Day 27 - 33/522 Statutory Miles: St. Augustine/Fernandina & St. Simons

We have checked off 3 more stops since our last update:

Day 27-29: St. Augustine is always a favorite stop and you can always count on the weather to be completely random.  This visit did not disappoint on any of the fronts.  We had weather in the mid 80's and sunny where we were sportin our shorts and flippy floppys and we had rain, gale force winds with a high of 45 the very next day.  Mr. B discovered the "magic" of bourbon @ the tiny martini bar.

Bourbon is Awesome!

After which we finally were able to dine at Catch 27. It is named Catch 27 for the fresh seafood they serve from the 27th state; the great state of Florida.  Dos Equis made an appearance at several local S.A. establishments.  You could even find him tending bar a few times.

At the Spanish ship El Galeon

Tending Bar @ JP Henley

Tending Bar @ JP Henley's Steak House

Finishing the night off @ Stogies

Then came the "weather"  clouds, rain & gale force winds joined us on Friday along with the Morgan's and we weren't certain that we would be leaving for Fernandina on Saturday, but what a difference a day makes...

Day 30 - 31 Fernandina:  Well the weather gods cooperated and calmed the winds down quite a bit from last night and we made the ride to Fernandina.  It took most of the day, but what a pretty ride it was, and we so enjoyed having Kevin & Laurie join us for this leg of the trip.

 Laurie grew up in Fernandina and gave us the insider tour of the town.  We visited the oldest saloon in Florida - the pink palace, which, by the way was the last saloon to close in American during prohibition.

The ladies brought Dos Equis to his knees @ the Palace Saloon

What a great little town this is!  I am sorry that we never took the time out to visit it before now.  It has the cutest downtown filled with shops and restaurants and even an antique store or two (making Mr. B very happy).  Dinner @ the Salty Pelican (not the Salty Duck) was amazing - we all had a pile of the freshest fish you could imagine.  The island is ~ 2 miles wide, so it was an easy bike ride to the beach.  Wrapped up the day with some peel & eat right off the boat and a beautiful sunset

Day 32 - 33:  As we looked at the next couple legs of our trip - there were a few places where we needed to pass closer to high tide than to low tide. Jekyll Creek & Little Mud River both looked like they could give us problems with our 4 1/2 ft draft, which could be solved with a slight change of plans - go to St. Simons rather than Jekyll Island.  So today our quick ride of ~ 4 hours to St. Simons Island, crossed us into the great state of Georgia.  Easy ride with the boat and we timed Jekyll creek mid a rising tide making this touchy passage a non event, which is just how you like it. Passing Cumberland National Seashore, the landscape started to change and get some contour.  As we passed the marshes on the backside, it looked like there were some large animals on the shoreline.  I couldn't make out what they were, but when looking through the binoculars - I was stunned to find out they were horses!  Pretty cool!

Morningstar Marina, just off the ICW in the Frederica River, will be our home for the next few days and is pretty very nice.  They showed us lots of southern hospitality, which I think is just the best. Staying here could really get me spoiled.

Yep - it's a newspaper & fresh muffins delivered to our door each morning

Great island for biking, walking & shopping.  There are bike paths on all of the streets. Downtown is located right on St. Simons Sound & the historic district is on the Atlantic Ocean.


Next stop is Savannah - Isle of Hope Marina.  "Where it all began"

Mobile link to St Augustine & Fernandina Pix
Mobile link to St. Simons Pix