4/17-18
We spent the day washing the salt off of the boat. Carl ran the generator to top up the batteries and I vacuumed the inside. We took an Uber to Palms Fish Camp for dinner. Carl had shrimp and grits and I had the seafood pasta. It was yummy! The next day we met some more people coming in for the storm. We were enjoying the beautiful weather and the scenery. Lots of birds and fishermen on the docks. The noseeums were bad until the breeze picked up. Thank goodness for Iguana oil. It really works! Beth and Peter drove from Jacksonville to see us. They brought gifts of ice, bread, and chocolate chip cookies! Yum! What great friends we have! We met Bob 423 and his wife on S/V Fleetwing. We have been "following" him for years. He charts water depths on Active Captain and now ,after 15 years of traveling the ICW, Bob has written a book and we have downloaded his tracks to follow. I thought we should wait for them to leave first so we could literally follow them through the shallows of Georgia.
4/19
I am glad that we decided to wait here, tied to the dock, for the storm to come through. This was a big one, moving across the entire east coast. We had gale force winds and rain. Just before the storm, around noon, we moved our boat forward and the boat behind us, back to allow for more room for one more boat. It was challenging with the wind and the current. The dock was full of boats waiting out the weather. The winds howled for hours and after the worst was over, it continued to rain all afternoon. I baked an apple cobbler. The weather cleared at dinner time and the sun came out for the sunset.
4/20
We were up early. After our coffee we were ready to leave. We were the first off the dock at 8 a.m. It is a beautiful day. Clear, breezy and much cooler (60). The winds were gusting to 32 knots across the grasses of the flat lands and the water is choppy. The winds were 25 gusting to 37 with white caps, around Amelia Island and finally settled back to 20 around Cumberland island. I managed to spot some dolphins between the waves and I searched the shoreline for wild horses. The winds are 15-20 here. We were making great speed with the tide here....up to 9.5 knots.We didn't see any submarines at the Kings Bay naval station today. The winds were back up to 30-35. It was really rocking and rolling on St. Simons Sound. We literally blew onto the dock at Jekyll Harbor marina at 4 p.m. We are going up to the restaurant here for dinner. I saw a jalapeño margarita on the menu. I just might have to try that!