is the 4th largest container port in the United States and adds an exciting dimension to our stay here. Even with the heat, we walked Bull Street to Forsyth Park -- but returned for ice cream at Leopold's!! Dinner was on Riverstreet @ Boar's Head Tavern. And while we're dining at our windowside table, American Star arrives -- now we're wondering if we're being followed!!

Today is Tuesday -- and we had a delightful day, even though the heat was again to be 100 degrees!! Took the Old Town Trolley which provides a 90 minute narrated tour, including the Mercer-Williams House (home of Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil), architecture and history. By mid-afternoon, we've returned to Ivory Lady to escape the heat!!

Tomorrow is Wednesday -- and we'll have to say "adios" to our great crew, as Barb is headed for Annapolis to sync up with Bob and we'll be very sorry to see her go!! Ivory Lady is headed for Beaufort for Wednesday night and then on to Charleston on Thursday.