Don't know if the brush fires around here have made the national news or not, but they are real. The winds are blowing hard now and I have seen gusts up to 35 kts and the air is pretty smokey. I saw a news report of two forest fires that are being fought and it must be pretty bad. The good thing about being on a boat is there aint no brush around me to burn. Hope nobody gets hurt. I was planning to be in doing laundry by now but decided to wait until things calm down a bit.

Went ashore today with the bike and did some riding around. What a great way to see a lot of places in a relatively short period of time. Went to see the light house on Anastasia Island (it is working and also a museum) and got a great view of the surrounding area from 165' up. Rode over to see the fort (Castillo De San Marcos) toward the end of the day but they were closing so I will go back tomorrow. I am anchored right next to this place, and I thought, "How cool is this?" Well, I'll tell you how UNCOOL it is. After I pulled in and dropped anchor yesterday and went to bed at 1000 after staying up all night, I was awakened to a huge explosion at about 1330. I thought it was the guys working on the bridge next to me using dynamite. My friend Joe told me (after laughing his ass off) that it was a reenactment at the fort and they shoot off a cannon. They do this several times a day, so this is NOT the place to anchor if you are trying to sleep at that time.

I am going to hang around here through Monday. From Tuesday through Thursday, I am planning to make my way to Savannah. There are several combinations of stopping off points, and it all depends on the weather, but it will probably be something like sail to Fernandina Beach, GA (60 miles) Tuesday, and then maybe an overnighter the rest of the way (130 miles) Wednesday/Thursday. I can always pull into a place called St. Simmons Sound which is about 35 miles from Fernandina Beach if I don't feel up to that long day, and then do an abbreviated overnighter the rest of the way. The weather is the biggest variable, but also how well rested I feel at the time. We'll see ...

Here are a few pics and I think the captions pretty much tell the story.