Fernandina Beach

 Thursday – May 19

We were up at 5 am to get ready to leave at 6 am in the morning for Fernandina Beach. It was a 48 mile trip and we have to get there before low tide which occurs at about 1:30 in the afternoon. We didn’t think we would have a current to push us along but we did. As we got close to Fernandina, we encounter an area that is very shallow. The Active Captain notes provided guidance for navigating this section of the waterway. We arrived 2 hours before low tide. Mark went in first on the inside of a long dock. We came in next.

 

After the boats were secured, we all went out to lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch, John helped Mark change his oil. During the time that they were down in the engine room a severe storm blew in. A dock master walked down the doc and told people to batten down the hatches because “multi-directional winds” were approaching. Becky told us about it and we got out of the engine room to check the boats. It had started to rain and the wind was howling. We quickly put 2 additional lines on our boat to double up, just in case. The storm was severe. A number of boats came to the marina during the worst of the storm. The wind was causing huge waves to pound the docks. Some of the boats had to just stay off the docks until the storm let up enough for them to come in. We were happy that we had beat the rain and were tied up.

This marina has a super long face dock. You can dock on the inside of the face dock and the outside. Bad weather was coming so we wanted to be on the inside. It turned out to be a great choice.

Mark and Becky are putting their boat up for the summer in St. Mary’s Boat Yard.  While Mark and Becky packed up their boat and did some boat prep, John and I did a little shopping in downtown Fernandina.

Pam wanted to buy this for me.

Fernandina Beach is a cute little town that is real close to the marina.  Before we returned to the boat, John and I went to Marlin & Barrel a local distillery.  We met Roger Morenc the nice gentleman who owns this with his wife.  They had a nice light Rum that we enjoyed. We bought a bottle and he added a little note and signed it…

Mark and Becky moved their things over to our boat since they are staying with’ us for the next few nights. We had a nice steak dinner on board to celebrate the ending of a great time together. Mark and Becky have been staying on the boat with us for the next few days because their boat is being packed up for them to go home. They have a beautiful home in Guttenburg, Iowa and love to spend the summer on the Mississippi River. They also have three, almost 4, beautiful grandchildren and hate to be away from them for too long.