After a fabulous summer at our mountain haven - Dry Dock, Bill & I started our trek south on Monday afternoon. We left the cabin in the afternoon, stopped in Hendersonville to see dear friends, Larry & Nancy, and then headed to Ivory Lady. Tuesday was spent provisioning, cleaning and final preparations. Wednesday morning at first light, Ivory Lady and able crew began our journey south.
First day was 95 miles to Hilton Head - HarborTown Yacht Basin and a visit with friends from Marathon, Tom & Marie Smith. We had a great time at birthday party for grand-daughter Ansley (age 7) and James & Tammy (parents) and Deland & Braden (sister & brother). Marie is anxious to get out off the wheelchair and crutches -- the results of broken heel and fibula during our FCYC trip in September. Tom is anxious to get south -- way too cold for him in South Carolina in November!
Thursday morning, we pulled out of the slip at first light with a 111 mile goal to St. Simons Island. We pushed hard the first two days in order to get to Fernandina Beach on Friday -- Florida Petroleum is a great source for diesel - clean and about $.75/gallon cheaper than most. We planned to take on about 700 gallons, so it was worth the push!
Thursday was a gorgeous day -- it started out brisk but bright sunshine and gentle breezes made it a wonderful journey, arriving at Morningstar Marina about 3:00p. We were blessed with an incoming tide all day, which made for easy travel.
Friday was to be an "easy" day with only 40 miles to Fernandina. The weather had turned colder with gale force (force 5 winds) and significant cloud cover. Our morning was spent watching the charts closely, as we were on an ebbing tide until 11a. A beautiful Hatteras was ahead of us along Cumberland Island and apparently got just enough close to the side of the channel and ran hard aground. He graciously radioed us with caution - but we had no problems as we eased through the channel around him. Later this afternoon, we caught up with them here in Fernandina Beach -- he was only aground about 2 hours and did no damage to the vessel.
Fueling went well and we snugged into Fernandina Beach about 2p. We're here tomorrow when Judy Ambury joins us as crew for the week. Judy is good friend/family - daughter of friends Larry & Nancy Weir. We're excied about having her on-board as we cruise the East Coast. Sunday we'll be off to St. Augustine.
Took some great photos -- having trouble uploading, but hopefully I'll get it straightened out in the days ahead!.
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