Mike
11/28/2007, Alligator Creek, FL

Monday Nov. 26

Before I start on today's activities, it has dawned on us that there is not a blog entry for last Friday. We have been trying to remember what happened and can only come up with the fact that it was not a very nice day.... and that the wind and currents were combining to make our anchorage a little crazy with boats swinging into one another and people being on guard at all times. To the best of our recollection, we spent the day reading and relaxing.

Today we went to shore about nine to wash a couple of loads of laundry which wasn't easy with two washers and lots of people. Steve and I decided that it might be best to stay another night and leave at daylight in the morning, but when we checked with the marina our mooring was already rented for the night and they didn't have any others.

About one o'clock, there was a boat circling the mooring field looking for their ball which of course we were attached to... so we packed up and left and drove down the ICW about 10 miles and anchored in yet another marsh with about 4 other boats.

We intend to head for St. Augustine tomorrow.

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Mike
11/28/2007, Fernandina Beach, FL

Sunday, November 25

After organizing for departure, we said good by to the marshes of St. Mary's at about 9:30 and traveled about nine miles to Fernandina Beach, Florida where we took a mooring. It was another grey, cool and windy day . The sun tried to poke through in the afternoon but never really made it.

We went to shore to pay our $15 mooring fee and walked main street before returning to the boat about 5.

Our plan is to work south tomorrow afternoon and hope to get some laundry finished in the morning.

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Mike and Kathy
11/26/2007, St. Mary's, GA

Saturday...St. Mary's - November 24

Although we were planning on leaving here today and heading over to Fernandina Beach, which is about 9 miles away, it was cloudy and windy and not a day for moving. I took a bag of garbage over to the park and was shocked at the height of the tide. With a full moon approaching and easterly winds all night, the tide was about 3 feet higher that normal, covering parking lots near the water.

One of my items on the "to do list" is to get the oil changed soon. In fact, I began the process the other day only to find that there were no oil filters on Sapphire. Since there was a group going to Jacksonville today, I ask our neighbor Lenny to pick me up a couple. Then while listening to the Turkey Net, I found that Ken ( a local nice guy) was meeting a couple of guys to make a run to Walmart so I returned to the dinghy dock and rode along to pick up a couple of filters.

Meanwhile, Kathy was working on sewing up covers for our new jerry cans. When I returned from NAPA, we were off to town again to go to the Farmers Market... except that there was no farm produce. What they did have however were fresh shrimp, fish, and crabs. We replenished our stock of shrimp and purchased some stone crab claws which were highly recommended.

Returning to Sapphire, we ran into Helen and Doug from Morning Glory and were reminded of happy hour at five. Kathy spent the afternoon finishing the covers and I spent an hour talking to Mike on Valkyrie. Mike is from Maine and was kind enough to share some of his favorite anchorages.

Back on Sapphire we put together some small ham and cheese sandwiches to take to Happy Hour and headed to town. We had a nice time talking to folks. There are very few novices here and most of the people know each other . Although they are nice, it's a little weird constantly meeting new folks.

The wind was blowing and howling when we returned to the boat, but was down considerably before we went to bed.

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