Beyond Georgetown

We departed Georgetown and headed further southeast to Thompson Bay, Long Island. The distance was about 33 miles over the Great Exuma Banks in water that ranged from 20 to 8 feet. We could see the bottom, which was mostly just sand as though we were looking down in a swimming pool. The trip took us about 5 hours. There wasn't much wind and we had to motor sail the entire way. This was the first good weather window in a week and there were about 20 boats heading this way.

When we arrived at the Thompson Bay area we went first to the Long Island Petroleum dock to fill us with diesel fuel. This was the first time we had gotten fuel since we were in Spanish Wells at Christmas time. The water is only 5 feet at the dock at low tide and when we arrived the tide was about mid way on a rise so we had about 7 feet. It was also pretty calm so it was an easy in and out. We did have to wait for two other boats in front of us to fuel so we just hung out in the bay for a bit. Anchored in the bay was the Island Packet 380 Tides Inn. There boat is hull number 132 and ours is 133 so they came out of the factory about a month apart. I had emailed Mark and Susan numerous times through the Island Packet email list serve. We motored by close to say hello as they were out on deck and curious who we were. After refueling we went over the the other part of the bay and anchored amongst 30 other boats.

Salt Pond is the settlement at Thompson Bay. It is a great location for going to the grocery store, getting connected to the web and doing laundry. We have done all of those things several times now. The only down side to the bay is that it is very silty and we don't want to run our watermaker here.

On Tuesday February 1st we left and headed north up the banks side, (west), of Long Island. Our destination was Calabash Bay which we planned to stop in for a night on our way to Conception Island. This leg of the trip was only 22 miles and it only took us about 3.5 hours. Calabash Bay is pretty much open all around with protection from winds and seas from only the northeast to southeast. Since it is pretty close to the northern most end of the island the ocean swell will come around the corner and rock the boat. There is a beautiful two mile long beach there with a small resort on it. We went to the beach to walk around and look for shells. There were only 5 other people on the entire beach.

The next morning we departed Calabash Bay and headed around the northern end of Long Island into the Atlantic Ocean. The name of this land area is Cape Santa Maria. It is named after the flag ship of Christopher Columbus who landed in this area and his boat went aground there. He should have had a Garmin chartplotter, what was he thinking?

It is pretty amazing when we go from the banks to the ocean. The water depth goes from 6-8 feet to 6000 feet in a matter of a mile or so. The ocean part of this leg was about 17 miles. The seas were not real high but they were confused and the ride was somewhat uncomfortable. Three hours after getting into the ocean we pulled into West Bay at Conception Island. To get into the bay we had to go between two reefs which didn't pose a problem. We could see them on our chartplotter and with the sun behind us they were clearly visible.

There were 5 other boats there and lo and behold one of them was Destiny with Jimmie and Bess onboard. We met them in the Dismal Swamp in November and did the 50 hour passage from North Carolina to Florida with them. We hadn't seen them since Vero Beach.

We spent some time hiking on the island and checking out the numerous beaches on both sides. We also took our dinghy with Jimmie and Bess into the mangrove swamps at high tide to see the sea turtles. We saw 30 or 40 of them and when you approach they take off like a rocket to get away. I wouldn't have believed how fast they can swim if I wouldn't have seen it with my own eyes.

We stayed three nights at Conception Island and then returned to Thompson Bay doing the 43 mile run in one shot. We wanted to get back to where it is protected before the next front came through. Conception Island has no protection from south to west to north winds.

We are now at Thompson Bay making plans for our next excursion from here.

Here are some photos of Conception Island. Don't forget you can click on a photo to get the larger version.

Some Photos

Norman's Cay.



















Shroud Cay, Exuma Land and Sea Park.



Warderick Wells, Exuma Land and Sea Park.

Warderick Wells to Georgetown

We departed the Exuma Land and Sea Park mooring in Warderick Wells with a nice east wind
blowing about 12 knots. We headed southeast for the island of Big Majors Spot. There isn't
anything on Big Majors Spot to speak of but it is a great anchorage very near Staniel Cay
which has a settlement.

The big attraction at Big Majors Spot are the feral pigs that beg for food from the boaters.
They hang out on the beach and when a dingy comes by they will swim out to beg for food.
If they are in the trees behind the beach and a dingy goes by they will come a runnin'.
They really swim pretty good and will go into water that is pretty deep.

Staniel Cay has a settlement and the gathering place is the Staniel Cay Yacht Club. It is a
small marina that has a restaurant and bar. We had dinner there one night and watched one
of the NFL playoff games on there three big screen TV's. Sandy and I each had a rum punch.
They cost nine dollars for a eight ounce glass. Talk about steep!

We hung out in the anchorage for four days and went to the small grocery. The food prices
are about triple what we would pay in the states. We also purchased a cell phone to use
while in the Bahamas. The price for it was about the same as the states. I tried to refill
my propane tank but they ran out and I would have to wait until the next week for the fuel
boat to come in. I will try the next island.

There is a snorkeling site just off of Staniel Cay called Thunderball Cave. This is where
the underwater scenes in the James Bond movie Thunderball were filmed. We didn't go
snorkeling there because the current was flowing strong and the tide was rising. You cannot
get into the cave at high tide without diving under. We will try it on the way back north.

From Big Majors Spot we went south on a windless day to Black Point on the island of Guana
Cay. Black Point is the largest settlement in the Exumas with the exception of Georgetown.
We stopped here mainly to do laundry. Black Point has the best laundry facilities in the
Exumas. It was $2.75 for a wash and $2.75 for a dry and we were glad to have it. Just down
the street from the laundromat is Lorraine's Cafe. It is a small restaurant with an
internet room. We were able to check our emails and let my brother and sister-in-law know
where we were and that we were still floating.

The boat Chanticleer was in the anchorage both at Big Majors Spot and Black Point. We went
on a hike and had drinks with Steve and Roberta before going to dinner at Lorraine's. We
happen to hit happy hour at Scorpions Bar and the drinks were two for one. Wow, two rum
punches for nine dollars. The cruising guide lists Scorpions as the place to be. There
were about 7 people there including the four of us. I guess the guide needs updating. Our
dinner at Lorrain's was barbecue. Now coming from Texas where barbecue is king I really
wasn't expecting much from Lorrain's, and I was right. It was good, but not great. They
serve it from the kitchen and each plate didn't even have the same things on them. A couple
of plates had corn on the cob and others had cole slaw, all had ribs and chicken though. We
are not complaining mind you, it is just different and that is why we came over here, to be
different, and it was only $15 a plate, a real bargain down here.

A cold front was coming through with winds forecast to be in the 20 to 30 range. We decided
to stay put and ride it out. Chanticleer moved on south. We had a couple of rolly nights
but nothing too uncomfortable. There were about 25 boats in the anchorage.

After eight days at Black Point we decided to head for Lee Stocking Island about 30 miles
southeast. We had planned on leaving the banks side of the Exumas and go into the sound at
Dotham Cut which is just around the point from the Black Point anchorage. We left early and
when we got to the cut we could see breaking waves accross it and did not like what we saw.
We turned around and headed down the banks side to Little Farmers Cay and the cut there.
Just as we got back near the anchorage a fog rolled in and shrouded the entire area. We
could only see about 50 feet. Our Garmin chartplotter and radar showed us the way and the
fog lifted about eight miles south. We came around the Little Farmers Cay from the south
and went straight out of Farmers Cut into Exuma Sound. The cut had some waves which buried
our bow and gave us quite a ride for about 5 minutes. Once out of the cut everything
smoothed down. The banks side of the Exumas usually runs from 8 to 25 feet in depth. Once
on the sound side the depth dropped sharply to over 1500 feet. From Farmers Cut to the cut
at Lee Stocking Island took us about 3 hours. Going into the Lee Stocking Island cut was
very calm with just a few 1 foot swells.

When we pulled around the island to the anchorage Chanticleer was there as was the catamaran
Ajaya, Ajaya had rafted to us at the Dismal Swamp Canal in North Carolina last October.
That evening we had wine and cheese on Chanticleer with Phil and Nikki from Ajaya. The next
day Steve, Roberta, Sandy and I went exploring on the island and hung out at a secluded
beach where the water was clear as a tub and nice and warm. We first climbed Perry Peak
which is the tallest hill in the Exuma's. It is 39 meters high. It took a whole five
minutes to get up it but the views were gorgeous. Later we swam and waded in the bay off
the beach. We were finding a bunch of sand dollars, huge red and gold starfish and conchs.
We left them all where we found them because this is a protected area. A marine research
center is on the island and gives tours but not on the days we were there. Something else
to do on the way back. This is the first time we saw several sharks since being in the
Bahamas. We believe they were nurse sharks which are not supposed to be aggressive to
humans. I wasn't about to go interview them though. We had a full moon overnight and you
could see the bottom. We were anchored in about 6-7 feet. The water was so calm it looked
like we were floating in air.

After two nights we left to head to Georgetown since there was another cold front coming and
a wind shift to the west. Georgetown offers much more protection from west winds. The
forecast was for the winds to clock around from the east to south, west and back north and
east with the passage of the front. Squalls are predicted with gusts to 35 knots.

It took us about four hours to get to Georgetown. We anchored off of Sand Dollar beach to
the east of Georgetown off of Stocking Island. Yep, you heard that right, this is Stocking
Island without the Lee. We dinghyed the mile across the harbor to go into town to get some
groceries and scout out the situation. The wind had picked up and it was a choppy ride
across. To go into Georgetown you take your dinghy into Lake Victoria. It is a small lake
that is accessed by going under a bridge that is about eight feet high and so narrow that
only one dinghy can fit through it at a time. The incoming dinghys have right of way do to
the fact that there is a swell pushing you into the opening. It would be very easy to crash
into the walls going under the bridge.

We will be in Georgetown for about a week reprovisioning and doing a few boat maintenance
chores. We plan on going over to Long Island and Conception Island from here. Then maybe
down into the Jumentos Cays.

Spanish Wells to Warderick Wells

We refueled and left Spanish Wells on Tuesday December 28th. We left around noon in order to time our arrival at Current Cut around slack tide. This is a cut between the sound at the northern end of Eluthera and the southern part of Eleuthera. As the name implies there can be a severe current flowing through the cut. While doing some research on it I found some web sites that claim that this is the best drift dive for scuba divers in the world. At times the current can get up to 10 knots. Our boat won't even go that fast so it would be impossible and dangerous to try to go through when there is a strong current flowing. We arrived at the cut around high tide and went right into the cut having the current flowing with us at between one half and one knot. As we came out of the cut we had to make a ninety degree turn to the right into a narrow channel. If the current is flowing to fast it can carry the boat right into the shallows.

About a mile past the cut on the south side of Current Island we anchored for the night. The weather was calm and in the mid 60's overnight with clear skies. It was so dark we could see stars right down to the horizon. There was only one other boat near us.

On Wednesday we left early for the 40 miles to get to Allen's Cay in the northern Exuma island chain. We made good time and pulled into the anchorage around 3:00 in the afternoon. As soon as we got anchored Steve and Roberta from Chanticleer dinghyed over to us. They are the boat we were rafted up to in Vero Beach. They had arrived from Nassau about 30 minutes before we arrived.

We only stayed at Allen's Cay for one night. On Thursday we headed down to Norman's Cay which was only about a 14 mile sail. Chanticleer was right on our stern as we made the sail. We both pulled into the anchorage at Norman's around noon. We stayed at Norman's for four nights. During our visit we hiked on the island and did some beach combing to look for shells. We also snorkeled the nearby reef which didn't really have that much sea life. I was particularly looking for lobsters to catch. We were able to see fireworks on New Year's Eve from an island to the southeast of us. There isn't any settlement at Norman's and not much really going on.

We departed Norman's on Monday the 3rd of January and motored the 6 miles southeast to Shroud Cay. This is the start of the Exuma Land and Sea Park which extends to the southeast another 20 miles or so. After anchoring we took the dinghy and explored the northern end of the island. We went to one of the beaches and walked on the sand and in the shallows. We found several conch but had to put them back. The park does not allow any taking of fish, shellfish or lobsters.

We just stayed one night at Shroud Cay and then had a nice sail 18 miles down to Warderick Wells. We were able to get a mooring buoy in the north mooring field. There is a cold front coming in with winds predicted to be 25-30 knots from the west and northwest. This is a good protected spot and the moorings were filling fast.

We took a hike to Boo Boo hill and beach and went to some blow holes on the ocean side of the island. It is called Boo Boo hill because it is supposed to be haunted from a ship wreck in the 18th century. Very scenic area with many different colors of the water. I have some great photos but won't be able to get them uploaded until we have a faster internet connection. We also have one of the better snorkel sites just 100 yards from the boat. We have already snorkeled there several times. There are numerous varieties of fish and some huge lobsters. The water is still a little chilly so we have to wear our wet suits when we snorkel.

We will be here until after the cold front passes through and then continue moving southeast.

Moving Southeast

We stayed in Lucaya for four nights and then had a good weather window to move further southeast. We left Lucaya on Tuesday morning around 10 AM. We were heading for Royal Island which is 120 miles away at the northwestern tip of Eleuthera Island. We knew that there was going to be a strong cold front coming thru on Christmas day and we wanted all around protection. There is an anchorage on the south side of Royal Island with a small inlet to get in which gives good protection. On the sail over we had mostly light winds which kept the seas down to 2-3 feet. We were in the lee of Grand Bahama Island and then Great Abaco Island which blocked the north Atlantic swell. There was an area of about 25 miles where we had no protection from the swell and we saw an average of a six foot swell with an occasional ten footer with a period of about 10 seconds. There really wasn't much wind driven waves so the ride was pretty comfortable.

We arrived Wednesday morning around 8 AM and settled into the anchorage. Once getting the hook down we took some naps to catch up on the sleep we missed during the night. There were two other sailboats in the anchorage when we arrived and later that day four trawlers came in.

Watching the weather further it appeared that the cold front was really going to be worse than first predicted so we moved to a slip at Spanish Wells which is a settlement (town) just seven miles to the east of Royal Island. Spanish Wells is on St. Georges Cay. The population here is a little different than other islands in the Bahamas. They are decendents of some British and American loyalists from around the revolutionary time period. There accent is different from the rest of the Bahamian people also. Most of the money on the island comes from lobster fishing. This is where Red Lobster gets all of it's lobsters.

They celebrate Christmas in a similar manner that we do the Fourth of July. There were games and races for the kids in the park and fireworks being shot off everywhere. We went to a fireworks show on the beach at the western end of the island at midnight. Very different custom than what we are accustomed too.

We will be here through the cold front and hopefully be moving south to the northern Exumas sometime mid next week. We won't have very good internet access from here on so postings may be sparse. Merry Christmas to all.

Bahamas!!

Just a quick post to let y'all know we made it to the Bahamas. We Left Vero Beach on Wednesday with 30 degree temperatures and went down the ICW to Jensen Beach. On Thursday we continued down the ICW and went right out the Lake Worth inlet at 4:40 PM. The winds were initially higher than forecast and the seas were somewhat choppy with 3-4 foot seas. Once we got out about 10 miles the seas calmed down and so did the wind. We had a south wind about 8-12 all night and seas were 1-2 with swells and no real chop. The gulf stream was pleasantly pleasantly smooth and it was an east crossing.

We pulled into the Grand Bahama Yacht Club in Lucaya, Grand Bahama about 10:00 AM so it was a 24 hour run. We refueled and checked in with immigration and customs which took about an hour.

Now it is time for a nap. I will post more with photos as we continue down the Bahamas island chain.

Clewie Clip!

Hi all! Things have been going pretty good since I last checked in. You probably read that we had company aboard. I really like it when new people come aboard. I am so cute and a novelty to them that they love to play with me. I know that has worn off my people. Although they do still play with me but not as much as I would like.

We had three days of that noisy motor thing again. I guess I am getting somewhat used to it but I still stay up in the forward bed to get away from it. Now we are someplace where they don't have to make the noise and I really like that.

I was just hanging out and I had this funny feeling that I was being watched. I looked around and to my dreaded surprise there was another one of my kind looking down from the stairway.










My people were saying something about Tiger being our neighbor and I should be nice to him. Well, I will be nice as long as he quits staring at me and doesn't come inside to eat my food. A girl has to have her privacy you know. Now I have to keep looking around to see if I am being watched. I keep looking up in every room I am in. I just never know when he might be up looking in through the hatches or companionway. I think I am ready to move already. Oh, maybe we can be friends!

Well, that's all for now, bye.

St. Augustine to Vero Beach

We left St. Augustine on Monday morning. My brother Dave left the boat for the Jacksonville airport around 6:00 AM and we left the slip at 6:50 AM. We wanted to make Vero in three days on the ICW and the total distance is 174 miles. We had really good current with us heading south. We were making 8.4 knots for the first couple of hours and then started slowing as the current slowed. We were around 6.8 knots most of the rest of the day. There were only a few other boats heading south at that time.

We were behind a boat named Bamboushay that all of a sudden turned sideways in the channel. Sandy was at the helm and immediately went to reverse to stop our forward movement because she thought for sure they had hit bottom, and sure enough they did. There draft is one foot deeper than ours so we didn't have any problem with that area, also we stayed to the green side of the channel which was recommended for that area. Bamboushay was able to back off and get going again.

About 3:15 PM we had the anchor down in Rockhouse Creek which is just north of New Smyrna Beach and just inside the Ponce De Leon inlet. There was a smaller sailboat that had beach during low tide next to the anchorage. I figured they did it on purpose to clean the bottom. The boat was about 25 feet. When high tide came in around 8:00 PM they moved out to deeper water and anchored.

On Tuesday morning we started off at 6:55 AM. There is a bridge that was 3 miles away that opens on the 20 minutes starting on the hour and we wanted to make the 7:20 opening. We made it there with several minutes to spare but they were doing maintenance on the gates that stop road traffic and didn't get the bridge open until 7:50. So much for timing. We had good current this day also although we were not going as fast. We made our second anchorage of Cocoa around 2:50 PM. The weather had continued to be good with the sun shining and temperatures around 75.

On Wednesday we again left just before 7:00 AM and had no problems making the third leg to Vero Beach. We arrived around 2:20 and went into the fuel dock to get a holding tank pump out. While at the dock we got our mooring assignment. We were to go to mooring ball 28 and raft up with a boat named Chanticleer. The mooring field was very crowded with most moorings having either two or three boats on them. Vero is the place to be for a cruisers Thanksgiving get together.

We were looking for our mooring and the boat named Chanticleer. We had to zig-zag between other boats and came to the area where we thought we needed to be. Low and behold there was a Chanticleer boat on our starboard and another one on our port. This could only happen to us. We couldn't see the number on the mooring ball from where we were so we had to pull forward of the two boats to see that we wanted the Chanticleer on our port. We hailed the boat and the couple on it helped us raft up to them. We then talked for about an hour with them and found out they are from Texas also. From the Houston area. They are also heading for the Bahamas and them plan on doing the thorny path south to the eastern Caribbean.

When we came in to the mooring field we saw that the boats Destiny and Song of Pogo were here also. We had been in several anchorages and marinas with them since North Carolina and were offshore with Destiny for 30 hours. We had gotten together with them, Jimmie and Bess and Otis and Marty for dinner in St. Augustine. Our cruising plans are all similiar so I'm sure we will see them in the Bahamas too.

We plan to stay here for a week or so to do our major provisioning and we are still waiting for the pet import papers to arrive from the Bahamas. Once all that is done we only have to head down to north Lake Worth and wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf Stream and over to the Bahamas. I will keep y'all informed.

Fernandina to St. Augustine

We stayed in Fernandina Beach for a couple of days. We stayed out on a mooring ball and had to dinghy to the marina. The current that runs in the river is very strong and with the wind blowing it was a wet ride to shore. The little town of Fernandina is very nice. Lots of little shops where you can get pretty much any curio or trinket you want. We left on Saturday and backtracked north into Georgia. It was only five miles to the anchorage off of Cumberland Island.

The southern end of Cumberland Island is a National Park which was given to the U.S. by Thomas Carnegie. There are lots of hiking trails through the forest which is made up of many varieties of trees. From old live oaks to palms. The live oaks have moss hanging all throughout. We also visited the ruins of the Carnegie vacation mansion, Dungeness. The home and other buildings were built in the late 1800's and early 1900's. The house had been empty for many years when it burned in 1959. There are many wild horses roaming the island that you can get pretty close to without spooking them. We also saw several armadillos that didn't seemed to be spooked either. After visiting the ruins we walked another mile to the beach on the Atlantic side of the island.
































































From Cumberland Island we headed south to St. Augustine. It was a two day trip so we stopped at a marina in Jacksonville Beach for the night. We arrived at the marina early so I was able to hose the boat off with fresh water. The first time since coming in from the ocean. The deck was pretty crusted with salt. We were also able to fill the fresh water tank. The St. Augustine Municipal Marina now has three mooring fields. They charge much less for a mooring ball than a slip.

We picked up a mooring and got to work doing chores. I was able to change the oil in both the main engine and the generator. We also took the bus to the Publix supermarket and were able to restock the galley with a couple weeks of food. Once the chores were complete we visited the town. We stayed here a week in April on the way north and saw the town then but it is always fun to walk around in the shops. We had planned on staying in St. Augustine for a week because my brother Dave is flying down on Friday the 19th to visit for a few days.

On Monday the 22nd we are planning on heading south to Vero Beach. It will take us four days down the ICW to get there. Once there we will do some major provisioning to prepare for our crossing to the Bahamas.

Back in FLorida

From Dowry Creek we proceeded down the Pungo River, across the Pamlico river, through another canal and out into the Neuse River. The winds were very strong from the North and the seas were very choppy with some waves as high as four feet. We stopped in Oriental at the Whittaker Pointe Marina. This is the same marina we had stopped in on the way north in May. It is a very nice facility and has a courtesy van to drive. We were the only transients at the dock so we used the van a lot. We went into New Bern, which is about 25 miles away to the Super WalMart and Harris Teeter grocery. We stocked up on things we were out of, especially meat and fresh produce.

While there I had to get my stuffing box restuffed. It was leaking a couple drips a second even when sitting at the dock. I had to pump the bilge every 8-10 hours. Just tightening it would not solve the problem so I had Deaton Yacht Services put new GFO stuffing in.

The weather turned bad with heavy rain for a couple of days and cold winds. This gave me a chance to continue with the Crazy Ivan problem we are still having with the auto pilot. While going through the system I discovered that the Rudder Angle Transmitter, RAT, that figures, was not installed very well. It was on a flimsy piece of plywood that could wiggle around. I took some starboard, which I got at Deaton Yacht Services and really secured it so it does not budge. So far it has been working good.

When the weather cleared we headed out from Oriental on the ICW. We wanted to go outside in the ocean from the Beaufort inlet to the Masonboro inlet. That would have saved us two days on the ICW. The waves were still pretty high and confused to we did the ICW. The first night we stopped at Dudley's Marina in Swansboro. They had us tied up to a bulkhead and in the morning when we went to leave the current was flowing so fast we were pinned to the bulkhead. It took 3 guys on the dock to push the boat off. We scraped down the pilings but it didn't cause any damage. After 47 nautical miles we stopped in Wrightville Beach. The current there was running about 3 knots with the flow going with us. There is a bridge that only opens on the hour just before Wrightville Beach. It was like a zoo with about 20 other boats trying to maneuver in a small channel with the current while waiting for the opening.

We stayed one night in Wrightville Beach and then did a short 25 miles to Southport Marina in Southport NC. We had planned to go out the Cape Fear River inlet to Charleston the next day. The weather was looking really good for the next five days so instead we stayed at the marina two nights to give us time to set the boat up for an ocean passage. We had to put everything that could fly around in heavy seas away and strap the big items down.

We left on Tuesday and instead of heading for Charleston, SC we headed for Fernandina Beach, Florida. The route is 270 miles and I estimated it would take us 48-54 hours. We had left at 0640 and arrived in Fernandina Beach at 0840 on Wednesday. This saved us about eight days on the ICW. We put our new AIS, Automatic Identification System to the test. It was well worth the money. Going past the Charleston inlet at 0400 we were able to easily track cargo ships coming out and going in. We had one incident where I was tracking a ship that was inbound to Charleston from the south. His track was straight for us as we were heading in a southwesterly direction. The AIS gives us the name of the ship, destination, heading, turning rate, speed and other information about the ship. I called him on the VHF radio to make sure he saw us on his radar. He confirmed that he did and would go to our stern. Well I could see on the AIS that he kept turning towards us as we continued southwesterly. At night the distances are very deceiving. It looked like he was right on top of us and in the dark all I could see was these huge red and green bow lights coming right for us. I was shaking in my foul weather boots. I radioed him again and he assured me he could see us and would go to our stern. I could also see him on our radar and he didn't come any closer than one mile distance to us but at night that is plenty close enough.

There were two other sail boats, Destiny, with Jim and Bess, and Aruba II with Andre, whom we had met at the Dismal Swamp visitor center traveling along with us. It was nice to know that when we are 30-40 miles offshore there is someone else out there too. We talked quite a bit on the radio to pass the night away and help stay awake. Andre has sailed quite a bit and always solo. He sleeps for 20 minutes at a time while the auto pilot is steering.

We arrived at the St. Mary's river inlet around 0500. I didn't want to do a night entry, even though I had been through this inlet before and it is an easy inlet to enter, so we hove to for an hour and a half outside and just north of the inlet to let the sun come up. Once in we tied up to one of the mooring buoys at the Fernandina Harbor Marina. We will stay here a couple of days to rest and make plans for continuing.

Here is a short video I took while we were about 30 miles off the coast from Savannah Georgia.