Fernandino Beach, and warmer weather!!

Saturday’s voyage was three hours from an anchorage in the Brickhill River south of Jekyll Island GA to Fernandina Beach FL. See Main street left and an interesting shot of the robust foliage growing up this huge tree at a private mansion. We got a mooring ball two nights and will head toward St. Augustine today, anchoring at Pine Island tonight and then on to St. Augustine tomorrow where we’ll stay for Christmas. It's been very cold and windy so we have been "horsing" around on the mooring line quite a bit. We found a great breakfast cafe in Fernandino Beach called Bright Mornings and would recommend it to anyone coming this way. Fernandino Beach is also home to the oldest tavern in Florida--The Palace.

Here are some priceless photos from Fernandina Beach.... A VW Bus for daughter Chris and husband Joel to covet. ...and Norm, the Chrismas Dandy!

A few days ago we were lamenting the fact that friends are all around us, a few cruising days or a week away, but none will be in St. Augustine. Rick and Lynnie plan to be in Fernandino Beach for Christmas, the Gypsies and Steve and Di are in Stuart where we’ll be to celebrate the New Year, Joe Nekola parked his boat in Georgetown SC and rented a car to visit family for Christmas, Robin and Jim parked their boat at Palm Coast and got a car to visit family. Then, out of the blue, we get a call from Fran and Mike who are neighbors on dock B in Delaware. They’ve been tooling around Florida in their land yacht (aka motorhome). They are now in New Smyrna Beach which is a short ride away from St. Augustine and will head to St. Augustine to spend Christmas with us. What a blessing!

We spent some time with Glen and Jill Moore yesterday. They are DeFever cruisers who reside in St. Augustine. We had called them to get recommendations of what to do in St. A and see if we could connect while there. They’ll be gone while we’re there, but were headed up the coast in their DeFever, so we got to spend some time together in Fernandina Beach. Of course, they know everything about this area and gave us lots of tips on anchorages, shoaling in the Intracoastal Waterway, Restaurants, etc. They are also experienced Bahamas cruisers and shared some tips. The one Vicki is most likely to remember is..... don’t swim after 4:00 PM because that’s when the sharks come out --- to FEED!