2 separate posts today!!!

Main St. of Brunswick, GA - just like 1950 Collinsville except for the center greenway, the newer cars, sunny weather in April, palm trees, etc, etc. The city was laid out by Gen. Oglethorpe, who also planned Savannah - everything is in a grid.

More of Main St. Brunswick - notice the lack of people. I'm sure all the little shop owner would like more traffic.

I really like this boat - it's basically a houseboat on a large Boston Whaler.

The train runs right thru the center of Brunswick about 10 times a day and night. They only travel about 5 mph and at night they cut down on the horn use a lot. The marina where we are staying is at our back on this shot.

Our lonely dock on Thursday night.

This posting, and the next, brought to you courtesy of Hattie's Bookstore, Main St., Brunswick, GA - area of free wi-fi and home of Mr. Wiggles, a beautiful miniature Schnauzer that got along great with Cory.

Note - we will probably be out of a wi-fi area for several days. We will post again as soon as we can. We plan on leaving this marina Sat. morning and heading for Kilkenny Creek Marina, about 65 miles north. We are certain there is nothing similar to wi-fi in that area. See you all soon.

From Amelia Island, Florida to Brunswick, Georgia

Here we are again. We are staying an additional day because the weather looks iffy on Friday - the winds are supposed to increase to 20mph out of the north with a chance of rain. Our next leg of the journey is planned to be 65 miles northward, so into a north wind would be a miserable day. Plus, we are still a little apprehensive about the depth of Georgia waters. We spent the day today exploring Brunswick, GA on foot. What a friendly town! The dog is welcome in all the shops except the restaurants. But even the people in the restaurant brought water out to him. The main street looks like Collinsville did in 1950 - old shop fronts and brick and stone buildings. Every block has a little green inset area and the sidewalks are lined with big old trees. This town seems to be in a real revival. We spent this morning washing the boat and waxing all the bright work. A clean boat always runs better. I also recalibrated the air conditioning so it more accurately reflects the real temperature in the cabin. Then Linda and I spent several hours, her topsides me below, going over the various charts, guidebooks, tide tables and maps, that we have on board. We are trying to get more comfortable in the low country of marshland, creeks, and tidal basins, that we are in. Most of the other boats left today for other ports so we are mostly alone on the dock. We have several restaurants to choose from tonight and we made sure to tire out Cory so he will want to sleep while we go out to dinner. We also moseyed over to a farmer’s market that was set up in a building just about 100 yds from the marina. There we picked up fresh fruits and salad makings. Linda has also been using the free laundry way more than is necessary. Everytime something gets dirty she washes it just because it’s free. Everything on the boat has been washed here at least once. Ken

Friday morning - good thing we decided to stay in port today. The wind is steady out of the NE at 20 mph with gusts to 30 and the sky looks like rain. We tried to rent a car to explore but none of the rental agencies have any??? Our free wi-fi is down and the free coffee is not being made today because the dockmaster is out sick. At least Linda still has free laundry.Ken

I LOVE that I don’t have to PAY to do laundry! (Boy, do I need to get a life!) Just a lazy day of chart -plotting and cleaning & exploring the town. I found a deserted park that had a handicapped access area with musical wood blocks and a primitive xylophone. What a neat place. It’s kind of like a ghost town, though- barely anyone here and all this space! People are extra friendly, and the weather today is beautiful. Tonight Ken has offered to try my mogul hill of a “bed”, while I’ll try his low-ceiling cavern of a bed in the aft. We’ll let you know how this turns out! I bet it will mess the dog up! Love to all- Linda

Friday, April 20- Just a few more thoughts re: “I’m not in Kansas anymore”….
Somewhere between Northern Florida and Northern Georgia (the cultural line is very blurred, even according to people who live here)- the word “Hello” changed to “Hey”.
“How are you?” changed to “What’s up?” or “How you?”. And “Where are you” is ALWAYS “Where you at?” I’m just noticing this- not judging or complaining. The poor dog has been picking up NASTY burrs in his paws in Northern Florida and here in Southern Georgia. He is getting very good at chewing them out.
And in the sleeping arrangement department….We each slept great in the other person’s spot. But Ken did notice the bumps- so I think I’ll be nice and take back the mogul hill bed. Cory, however, always sleeps with me where he’s safe from being kicked!

Sunset over Amelia Island- very colorful from all the smoke from the Georgia fires.
No, this is NOT fog, it's the smoke from the Georgia fires MILES away- the visibbility was down to 1/4 mile and starting to get un-nerving.

Amelia Island Yacht Basin- the sky is grey from smoke from- you guessed it- the Georgis fires!

Our welcome to the Amelia Island Yacht Basin - this is the gas dock. The water is 3' deep here right now but about 6 hours later that ramp was level with the top of the bulkhead. This really is not a YACHT basin, it's just a small cut out square of water, probably 400 yds. X 200 yds. off the ICW. They are very accomodating to transients but it was only an overnight stop for us.

The current was running with us as we headed northward - an incoming tide. Thru this cut, we had just gone under a bridge, the current was probably close to 5 mph. Not a problem for us but the trawlers and sailboats that have to go against the current can barely make headway. At first I thought we had engine problems because, heading into a strong current, the boat speed was 5 mph lower than it should have been at that RPM - then the current became visible by a marker.

We finally found some waterfront property in Georgia that we can afford.

We let Cory go for just a second and he ran to the police. Fortunately for us, the cop was eating lunch. We were able to drag Cory away before he could file a complaint. He remains our captive.

Linda's viewpoint....

Hello! St. Augustine was quaint (I know I'm over-using that word), but we really wanted to get out of Florida. I woke up Tues. am to the smell of a brush fire- went outside and my eyes started to burn from the smoke filling the skies. As we made our way past heavy currents, bridges, dolphins, inlets from the Atlantic- the smoke got so thick that we questioned whether or not it was fog. Fog in our little boat would be trecherous. But we progressed on and made it to Amelia Island. We didn't really have time to explore, but it was a quiet little marina. Our boat & canvas were COVERED in ashes the next am. Even Ken could smell the smoke! We had a great ride to Brunswick, GA- the water was mostly flat and calm. We passed a Navy sub base, a paper mill, and lots more dolphins! We still see palm trees and pelicans. Now that we've left Florida, I think we both feel a sense of "Let's get this trip going!" We just talked with a professional Captain, and he gave us advice on which marinas to stay at all the way home. It really makes it feel like we're a LONG way away when you break it down night by night. But Brunswick is "quaint" and the heads are clean. Today we saw 7 "Homeland Security" patrol boats around the bridge near our marina- we presume doing a training drill. The smoke is now South of us-and Ken must be much more tasty to the no-see-ums, since I've only seen one so far! (Wish me luck!) Love to all- Linda

Onward and upward

We have now traveled about 95 miles northward since our last entry. We left St. Augustine tuesday morning and traveled about 55 miles to Amelia Island, where we spent the night. The weather during the day was beautiful but, and I doubt you heard this up north, Georgia is on fire. With a wind out of the northwest, it blew the smoke onto the ICW. It almost looked like we were in heavy fog the whole day. We stayed at the Amelia Island Yacht Basin - it basically is just an inlet off the ICW. We arrived at dead low tide to the 30 ft. wide X 400 yd long entryway. Both our depth gauges agreed that it was 2'6" deep. I trimmed up the outdrive as much as I dared and we proceeded in. We slowed on two occasions and stirred up a lot of mud but finally made it into the basin. We gassed up, pumped out, and then spent the night. When the tide came in we were amazed because the range was almost 10 ft.! This is the first night that we noticed bugs - the no-see-ums have arrived. It was a nice little marina with almost noone else around afterhours. Very quiet. We woke up this morning to our canvas and boat being covered in ash from the forest fires in GA - about 15,000 acres are on fire. We detached and left the marina at about 10:00 - no early starts for us. We then traveled about 40 miles northward and stopped at Brunswick Landing Marina - WE ARE OUT OF FLORIDA. This marina is off the ICW by about 2 miles - up the East River and directly in downtown Brunswick, GA. A delightful place. The landing was easy with a nose-in tieup and the wind pushing me onto the finger pier. This marina has free wi-fi, free CATV, free LAUNDRY, and free coffee - what more could we want? We explored the town a little bit but a passing weather front forced us back to the boat to button things up. We are going to properly explore the town tomorrow. We plan on staying here until Friday morning. We then plan on heading about 65 miles north to Kilkenny Creek, GA. It is supposed to be representative of "Old Georgia", big trees, large lawns, and moss coverings. We passed Cumberland Island today but decided not to stop because we would have to anchor offshore and deal with all of that. We'll return some time by car. We will be posting pictures either later tonight or tomorrow morning. The no-see-ums continue to plague us here also. However, because the wind is out of the north, we are now north of the blowing smoke and the air is much clearer and better smelling. The last 95 miles, most of it in Florida, is unlike anywhere else we traveled so far on this trip. We are in meandering streams and rivers with an occasional creek or cut. The creeks and cuts so far have been fine in depth but we keep getting warned that will not always be the case. What is always the case is that you must not cut any corners or hug the inside of any curves if you want to keep the same prop the whole trip. We have seen and heard of several boats, mostly sailboats, who were not paying attention and left the channel. Today we had our first experience with ranges instead of markers, but it wasn't a real test because we were in a major shipping channel inlet with depths of 50 ft. - the deepest we've seen. We passed a major military area and heard over the radio that they were going to be doing a live fire drill, but not in our area. We also found ourselves in a "Homeland Security" training exercise just outside Brunswick, GA, there were 8 Contender, twin outboat boats, all marked Homeland Security and 2 large inflatables from the Coast Guard. All the boats had at least 4 persons on board. It looked to us as though they were training in high-speed boat interceptions - they were chasing each other all over the inlet at high speeds and dramatic turns. Interesting to watch - alot of fun if you were driving. Ken

Waiting in port...

This is where I was the "fish out of water"- very funky but friendly- I ordered a Coke and looked around. Shady trees and dirty picnic tables. I'm sure the fish was as fresh as possible, but Bob Smith hadn't been inspecting here!!!

I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore at this fish camp!

The view from inside the Ponce lighthouse- down about 17 stories! It was so well preserved. Again, very windy at the top, with gorgeous views.( This photo is for Solveig!)

Ponce De Leon inlet from the Atlantic Ocean into Daytona. The ICW avoids this area by going inland several thousand yards.

They don't mind people driving on the beaches here, oddly enough. However, we have been checking the local housing prices and houses on a "No Drive Beach" are selling at a premium - actually nothing in Florida is selling - they're just asking a premium price. This is a highly telephoto'd shot from the lighthouse.

After seeing this picture Cory stopped complaining about the small boat he's in.

Hello from Linda!!!Wed. we arrived in New Smyrna Beach after traveling with 3 trawlers- “U & I”, “Homeport”, and “Ibis”. LOTS of dolphins again!We stayed at the municipal marina- CLEAN heads & showers, cable TV, very friendly people, but no internet-so that’s why you haven’t heard from us in a while!
New Smyrna Beach is a pretty little town with a history of a large settlement (like Jamestown), and foundations of 3 houses that were burnt in the 1800’s.
Our (former) patient, John, lives 20 miles west of New Smyrna, so he kindly drove us around & showed us the sights. He even brought us to a Subway and a grocery store!
The next day Ken wanted to rest & escape the heat- I wanted to explore & escape the dog! So I took a water taxi to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse- the second tallest in the US-climbed the 203 steps, and took lots of photos. While waiting for the water taxi to return, I ventured into a REAL “fish camp”- (I’m not in CT anymore!!!).It was funky, but once again the people were friendly to me- I was a “fish out of water” being there!
New Smyrna Beach is charming, but after 3 nights we were itching to get moving North! (Ken will tell you about the mechanical problems, and why we stayed so long in one place.)
FINALLY, Sat am we left & had a long but beautiful ride to St. Augustine. We passed under “the Bridge of Lions”, and with the wind picking up, found our marina. They have a courtesy car, so we went to town with Cory. He, as usual, was the center of attention! Everyone has to stop & pet the cute doggie! I’m so glad he’s good with kids- they are really drawn to him. St. Augustine is crowded with people & shops & traffic. It’s quaint- like an historical Key West. Cobblestone streets & off-beat people & tourists! Sat pm we hid in the boat thru the storm that passed the entire East coast. Today it’s VERY windy. We went to the Castillo De San Marcos- a fort from the 1600’s. Sorry to ramble on so-but there’s lots to catch you up on. (Great grammar, huh?) I’ve noticed that my allergies are MUCH less in all of Florida. The greenery & flowers are beautiful- but it’s not HOME! Love to all- Linda
Yes we are still alive and moving north. We were stuck for 3 nights at the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Marina with a minor mechanical problem. The serpentine belt was making a real rhythmic rattling sound that I thought might be bearings. Having learned in the past not to let mechanical problems go untreated, I finally got a Volvo mechanic to take a look. He could not determine what was making the noise so he decided to replace everything the serpentine belt runs - all under warranty. He ordered the parts and had them sent overnight. He arrived on Friday evening at 5:30 pm to begin work. His boss, and slightly better mechanic, came with him. After removing the serpentine belt it was found that a buildup of paint on a pulley was rubbing against the belt and wearing the belt, and causing the noise. The paint was trimmed, a new belt installed and, voila, we were on our way the next morning. My salesman at G&R Marine said he was going to contact Four Winns and have a 6 yr. engine warranty applied to this boat because of all the inconvenience. A nice gesture if it occurs. New Smryna Beach is old Florida feeling - the center of town looked like it almost went completely vacant and was rescued in the past couple of years by artists that moved in. Nothing was within walking distance so all our supplies ran low. There was no wi-fi, but in return we did have cable TV, a couple of decent restaurants, dolphins and good weather. The ride to New Smyrna Beach from Titusville was only 32 miles - most of it through the Mosquito Lagoon. Although on the charts the Lagoon appears to be a formidable navigation hazard, it turned out to be a beautiful ride. There were no mosquitoes- only hundreds of white butterflies! Dolphins were in view almost the entire ride. New Smyrna Beach is just south of Daytona which, thanks to John, we got to see a little bit of. The east coast of Florida, in this area at least, is less populated than the area around Ft. Myers. Saturday morning we gassed up and headed towards St. Augustine, 80 miles to the north. We had a backup stopping place called Palm Coast, only 40 miles north, if the traveling was slow. Well, traveling was anything but slow - we left port at 8:30am and arrived in St. Augustine at about 1:30 pm. We traveled most of the time with 4 other power boats of a similar size - oddly enough, all Chapparals. We cruised at between 26-29 mph a lot of the way - with only occasional slow zones. Down here there are different types of slow zones - there is the ’No Wake - Idle Speed zone;” the ‘Minimum Wake Zone;’ and the ’Congested Area Zone.” All are said to be highly enforced - to be truthful we haven’t seen any enforcement. But we also have not seen any major violations. We arrived in St. Augustine just ahead of a major storm - wind had picked up to 20-25mph SSE and literally was pushing us northward. The docking was not good but could have been worse. The wind continued to pick up all Saturday night with a major blow occurring overnight and Sunday morning. Right now the winds are gusting over 35 miles per hour and almost just ripped off the front hatch. The winds aren’t supposed to calm down until Tuesday. We will probably stay until Tuesday morning. Our next stop is planned to be north of Jacksonville, somewhere in the vicinity of Fernandina Beach, a trip of about 60 miles, and will be the last stop in FL! So far we have traveled a total of approx. 350 miles from Ft Myers. We have about 3X that to go. We have to get moving a little faster. Georgia only has 2 major stopping places - those are Brunswick and Savannah. We’ll probably stay a couple of days in both. Also the ICW is shallower and narrower there, so the speeds are consequently much slower. But the low country and the creeks and rivers of Georgia are supposed to be beautiful and we are looking forward to seeing them. We just hope Cory can go a little longer between shore stops. We have settled in our own routines and are getting used to being confined. Tonight - our first Margueritas of the trip!

Day 11 and my captors continue to hold me hostage. Here they humiliate me on the main street of New Smyrna Beach. I am sooo embarassed!

A chart view of the Mosquito Lagoon passage - it looked intimidating...

The entry way into the Mosquito Lagoon - this passage is called the "Haulover Canal" - notice the ever-present dolphin in the foreground.

The reality of the Mosquito Lagoon - wide, deep, and full of dolphins, butterflies, and fishermen.

Calling Volvo for service - I purposely whitened my beard for this shot.

John photographed us at the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse- the second tallest in the U.S. I came back the next day for a tour while Ken & Cory rested on the boat. I really love the color of the lighthouse against the blue sky.

Entry into the St. Augustine Harbor is through this bridge - The Bridge of Lions. The bridge of steel is in the background and nowhere near as beautiful as the old bridge. Here the wind is picking up and we are looking for our marina for the night.

Guess which boat is ours!

Shopping with Cory in downtown St. Augustine. The streets are narrow, the shops small and very ecclectic. We didn't buy anything but penny candy.

Sunday we visited the Castillo De San Marco- built in the 1600's. They even shot off one of the cannons to celebrate our arrival! It was interesting and educational. Very windy day!!! In the extreme background is the inlet to St. Augustine from the Atlantic.

Psst... anybody looking to take me to a real home? I need space, space, and more space than I am currently allotted on the stupid boat! Of course, I expect full medical, dental, retirement, unlimited foot rubs and massages and room and board. In return I will make sure that total strangers will come up and talk to you just to see me! Signed - The Ambassador, aka Cory.