Left St Mary's, our initial plan being that we would chug down to Fernandina Beach, grab a mooring ball, and spend a day there.
On the way, there were securite messages being broadcast on the VHF of a military convoy happening. From what we guessed, we were ahead of the pack, only seeing this Coast Guard prepping their position to keep a watchful eye on things.
This seemed like a popular spot for the locals.
and on the way there,
Once we reached the very bouncy mooring ball field by Fernandina Beach, and seeing what the fetch, winds and currents were doing to the boats there, and besides, it wasn't even noon, we looked at each other, and said, oh yeah, let's keep going.
in the 1800s Fernandina Harbour was a border town, with ships from all over the world converging here. The marshes were also a great place for the hijackers and illegal traffickers to hide.
Today we noticed Fernandina was crowded with shrimpboats.
Rightly so, I guess, as Fernandina is thought of as the birthplace of the shrimping industry. The shrimpboats trawl the waters all day, dragging their nets along the bottom, hoping to catch anywhere up to 500 pounds of shrimp a day and in fact almost 80% of Florida's Altantic White Shrimp are harvested off the waters of Amelia Island.
We motored by Amelia Island... (which, back in the days of pirates and all that, had been claimed by Louis Aury, and used as a base for slave trading operations). Ahoy mates, what have we here ?
It was grey and cold and windy, but that doesn't stop you from travelling... so onwards we went, heave ho !!
The names of places around here have a "spanish" feel to them.. Fernandina, Vilano, Ponte Vedra...
Given the cold brisk weather, the waterways were relatively empty of traffic. We continue to see dolphins swimming in the distance, the white pelicans on the shore, the herons standing still in the tall marsh grasses.
Hammocks are a type of Island in Florida, and just like the Inuit have many words for snow, in Florida there are many words for island. The determining factor being trees. If an island is covered with hardwoods (live oaks or pine), it's called a hammock. If the island has mostly mangrove or pine, then it's a key. If the island is covered in willow or bay, it's a "head". An island of cypressis a "dome". Oh, and an island created by canals and covered with houses is called a "development".
One of our plans was to anchor by Ft George Island (originally home to a spanish missionary ), however, once again, it was early and it just didn't "feel right" so we kept on trucking...
A nice ride for the afternoon, and we successfully got through the Sisters Creek Bridge, the friendly operator had us wait but a minute as he prepped to raise the bridge for us.
And then a surprise hail from Knot Yet. They were on their way to St-Augustine, and informed us that the marinas were full up due to the Light Festival happening here this weekend. Yikes, Thanks for that info Knot Yet !!
Since we couldn't make any informed decisions without stopping, it was getting dark, and so we made a hasty decision and turned down the St-John's River towards the Morningstar Marina in Mayport. The 4 knot current pushed us down and that's when we wished we had just kept going a little further.. oh well... on to the marina. We got ourselves diesel, water, and more importantly, some wifi.
Once again, The Universe, in its infinite wisdom was taking care of us. We double checked the weather (no outside passage thank you very much), found a marina in St-Augustine that had a slip for us for a couple of weeks, made reservations, and then planned on how we could get ourselves there before the ugly weather forecasted for Saturday.
And then as evening descended, we sat back, like the pelicans, and waited.