Duplin RIver to Brunswick to Fernandina Beach (FLORIDA!)

Strong (loud) winds, chop, and strong currents did not make for a good night's sleep on the Duplin River behind Blackbeard Island.  Once the anchor reset with a flood tide late at night I decided that would be a good time to try out our newest app on the iPhone: the DragQueen anchor alarm.  Bad idea.  The alarm on the drag queen sounds something like the sirens you hear in European movies.  Despite setting it for 150 feet of movement instead of the customary 100 feet, the alarm woke us from a sound sleep 3 times during the night.  I put out a lot of anchor line to give us the best holding possible - but with the tide and wind in opposition the boat wandered around in the blackness all night.  I will not be using the DragQueen on rivers with flood and ebb currents that change every six hours.

After a restless night we motored for several more hours on the ICW.  The ICW gets a little monotonous after a while.  You can't really relax because you are constantly searching for the next mark while trying hard not to run aground in narrow channels.  Some of the narrow channels are invisible sections dredged out of areas of water that can be a half mile wide.  If the marks are not close enough you can spend some anxious moments looking for them.  In wide sections of water it is hard to tell where the center is and more importantly where the channel is.  We did successfully negotiate Hell Gate with an almost full tide.  At low we would have been a foot short of what we needed to keep Symphony floating above the bottom.

We thought we would put in to the Frederica River to end our day on Christmas Day.  After reading  that the bottom can be hard and difficult to set your anchor in, we decided another sleepless night was not what we needed.  We called the Brunswick Landing Marina for a dock space but no one was home.  This was probably appropriate for Christmas Day - a day when another couple supposedly had trouble finding accommodations two thousand years ago.  We decided to head to Brunswick anyway, figuring that we could probably tie up to a fuel dock and slip away early in the morning before anyone saw us to collect money.  When we got to Brunswick we did find a space on an outside dock.  On our way ashore we saw another Caliber 40, "Brilliant Star," with Chris and Janet aboard.  (http://brilliantstarcruises.net/) We decided we would sail with them the following day to Fernandina Beach, FL.  Before leaving with them we did pay for our dock space.  The early escape plan was not implemented.  Chris and Janet have a blog that has a wealth of useful information for cruisers.  It is always a pleasure to spend time with other Caliber owners.  We hope that we will see more of them - especially when it comes time to cross the Gulf Stream.

Brunswick WWII Memorial

Brunswick was a pleasant town - but almost completely deserted on Christmas Day.  Not a single business was open on the main street.  Two or three homeless individuals were the only people visible.  On a three mile run around the town I did find one taqueria and one laundromat open on the outskirts.  I took a picture of the WWII memorial to remember the town.  This was a strange and unforgettable Christmas Day.  Somehow I think Christmas is more fun when you can be with your family.

Shrimp is the big business in this area.  I was impressed with the forest of
Shrimpers booms in the air on our entrance into Brunswick GA

We would have continued to Jekyll Island on Christmas Day but Jekyll Creek is described as one of the shallowest sections of the ICW with some areas at only 2.5 feet.  Stopping at Brunswick allowed us to motor through Jekyll Creek at close to high water - about 7 feet of extra water to clear the bottom.  We had the luxury of following Brilliant Star the whole way.  Following another boat made finding marks and the channel much easier.  One section of the ICW in St. Andrews Sound is described as being in the Atlantic Ocean for a short way.  We found ourselves rolling hard as we negotiated our way through shoals in a relatively unprotected part of the Waterway.  A few hundred yards away we could see surf breaking in the shallows.  This like many other confusing areas of the ICW made me so happy we have a GPS plotter to show where we are.  The navigation would be much more nerve wracking without it.  I don't know how I found my way sailing through the waters of Maine with only a compass and depthfinder  as navigational instruments 28 years ago!

This large friendly colorful shrimp was the first to
greet us when we first set foot on a Florida Dock,

Finally today we crossed the border of Georgia into Florida!  Hooray!   We were excited.  We filled our fuel tanks and tied ourselves up to a mooring.  Tying up to a mooring was not an easy procedure.  The mooring has a very thick line with a stainless steel thimble.  (A thimble is a stainless steel eye inside a loop of line.)  It took me a while to figure out a way to tie it on so that it wasn't pulling hard on the stay that runs from the waterline at the bow to the bowsprit.  Once I did that I also had to move the anchor to keep it from rubbing against the pennant.  The anchor is now hooked on the bow pulpit rail.  We made it to shore by sunset.  Maryanne discovered a great restaurant off the main street.  We found it because of the colored lights and its sign: "Espana" a hundred yards or so down the side street.  Dinner was our celebration of finally reaching Florida.  Tomorrow we continue the excitement with laundry and food shopping.