After leaving Hilton Head, we stopped off in Savannah for a day. We took the overview trolley tour of this beautiful southern city. The city has been laid out in such a way as to have a series of 23 squares or parks set just a few blocks from one another. It makes for a lot of green space in the city. The homes and buildings are just beautiful. See the photo gallery for some pictures. The riverfront area is picturesque, but very touristy. The market area is vibrant but touristy, also.

After Savannah, we had several days of sunny weather, but very boring motoring through Georgia. In Georgia, there are lots of narrow spots to motor through, with range lines to keep you in the channel. Using a range line when it's in front of you is very helpful. However, when the range markers are behind you, it becomes more of a challenge to stay on the line. Sorry Georgia, but if I had to do this trip again, I'd go outside on the ocean rather than do the motoring we just did through your state.

Several nights ago, we stayed at perhaps the most beautiful anchorage since the Chesapeake, just off Cumberland Island. The Cumberland Island National Seashore is Georgia's largest and southernmost barrier island. We saw the most beautiful sunset, and then hiked on the island the following morning. The island was so wild and untamed in its beauty. We saw lots of tracks of birds, raccoons and wild horses during our hike on the dunes and beach. We didn't see any wild horses during our hike, but we did see one the day before while motoring down the coast of the island. Our hike was probably my best shell collecting adventure ever, and I've done lots of shell collecting over the years! The interior of the island was almost spooky, with its forest canopy of winding branches of live oak covered in Spanish moss and vines. The under layer was dense palms about 6 feet tall. As we walked through this forest, all sound was muted. We could only hear the sounds of our footsteps, and the swish of polyester pants! I whispered to John that my classroom had never been this quiet!

Later that day we hit a big milestone: we were finally in Florida, mile 715 of the ICW!!! We moored in Fernandina Beach and enjoyed a "day off" of the intensive motoring we've done over the last week or so. What's happening? We thought when we crossed the Georgia/Florida border that it was supposed to get warmer. We still needed our fleece sweaters, as another cold front passed through! I'm sure it will get warmer soon, won't it? Fernandina Beach is a mixture of old Florida town with lovely old residences and industrial Florida, with two plants (one is a pulp mill, the other I don't know) right on the side of the river. We tried not looking in that direction! On our walk to the grocery store, we saw at least 25 trucks filled with pines on their way to the plant. Makes me want to use less paper!

Yesterday we motored from Fernandina to Jacksonville Beach. This was another day of going almost 8 knots for a few hours followed by going about 3.5 knots for a few hours. In fact, the highlight (?) of the day was going under a bridge where the water flow was quite constricted, making for an increased current. We were against the current this time. Approaching the bridge our speed was about 3.6 knots. As we went under the bridge, there was a 2.5 foot standing wave in the middle of the bridge we had to power through. Through the bridge, our speed dropped to 1.5 knots with our RPMs squealing. I started to pray! At any rate, we did make it through, but my adrenalin was flowing through my veins for some time afterward.

Today we are making our way to St. Augustine, the oldest European settlement in North America. We hope to spend a few days visiting there. More on that later. Meanwhile, please make sure to look at some of the photos posted on this site.