Leaving Florida
Sunday May 22
Left Fernandina Beach Harbor Marina at 6:30 AM. Short Vacation was in a rather tight fairway. It was pretty windy, with a little bit of current and we needed to have some help to get turned around and head out. Mark, Becky, and Craig Wolfe from Blue Heron were there to help us. We had a meeting of the minds on how best to maneuver Short Vacation to get out of the tight fairway, considering the wind and the current. John finally decided on the suggestion from Craig, to turn the boat around in the fairway and drive it out forward, rather than backing down the fairway. Mark, Craig and Becky handled the lines. Craig and Mark kept the bow line and helped turn the boat while keeping us from moving too far with the wind. In the end, it was a good call. We were able to turn the boat in very tight quarters with a current running one direction and wind blowing in another.
We are traveling with another DeFever. Cavara is a 1988 49 Pilot house owned by Barb and Don Cavin. We met them at Fernandina Beach and John told them we were traveling north and so were they. After some discussion we decided to travel together because they had been this way before. We hit it a really tight spot and some shallow water right in front of Jekyll Island. That was why we had to leave very early in the morning to have a high tide. We need the high tide to get thru.
We had to go by the Submarine Base across from Jekyll Island. You are required to stay a certain distance away from the area. There was a sub docked right there in the open.
To make matters a little dicey, there was a dredge right by the base and next to the channel. We had to get very close to the barge and the channel markers to determine where it was safe to proceed. All the while, a patrol boat motored back and forth watching us pass the area.
I assume these are sub tenders. You can see the patrol boat in front of them.
The structure below is a de-magnetizing station for the subs.
At the Brunswick Harbor entrance, it was time to split paths with Cavara. They continued on up the Intercoastal Waterway and we turned left and headed to Brunswick Landing.
Got into Brunswick Landing at around 12:30 PM. Brunswick Landing is about 2 miles up a canal with very deep water. Our friends Art and Pam from Tenacious were there and helped us dock the boat along with Matthew the dock hand. Art and Pam are leaving their boat here for three months while they go home to sell their house in Michigan. It was good to see them again since we hadn’t seen them since Fort Pierce back in the beginning of April.
Art and Pam bought a 58 foot Chris Craft Roamer hull (just the hull) , that had burned. They had the hull shipped to there home in Michigan and spent the next 10 years building this hull into the wonderful boat below.
Tom and Colletta on Greek’s Folly arrived in the marina and pulled into the slip next to us. They are headed to the Chesapeake Bay like us so we will travel together for a while. We traveled with these two on our way over from Fort Myers to Fort Pierce. It will be fun to join them again.
Mark and Becky came over shortly after we docked and brought our van and their van to Brunswick Landing. They decided that since they had finished everything on their boat, they would just start for home a day early instead of staying on our boat for another night. We had a great times with these two in the last five months. They were our dockmates and our mentors. We enjoyed a lot of dinners, docktails, cruising miles and adventures with these two. They have become great friends and we will miss them a lot.
Mark and Becky with John