May 15, we stopped at Jacksonville Beach Marina in Florida. As they were the local dealer for Raymarine electronics we stop there to get our chart Potter and auto pilot fixed. They got our chart plotter working much better than it was but still were on able to repair the auto pilot☹️... Captain Muttley did enjoy the trips to shore at this stop!
We continued moving north and during our travels (low tide)we ran aground right before entering fernandina beach. Our goal for this day was to make Cumberland Island at St. Mary’s however we decided to anchor off the paper plant in Fernandina add an Anchorage recommended to us by our friend Dean from s/v Autumn Borne. He was correct in two ways: that it was a good Anchorage, and there was a little stinky there! The paper plant really had a indescribable oder!
I also discovered we had a stowaway a board! That morning when I went out to check our anchor I Discovered “Freddy” the frog on deck eating bugs! He apparently has been with us since we started our trip (see-picture)
After leaving Fernandina and heading north we were soon approached by the US Coast Guard , A nuclear sub was coming out of Kings bay Sub Base with a Navy escort and they had to clear the channel of all boats. They asked us to wait out the passing in the Cumberland Island anchorage area which we did for approximately an hour and a half.
We finally pulled into our dock at Jekyll Harbor Marina where we spent the night awaiting a high tide to pass through Jekyll Creek. Today with our chart plotter acting up our boat buddy Lief Lomeland, s/v Freyja took the lead taking us to our present anchorage off Dolbow Island To stage for our passage tomorrow morning at high Tide through the little mud river.