Chapter 60: Cruising the ICW and Delays…

Friday, December 1 – we finally said farewell to Brunswick Landing Marina in the early afternoon after a last visit from Drew to bring us some parts for the traveler.  Our amazing dock neighbors, Bill and Margaret saw us off and we were sad to say goodbye to them but hoping to see them again in the Bahamas. Because we got a late start we headed for the ICW with a goal of getting to an anchorage off of Cumberland Island.  It was a beautiful sunny day for setting off along Jekyll Island.  We successfully navigated the Jekyll Island bridge at low tide and the shallow depth of the creek.  We made it to Terrapin cove off of Cumberland Island and dropped the hook before sunset.  It was a very quiet spot, only one other boat in sight.

On Saturday we awoke to very foggy and damp conditions. We started our presail checks and unfortunately found that we still have an oil leak. Our oil level was okay so we could set sail but this will need to be dealt with before we can make any longer trips. We weighed anchor and began our journey towards Fernandina Beach.  As we started off we had some dolphins come alongside the bow to play but then quickly we were in the dense fog.  It is very disconcerting when you cannot see the landmarks and it took two of us to keep a careful eye out for the ATONS (aids to navigation marking the course). We also needed to keep a look out for other vessels because not all vessels use AIS so they do not automatically show up on the chartplotter.  When it is foggy like that, vessels are required to use their marine foghorn so that is helpful but again a bit disconcerting when you hear the foghorn but cannot see where the vessel is.  The fog stayed with us all the way to Fernandina so we were happy to arrive at the harbor and find a spot to anchor.  

We chose Fernandina because we needed to stop there at an Amazon locker to pick up yet another part. That sounds easy but nothing is easy when traveling by boat! We anchored across the channel from the marina which has a dinghy dock that we could pay a daily fee to use. So we got the dinghy alongside the boat,  lowered the outboard down and attached it to the dinghy and set off for the marina. We forgot the lock for the dinghy so back to Meraviglia we went.  We set off again for the dock.  The forecast of course was for rain all day so we had our rain gear on.  From the marina, it was a 2.7 mile walk each way which isn’t bad, except for the rain and the humidity.  We did get to walk through the downtown area on the way back and Fernandina Beach is very cute, with shops and restaurants. We stopped for ice cream at Fantastic Fudge on our way back to the dinghy dock. By the time we got back and into the dinghy,  the rain really started to come down.  We were soaked by the time we got back onboard! We were hoping it would stop in time for the scheduled Christmas parade in town but unfortunately the rain continued all night so we stayed tucked on board Meraviglia.

On Sunday, we awoke to gray skies but no rain so we took the dinghy back to town to go to church.  We visited St. Peter’s Episcopal Church and it was a lovely service to start the advent season. The church had a beautiful pipe organ and lots of stained glass windows.  The service was packed and we loved the service and the music although we are missing St. A’s in Brunswick. After church we had yet more parts needed from Home Depot.  This one was too far to walk too so I tried to get an Uber. No luck.  Lyft. Same result.  Finally we were able to find a local transportation service that would take us there and wait for us to bring us back (just don’t ask how much it cost!)  Back onboard, Bob was continuing to troubleshoot some of our electronics and found a new issue that will need fixing – I think we are both resigned to this being an ongoing condition but unfortunately it does mean we will likely need to hang out in Fernandina a little longer before we can resume our trip south.  But Bob had a huge success today when working to get our Starlink up and going. This has been a huge weight on him to get this working so that we have reliable communication and will also enable us to get our Predict Wind Datahub running. Once we are up and running with Predict Wind we will be able to share a link that anyone interested can click on and see where Meraviglia is currently. So we are going to take this win and celebrate it while we hang out a bit longer in Fernandina. At least Fernandina seems to be a nice little area with things within walking distance. Hopefully, we will be able to get these things fixed in a reasonable time frame and continue on our way.  We have a date in Miami for Christmas with the kids so the countdown is on! 20 days until they arrive! Woo hoo!