April 16, 2017
Length of Trip: 17 days Nautical Miles Traveled: 230 Hours of Cruising: 20 hours Longest Cruising Day: 5.5 hours, 60 NM, Myrtle Beach, SC - Georgetown, SC Pleasant Surprise: No damage from the hurricane! Biggest Disappointment: American Airlines (Delta definitely superior as all the awful airlines go) Favorite Destination: Charleston, SC Favorite Activity: Historic tours by horse-drawn carriages & the roof top bars! Favorite Meal: Magnolia's, Charleston, SC
April 15, 2017
St. Augustine’s nickname is the ancient city, but ancient only by United States standards. The city is the oldest continually occupied city founded by Europeans in the US dating back to 1565. We began our tour of the city as I like to do whenever possible with a trolley tour tour that takes you all around the city in a little over a hour with the driver providing various historical tidbits along the way. After completing our tour, Matt and I were hungry and what better place to address a...
April 14, 2017
Matt and I had the entire day free and decided we should go see the sights of of the City of Jacksonville. Unfortunately there really wasn't a lot that sounded particularly interesting after looking through the TripAdvisor recommendations. Surprisingly, Matt was interested in the Jacksonville Zoo which was completely fine with me so that became our primary attraction for the day. We started, however, with lunch at the Jacksonville Landing on the St. John's River. The Landing is a retail and...
April 13, 2017
We have a relative short 23 mile run down the intercoastal to Jacksonville Beach, FL. We arrived around noon in time to walk down the road to TacoLu, a taco bar recommended to us by the local beside whom we were docked in Fernandina Beach. Then back to the boat for a thorough clean up before our big guests arrived for hors d'oeuvres and cocktails, Joan and Mark Davies, who live in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach. Matt BBQed some sausages (used the BBQ twice this trip!) and we put that together with...
April 12, 2017
Today we ran the 3 hour, 40 mile trip to Ferdinanda Beach, FL on the inside through the marshes and lowlands of Georgia. This northernmost city in Florida is known as the Isle of 8 Flags because the island frequently changed possession and is the only place in the US to have 8 different flags flown at various times in its history. We had heard Fernandina Beach was a charming town and it did not disappoint. Dozens of restaurants and quality shops filled with unique items lined several streets....
April 11, 2017
We were able to enjoy a very leisurely morning because our next destination, Brunswick, GA was just 30 minutes away. We arrived just in time for lunch and walked the couple of blocks to Indigo, recommended by the couple at the table next to us at dinner the night before. There was not a lot to see or do in Brunswick as it was one of those towns where about a third of the stores were either vacant or consisted of second-hand stores. But it was a beautiful day and perfect for downtime on the boat...
April 10, 2017
Today we spent the entire day on Jekyll Island, a popular vacation and tourist destination. I was very interested to see the Jekyll Island Club, a private club constructed in 1888whosemembers included the Morgans, Rockefellers and Vanderbuilts, now a luxury boutique resort hotel. We took a quick tour around and were impressed with the originality and condition of both thehoteland the small historic district of homes and other structures surrounding the hotel. One of most popular activities on...
April 09, 2017
The Savannah River runs adjacent to the city and leads to the Port of Savannah, which quite surprisingly, is the fourth busiest container port in the country. The Westin's docks are located right on the river and container ships were passing all through the night. Even though the ships went by at a very low rate of speed, the enormous size of the ships resulted in a night of bouncing around from the passing wakes. Nevertheless it was up early at 7:00 to begin preparing for our departure....
April 08, 2017
Due to a very busy summer of travel we were only going to complete a single boat trip this year to make it a bit easier on Timi. Before canceling I check with Matt Mirenda and he was up for substituting for Timi and so the trip remained on after all. Matt and I arrived on our flight to Savannah, GA around 4:00 pm and after picking up essential supplies at the Food Lion (beer, hot dogs, chips and bourbon), we made our way to the Westin Savannah where the yard had left the boat so could maximize...