St. Augustine to Hilton Head SC

As we continue following spring up the east coast we have finally left Florida and have begun covering some miles. Our first stop after St. Augustine was up the St. Johns river to the Ortega river just outside Jacksonville. We chose the Ortega Landing Marina because they offered 1 night free and had a pool and hot tub! It was a bit of a detour off the ICW but a nice stop.

Waiting for the RR bridge

The St. Johns river above Jacksonville is a busy shipping port with container ships as well as military and cruise ships docking there. In the picture below we are about to pass a docked container ship on the left as a RORO vehicle carrying ship is inbound.

It was just after passing these ships that the boat started with a terrible vibration and the engines began loosing power. After backing down to idle speed and turning off the engine synchronizer I was able to isolate the issue to the port engine only about the time the engine shut down completely. A quick trip to the engine room showed that the fuel filter on the port engine had clogged and the engine was starving for fuel. I changed the main filter while underway but the secondary would require us being tied to a dock. Jill had already found a free dock a few miles away by the time I returned and we limped in in one engine with no further issues. Secondary filter was changed out and fuel selector switched to the auxiliary 50 gallon tank and in 20 minutes we were back in business.
Now for confession time...my goal had been to get to Brunswick GA where fuel was $1.75 and let the level get too low in the main tank. It only had 25 gallons left  in it and we started sucking up the "sludge" that lives on the bottom of the tank. Lesson learned and no damage done to anything but my pride....flew a bit too close to the sun.

We tied up that night to our last Florida stop, Fernandina Beach. It's a very nice little town and we will stop again when we have more time to spend there. It is home to what they claim is the oldest saloon in Florida, the Palace Saloon. I think we have been in 3 or 4 oldest bars in Florida....

Early the next day we crossed the border into Georgia. We knew after attending the fall AGLCA rendezvous that the AICW through Georgia and South Carolina had strong currents and big tide changes. The area also has shallow spots and requires careful planning to be at problem areas close to high tide. We've had no issues so far....fingers crossed.

Once in Georgia you are greeted by Cumberland Island with it's famous wild horses to the right,

  
and Kings Bay Submarine base to the left. Kings Bay is the home to the Atlantic Trident submarine fleet. The first picture is the degaussing bay where they "de-magnetize" the ships...some sort of magic trick.

Degussing bay

As we were nearing the northern tip of Cumberland Island I leaned out of the fly bridge a bit to get a picture of the lighthouse. I was greeted by an ear piercing scream and thought the boat was blowing up!! Turns out it was just a couple of friendly pilots buzzing is in their A-10's...now I know why they were so feared in the Gulf Wars...you never hear them coming. I imagine the pilots had a big grin as they used us for "target practice".

Our first stop in Georgia was Brunswick. It's another nice small southern town that's trying to recover from industry moving elsewhere. They have a very nice marina with FREE beer in the clubhouse 24/7 and a FREE wine party 3 nights a week. This was a nice spot to spend a few nights and we are beginning to meet up with other loopers we haven't seen since the keys.

Brunswick was a very busy sea port not too long ago and even built 99 of the Liberty Ships used in WW II. Hopefully they will continue to recover. One word of caution if you visit...don't go on Sunday. Even the CVS is closed!!!

Below are two pictures taken from our boat in Brunswick. They show the  tide difference pretty well.

High Tide

Low Tide

 After Brunswick we anchored out for a night before going to Isle of Hope marina outside of Savannah. Along the way we saw another eagle as well as an important reminder on staying in the charted channel. If you look closely you can see they are using their time well while waiting for the tide.

Isle of Hope is another place where we could have spent more time. I kept expecting Forrest Gump to walk down the street. This is also the first place we had seen a courtesy car since the panhandle of FL/AL. We didn't go into Savannah while here but drove down from Hilton Head while we had a car rented.

Early the next day we left for Hilton Head. Along the way we passed our friends on Moni Jean who were getting some work done on the boat near Savannah. They started the loop from the same place we did and are running a similar schedule. We seem to hop scotch among looper friends as we head along the way.

We are now in Hilton Head and have been for almost a week. This isn't really our kind of place but the marina was offering a terrific discount for loopers and we had some work to get done. A rental car allowed me to get the supplies for an oil change (16 gallons) as well as an afternoon in Savannah. Jill has been getting some top coats on the varnish which was starting to look a bit dull. Savannah is another town worthy of a longer stop...

We'll be heading on tomorrow for a stop in Beaufort SC before continuing on to Charleston for the weekend. After that we'll be moving along at a more steady pace as we head toward the Chesapeake about late May. We need to be above Norfolk by June 1 for insurance reasons. Don't think we'll make Annapolis by the 25th but who knows. We are now traveling with our friends on Knot Sew Easy and Jammin' Jane so you never know where we may end up.

About the only thing worthy of a picture here in Hilton Head has been the sunsets so I'll leave you with one of the better ones.