Delayed in Darien

Darien, GA turned out to be a fine place to slow down for a bit.  There is a decent free dock with water and electric, both of which are virtually unheard of on a free dock.  It’s actually free for 48 hours, and cheap after that, but they’re very flexible if you’re needing to stay longer due to weather, repairs, etc… i.e., our sick dinghy outboard engine.  In the end, our visit was 5 days long and most enjoyable.  After a run of more touristy places, it was nice to kind of hang out, spend some time with some genuinely nice people.

The town of Darien has had a tough time of it over the years, fighting off the Spanish, the French, the Native Americans.  The Civil War, though, was a big nail in its coffin so to speak;  virtually uninhabited after nearly all of its residents fled inland, the Union troops looted and the burned the entire city… 1 business and 1 residence were left standing.  It was a pretty controversial deal actually, burning an undefended and not terribly strategic city, an event portrayed in the film “Glory” which was apparently filmed in part near here.  There is a big 150th anniversary celebration of the Burning of Darien scheduled for next month.  Hopefully there will be plenty of firefighters standing by this time…

Still, they rebuilt, reestablishing themselves as a major-for-Georgia shipping port, primarily lumber, at least until they ran out of trees.  Today it seems to be mostly about the shrimp.  There were so many commercial shrimp boats on the downtown waterfront, rafted two and three deep, that they were hard to count, and lots of coming and going activity during the several days we were there.  Ever since our time in Oriental, NC, I’ve had a fascination with these beautiful boats, so it was a real treat for me to watch their comings and goings over these several days.  Oh, and there’s apparently an outlet mall out near the interstate; needless to say, the mall was not on our “to see” list.

One of our first mornings in town, we pedaled the short distance to the edge of town to check out the Fort King George Historic Site, c.1721.  An interesting spot to explore,  it consists of a nicely done local history museum and a replica of the original fort and grounds.  Fort King George was the first English settlement on the soil that would become Georgia, and the southernmost British outpost.   It looked to be a place that does living history events, but was pretty quiet during our visit.   Another day we visited the Old Jail Art Center, which in addition to some historical exhibits, showcases some local artists’ work.  It was also nicely done.

Then there are the spots that are not likely on the tourist maps, but interesting for us.  The little public library had a paperback book sale, a fundraiser of sorts; we picked up 14 new-to-us books for $7, actually gave them $10.  Gotta love the local libraries.  Darien also has a wonderful hardware store, First Georgia Hardware and Marine, and I have to say they’re very serious about the marine part, serving the local commercial shrimpers no doubt.   Who knew you could buy acetone in bulk?  Yep, got some of that.  And Mike was able to replace some individual drill bits that he’s pretty much trashed working with fiberglass and PVC instead of wood.  I peered over the shoulder of a little boy who was coveting the live crickets available by the box full;  he had to educate me as to their usefulness for fish bait.  While wandering the aisles, I heard more than one customer come in asking for shrimp;  the staffs’ response was to ask “for eatin’ or fishin’?”  Apparently both were options.    Fun place.  We made several visits.  Even the folks at Piggly Wiggly, known as the Pig, were exceptionally friendly.  Mike spoke with a manager-like woman in the store about buying a couple of the half-sized plastic crates from the Coke display (we’d seen them used as bike racks on some boater bikes in Boot Key over the winter and have been on the lookout for a couple ever since), and she just gave them to us outright.

Of course we had several days to explore the local cuisine as well.  We stopped in the Wine Bar the first afternoon we arrived where we met another cruising couple from New Zealand who are currently at a marina down in Brunswick, GA.  Turns out they know another couple there who we first met in Oriental, NC and have crossed paths with several times since.  In fact, Joe and Cherie came up to Darien a day or so later and we camped out at a patio table of a breakfast/lunch spot, the Purple Pickle and spent about 4 hours catching up on our respective adventures.  Mike and I went back again for lunch before we left; Chicken and Waffles, best sandwich I’ve had in a long time, just sayin’.

Shrimp was also a given.  We wandered up the docks and bought a couple of pounds off a boat we’d watched come in just an hour or so earlier.  Skipper’s Fish Camp on the waterfront was very good.

Our dinghy outboard came back  to us after several days at a place called Outboard Rejuvenation; not kidding.  Sounded more like a spa than an engine repair outfit to me, but it was apparently just what our sick little outboard needed.   Turns out the problem wasn’t terminal; a little cleaning/polishing/TLC  and an overnight soak of the carburetor and we’re back to running, good as new.  Come to think of it, the Admiral (yours truly) could maybe use a little of that as well.

shrimp boats in evening light

shrimp sculpture at Old Jail Art Center

Adam Strain Building, c. 1813

fountain at Vernon Square

Ft. King George

view from fort

unhappy captain

St Simons Island

Working our way north through the barrier islands of Georgia, from the virtually uninhabited Cumberland Island to the managed development of Jekyll Island, our next stop was St Simons Island.  St Simons Island is also accessible by car, but without the fee to do so as is the case at Jekyll Island.  It’s also a bit larger, more developed… translate: more vehicular traffic. We’re back in civilization now.  Our plan for St Simons was to re-provision… there are two, count them, two full-sized grocery stores on this island, as well as see some of the sights.  While not as extensive as on Jekyll, I’d read that there are bike trails on St Simons as well, so we decided to once again ferry our bicycles ashore.  (Got to get a photo of this adventure one of these days!)

We’d been here once before, albeit very briefly, only to go ashore for groceries.  This time we were back to do some exploring.  We anchored in a familiar spot in the Frederica River between Lanier and St Simons Islands, though snuck in a little further than before, dropping the hook near a park with a very nice free, floating dinghy dock.

The Captain was feeling breakfast-deprived, so we opted to go ashore early and have breakfast that he didn’t have to cook.  (Those who know us know that while both of us cook, I don’t even attempt to compete with Mike when it comes to breakfast.) We pedaled down to the southern part of the island to an area known as the Village and had a fabulous breakfast at Palmer’s Village Cafe.  Food freaks that we are, one of the things we’re enjoying most about our meander through Georgia is the food… shrimp, grits, collards, BBQ… not all at one meal of course.  After breakfast, we wandered about the village and checked out some of the shops, including a used bookstore where we traded some of the books we finished while waiting out weather earlier this month.  St Simons has an extensive, very family friendly… translate playground and watermark waterfront park overlooking St Simons Sound.  We walked over to the St Simons Lighthouse and managed to sneak in a tour of the Keeper’s Cottage and climbed the lighthouse itself, fortunately just ahead of a group of four school buses full of elementary school munchkins in color-coded t-shirts (a different color for each bus).  This light was originally constructed in the early 1800′s, was destroyed by the Confederates in 1864 before they fled so that the Union wouldn’t be able to use it, was rebuilt in 1872 and has been shining ever since.

After narrowly escaping the elementary school invasion, we collected our bikes and rode up the east side of the island to the Maritime Center, a former Coast Guard Station known as East Beach Station.  Unfortunately we arrived during the docent’s (extended) lunch break so had to wait for a bit for his return.  This Coast Guard station has some history as well.  It was one of a few dozen like it built as WPA projects under FDR, though this is one of only three of those structures that remain standing today.  The exhibits were nicely done, very kid-friendly as well, which made me wonder if the color-coded invaders weren’t far behind.  Exhibit highlights included the obligatory Coast Guard history, some tales of WW2 excitement (the sinking of two merchant ships by a German sub and subsequent rescue of most, including a dog), and finally a nicely done natural history exhibit.

Our brains full, we went in search of lunch to fill our bellies, then groceries given that the grocery on Jekyll had pretty much been a bust.  Southern Soul Barbecue, yet another gas-station-turns-restaurant affair, turned out to be a most delicious find.  Check out their website for a list of accolades, including a feature on Food Networks’ Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.  Mike sure does know how to pick ‘em.  Fellow I-travel-to-eat food freaks might also enjoy this Southern Living article.   We hit the Winn-Dixie on our way back to Cheshire, got bikes, groceries and ourselves loaded into the dinghy and headed across the creek.  At which point our dinghy engine started misbehaving.

Actually it’s been a little cranky since we adopted it, along with the RIB dinghy when we bought Cheshire, but she was really sounding sick this time.  Thankfully we were able to limp back to Cheshire… as opposed to drifting away with the very strong current that was running.  (Remember that our dinghy oars jumped ship during our off shore stint south last fall, since which time we’ve been carrying an a spare kayak paddle in case of emergency, which is admittedly a poor substitute and would be useless in any kind of wind or current, but since we’ve been considering replacing the dinghy and outboard anyway…. ) In any event, we hauled the sick engine off the dinghy onto its home-when-not-in-use on the stern where Mike disassembled it best he could with it hanging in space (translate: tools at risk of being dropped in the river!) before declaring it beyond his ability to diagnose.  Of course this is all at 4-something on a Friday afternoon.  We decided it probably needs some professional TLC anyway, so we revised our plans.  We skipped our 2nd day of adventures on St Simons (Fort Frederica National Monument and even more disappointing, a visit to a favorite grocery store, Harris-Teeter) for fear of the dinghy dying altogether in the process.  Instead we headed for Darien, GA, which was to be our next stop anyway.  In Darien, we’re on a free dock, and the dinghy engine was just admitted to a dinghy engine hospital this morning.  I’m not sure if Mike’s hoping she recovers or that whatever ails her is terminal… he’s started talking about an electric outboard again.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, while we wait, we’ll explore Darien… which for starters has more shrimp boats than I’ve ever seen in one place.  Sounds like good eating if nothing else.

St Simons light

view across St Simons Pier to Sidney Lanier Bridge

Maritime Center/Historic Coast Guard Station, St Simons Island

Mike in a coastie “dixie cup”

Wood Stork at marsh edge

Playground of America’s Millionaires, 100 Years Ago

While the Carnegie family played on Cumberland Island, the rest of the millionaires of the era decided form their own private club; in 1886  they incorporated and bought a little island for the cost of $125,000.  The Jekyll Island Club was exclusive, 53 members initially, amongst them the rich and powerful of the Northeast with a few families from Chicago thrown in for good measure, the Vanderbuilts, Morgans, Pulitzers and Rockefellers to name a few.  Jekyll Island was their winter playground, complete with grounds for hunting, horse-back riding, bicycling, tennis, etc, and later golf courses.  There was no causeway connecting the island to the mainland back then, so they built a wharf so as to have somewhere to keep their yachts.   Unlike other clubs of the time, women and families were encouraged to participate.  In the beginning there was a clubhouse, which over time became surrounded by mansion-sized “cottages” where families could have a bit more privacy, but still take their meals and socialize at the clubhouse.  The Club was active/open nearly winter for more than 50 years until a number of factors converged to lead to its demise… including the Great Depression, a decrease in interest of younger generations partly due to transportation improvements… more travel options if you will, and finally WW2, during which the island was evacuated due to the German submarines lurking off shore (with great interest in the Liberty Ships that were being built in nearly Brunswick, GA – earlier post here).

Eventually Jekyll Island was purchased by the state of Georgia, initially as a state park, now managed separately by the Jekyll Island Authority.  Development is controlled; 65% of the land, for example, is to remain undeveloped.  (Even that is not straight-forward though;  check out this article for a bit of the controversy.)  There is a 240 acre Jekyll Island Historic District, a National Landmark Historic District in fact, featuring the clubhouse reborn as the Jekyll Island Club Hotel, with 30+ of the other late 19th- early 20th century structures scattered about in various states of restoration.  The JIC Hotel website has some more history and interesting old photographs. It’s a very pedestrian-friendly and bike-friendly place as well.  With the island being 7 miles long by 1.5 miles wide, we opted to bring our little fold-up bikes ashore to allow for a bit more exploration.

We found a nice little anchorage for Cheshire, with not one but two points of shore access by dinghy.  In our travels, especially when we we’re away from marinas with plans to go ashore exploring, we need to find secure anchorages with reasonable shore access.  Sometimes this is easier said than done.  In this case we found a public boat ramp with a free dinghy dock.  Trash disposal and a public restroom on site were bonuses.  We used this option on the day we arrived, when we spent a couple of hours scouting the area and making a quick grocery run.  We learned that one way to limit “development” is to create a little shopping center of mobile home looking businesses, including a hardware store, liquor store, grocery (this one was a double-wide!) to provide basics for island residents and visitors; we’re guessing these “temporary” structures don’t count for development.  Not an impressive grocery either, but good for milk, juice and bread anyway.

In our case though, we were also due to get some laundry done and needed to get one of our two propane tanks refilled.  Often marinas will charge a fee, way less than dockage fees (in this case $20 instead of more than $70), for dinghy parking and access to marina amenities.  We opted the following day  to spring for one day of same, and spent a morning tending to some chores.  I did a couple loads of laundry while Mike borrowed the marina’s courtesy car and made a run to get our propane tank refilled, and topped off the dinghy fuel tank.  We also ferried about 30 gallons of water over the course of the day to top off water tanks.  By noon, we were done with chores and ready to explore.

We opted to start with a narrated trolly tour of the historic district which also included tours of a couple of the mansion- “cottages”.  These tours originate in the old stables, a building which now houses an interesting little museum of bits and pieces of island history.  Our tour guide was quite good and the weather perfect.  Afterwards, we decided to bike about the historic district ourselves for a bit, then meandered the bike paths up to the north end of the island to see the Horton House ruins, and on to Driftwood Beach before settling in for an early dinner at Driftwood Bistro.  Back at the marina, we enjoyed “Hollywood” showers, loaded the dinghy with 2 last jerry cans of water, bikes and ourselves and headed back to Cheshire, ending a long but enjoyable day.

Jekyll Island Club Hotel

duBignon Cottage

Indian Mound Cottage

Faith Chapel

Jekyll Wharf

Horton House ruins

trees on Driftwood Beach

Mike on Driftwood Beach

Driftwood Beach

Paperbacks, Piglets and Pit Vipers

In Japan, there is a week-long holiday from April 29 through May 5th every year, a collection of mostly national holidays collectively known as Golden Week.  Since our return, I try to maintain the tradition… a week-long celebration that also happens to include my birthday.  This year, Golden Week found us beginning our adventure into what’s referred to as the Golden Isles of Georgia, named for the color of the plentiful marsh grass in the fall season.

We started with a day long visit to St Mary’s, GA, located just a short stretch up the St Mary’s River which is the dividing line between Georgia and Florida.  We anchored off of the historic downtown area and took the dinghy into one of the nicest waterfront parks that we’ve seen in our travels to date.  We spent the early morning walking the waterfront, watching a variety of shorebirds feed at low tide and wandering about the historic district.  St Mary’s has scored a listing on the National Register of Historic Places and in fact has a very quaint, very walkable downtown area, but its primary claim to fame is that it’s the jumping off point (translate: ferry service) for Cumberland Island National Seashore which is only accessible by boat.  The ferry cost is $20/person.  With your own transportation, in our case, Cheshire and our dinghy, the cost is $4/person, good for a week.  The other thing that keeps the town of St Mary’s going is the nearby Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base.  Not surprising then, a couple of the more popular attractions in St Mary’s are the Submarine Museum and the Cumberland Island National Seashore Museum as well as the Cumberland Island NS Visitor’s Center.  We visited them all of course.  The Sub Museum was impressive, though I suspect more so for those who have some connection to the Navy and/or submarines more specifically.  We had a very tasty lunch at Lang’s Seafood, and spent a bit of time exploring a used bookstore in town.  Without a TV, we’re reading a lot more, and although most marinas have a “take one, leave one” library of sorts, used bookstores are a treat ’cause we get to look for books we’re interested in instead of perusing boater libraries which tend to be more limited.  This day I scored 5 new-to-me books for $10.70.  What a deal!

The following day we headed over to Cumberland Island.  We’d anchored here before, but this time headed for an area known as Plum Orchard.  It’s north of where the ferry arrives/departs, but has a small dock used primarily by the park service.  This way we’d be positioned to explore some of the trails on the northern end of the island that we’d not hiked previously. (The island is 17.5 miles long and covers more than 56 square miles, so it’ll take a few visits for us to cover it all.)  For those who might have missed it, check out my earlier post on Cumberland Island for some history and info on the more visited locations.  We arrived in the early afternoon, and I was completely distracted by the “squirrels” in the trees on shore, which became a vast variety of wading birds shortly after setting anchor.  Quite a birthday gift indeed!  Mostly wood storks and roseate spoonbills, with a few white egret, snowy and tri-colored heron scattered in as well, we’ve not seen this many birds this close in the wild before.  Hard to get good photos given the distance, but that didn’t stop me from trying.  We opted to go ashore for an afternoon hike, and the wildlife sightings continued.  The trees were full of birds, some of which we were able to see, many who hid in the live oak and spanish moss; they made a nice soundtrack to our hikes each time ashore.  Cumberland Island is known for its feral horses… we saw a few of them.   Feral pigs are also rumored to be plentiful, but harder to spot;  we saw a couple at a distance, but they didn’t stick around for a photo op.  The real theme of the afternoon, much to my dismay, seemed to be snakes… a Rough Green Snake, then a lighting fast Black Racer which scared the sh*t out of me.  (Side bar: anyone want to take a guess what the state reptile, yes, that’s  state reptile of Ohio is?)  By the way, have I mentioned how much I don’t like snakes?  Then, while we’re walking along a path, looking UP trying to spot some of the freaking birds we were hearing, Mike, who was just ahead of me just about steps on a giant (Mike guesses 4.5 – 5 ft) Water Moccasin!  At least we’re pretty sure it was a Water Moccasin.  It got pissed and stood it’s ground in the middle of the trail, Mike on one side and me on the other.  We both decided we’d walk away, opposite directions and let him decide what he wanted to do in this situation… which was eventually to crawl to the side of the trail and hide his head under a palm leaf (scary sight through the binoculars, I assure you).  I spent the next hour freaked out about what was lurking under the palm leaves that were scattered about every 2 feet or so.  Snakes notwithstanding, it was a fine hike, a fine way to celebrate my birthday.

And then the rains came down… that night, the following day, the day after that and… and not the rain-for-a-bit-and-then-the- skies-clear kind of rain, rather this was rain-all-day rain.  Like no sun.  Like thank goodness our wind generator is working again.  We literally stayed on the boat for three solid days, eating and reading, eating and reading some more.  I would occasionally, in the brief moments in between raindrops, take my binoculars out and stand on the back of the boat looking at the wading birds tucked into the trees waiting out the rain as well.  Fortunately we were well protected from the easterly winds… “gale force gusts” on occasion.  It was just cool, and damp.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, the sun came out.  We opted to go ashore again for a hike.  This day’s trail would take us over to the beach side, briefly though as the wind was still blowing, then on some more remote trails.  No snakes this time, but we did see a couple of piglets.  One poked its head out just ahead of us on the trail, and just as quickly changed its mind and scurried back into the underbrush.  I managed a fuzzy photo, and we kept moving, concerned about the possibility of an unhappy, protective Mama Pig nearby.  (Mike, loudly: “Crashing through the trail now, crashing through the trail!!”)  A bit further along we saw what was perhaps a piglet sibling, lying along the trail, moving it’s little limbs, but not getting anywhere.  We suspect we may have interrupted someone’s dinner.  Troubling, but nature at work.  We also managed to pick up some ticks, nature I could have done without, thank you.  Good thing we had the anchorage practically to ourselves; I’m sure we would have looked pretty hysterical stripping down to nothing in the cockpit for a “tick-check” upon return to the boat.  This morning we went ashore again, determined to stay on the wider, open trails… and the ticks found us again.  Repeat cockpit tick-check.  This afternoon we’ll enjoy the quiet, the glorious breeze and lower humidity, and hot showers.. at anchor we have no hot water except for the solar shower and what we boil for dishes.  Tomorrow we continue our exploration of the Georgia coast… Jekyll Island and St Simon’s Island, here we come!  As always, stay tuned.

Roseate Spoonbill

Broadhead Skink

Water Moccasin

Slowing Down

It seems like each trip south, north, south again, through Georgia and north Florida, we’ve been moving fast.  Each southbound trip, it’s been late in the season and we’ve been beating feet, racing the cold to get far enough south to be warm.  Last spring, we’d been to London in April/May, then got delayed in Jacksonville by an early tropical storm Memorial Day weekend, and had plans to have the boat in the Chesapeake ahead of the Fourth of July, followed by a road trip to the midwest, so we were moving.  This trip north, we decided to leave early enough in the season to beat the heat and allow for some exploring.  Meeting a subset of my family in the panhandle for a week in early April (dictated by spring break schedules) got us north earlier than we might otherwise have been.   That, and we managed to tear ourselves away from St Augustine somewhere close to schedule.

Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island is about as far north in Florida as you can get.  Amelia Island is the northernmost barrier island on the Florida coast.  It’s a return visit for us, our 3rd actually.  We actually spent a couple of nights at anchor up a creek just south of Fernandina Beach waiting for a front to blow through… and a mooring ball to open up.  Turns out our timing was perfect; when we finally got to pick up our mooring Saturday afternoon, we had great weather for our time ashore.

Fernandina Beach has a nice little historic district;  find a slightly dated but full of good photos article from  Metro Jacksonville here.  We spent our first afternoon/evening ashore strolling the main drag, had a lovely dinner alfresco at LuLu’s at the Thompson House, a new place for us, followed by a return visit to Dog Star Tavern, one of the best rum bars we’ve found in our travels to date.  On previous visits, in the dead of winter, it was quiet… we chatted with the bartenders and got some good rum tips.  This visit was on a Saturday night, complete with live music, a band called Green Sunshine Band, described as a “blend of funk, soul, and reggae, mixed in with hip-hop, and even a trumpet”.  Yep, that about sums it up.  Not usually my style, but they were actually pretty good;  check out the clip on Dog Star Tavern’s Facebook Page, post of Saturday April 27th.  And we got to sample a couple of new-to-us rums we’d heard about.  Not a bad night.

The following day we opted to get off the beaten path so to speak, and explored the Egans Creek Greenway.  I’d seen a glimpse of this trail during a previous stop.  The Greenway is a 300 acre oasis amidst the development of Amelia Island, with several miles of trails and several access point amongst the surrounding neighborhoods.  It’s apparently quite the wildlife spot, and not surprisingly a Great Florida Birding Trail location, though we didn’t see a whole lot of activity during our mid-day visit.  Lots of wildflowers, an abundance of turtles including what we’re pretty sure is a Peninsular Cooter,  and a few birds.  (Our friends Bob and Donna could have surely identified them, probably by call, but alas, we’re just not that good.)  Amelia Island Living and Travel magazine has a nice article and photos; check it out here.  I can also vouch for the raspberry smoothies at DeNucci’s near the southern end of the trail.  We decided we’d walked about 8 miles getting to the Greenway, exploring the trail, and walking back to the marina, carrying groceries the last 2.5 miles; next time we bring the bikes ashore.  For dinner aboard, Mike did magic things with the fresh grouper we picked up from Atlantic Seafood (photo below).

This morning we said good-bye to Fernandina Beach and headed north… or northwest actually.  We’ve officially started the “meander Georgia” portion of our trip north.  As I type, we’re anchored off of St Mary’s, which is on the Georgia side of the St  Mary’s River which is the Georgia-Florida dividing line.  In fact, best I can tell from Google maps, we’re anchored just about on the state line, that is until the tide turns.  Tomorrow we’ll go ashore and see what St Mary’s has to offer.  Until then…

otter on the dock

Egans Creek Greenway

Peninsular Cooter?

Atlantic Seafood

 

 

In Other News…

… check out Mike’s new… uh, haircut?  Look closely.

Most of you know that Mike’s been cutting my hair since shortly after we moved aboard.  He does a fine job, mostly, although the commentary while in process is sometimes unnerving.  Comparisons to hedgehogs while taking scissors to my head…. not comforting, but then, that’s my Mike.

And occasionally he’ll have me trim up his ponytail.  Did I say that I love his ponytail?  Have I shared of the trauma I experienced the week before we were married when he cut it off?  Shortly thereafter he grew it back, thank goodness.  Even worse was the time years later that he shaved off his mustache!  That was even more traumatic;  I felt like I was kissing a stranger for weeks… and then he grew it back.

Fast-forward to the present.  He’s been threatening to lose the ponytail for weeks now.  I knew it was coming.  And now it’s gone.  And I’m pretty sure it won’t be coming back.  But I’m kinda liking this new look.  He’d just better keep the mustache.  Really, I’m not kidding.  I’m not.

 

Hanging out… still… in St Augustine

After our more-hurried-than-our-usual trip north, a week-end visitor, followed by 2 weeks on the road, we were glad to be back aboard Cheshire with no schedule to speak of.  We’d thought we’d have to be leaving St Augustine shortly after our return, but it turns out the marina had room for us to stick around a bit longer.  So we opted to stick around a bit longer.  A month-long stay would have had us out of here yesterday, but then Mother Nature cast her vote… crappy stormy weather for a few days. So, we’re now talking about a Tuesday departure.

Hidden Harbor has been a fine marina to hang out at for a stretch.  It’s smaller, with quite a few folks living aboard, and unfortunately very little space for transients (that’s us, folks just passing through) so we got lucky this pass that they had some space available.  Off our port side is a marsh area, which has been a fabulous place for bird-watching when the tide is out.  We’ve spotted Great Blue and Tri-color herons, Great and Snowy egrets and at least one winged creature we haven’t been able to identify.  There’s even a Red-winged Blackbird that hangs out on the davits on the boat off our stern; love their call.

We’ve had some time to play.  Following our recent road trip, we took advantage of our final day with a rental car to check out the Guana River Wildlife Management Area, part of the greater Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve just north of St Augustine.  (The southern portion of this reserve is south of St A, near Marineland, mentioned in an earlier post.)  We had a lovely hike about, saw more armadillos than I’ve seen in my life, and ended the day with a return visit to one of our favorite restaurants in the area, Palm Valley Fish Camp.  We love this place, but it’s definitely out of walking/biking range from St Augustine.  Last Saturday we bicycled over to our favorite of three area farmer’s markets, the Old City Farmers Market, and in addition to the produce, honey and hot sauce we usually pick up, we decided to add a piece by a local artist (Ray Brilli) to our small but growing art collection;  he was actually willing to do a custom-sized piece for us given our limited wall space.    Photo below, but you really have to see it in person to appreciate it.

Of course there are always boat chores as well.  We’re now on a first name basis with the woman at the UPS store, having been there a couple of times in as many weeks.  The inverter/charger Mike installed last year, you know, the one that got fried by a lightning storm/power surge last summer, the one we had to uninstall, drive to Annapolis for repair, p/u again from Annapolis and reinstall with a surge protector during our stay in the Chesapeake.  Well, it got fried again, and no one is quite sure why.  This time the closest authorized repair shop is in Ormond Beach, except that we no longer have a car to shuttle it back and forth.  So, we went to Home Depot and bought a foldable hand cart… which we’d been talking about anyway for when we have to go some distance to refill our propane tanks.  Mike decided that instead of walking said inverter (40+ lbs) on said hand cart the 1.6 miles to the UPS store, he’d bungee it to a bike rack.  It was a wee bit precarious, but it got us there.  We shipped it, they repaired it and thankfully shipped it back directly to the marina.  It’s now reinstalled with an additional switch of some kind that may or may not make a difference in the next storm.  We’ll see.  Mike had also negotiated, with another company, the replacement of several Caframo fans we’d installed that were misbehaving… except that first pass the company sent the wrong color replacements.  Once again, the hand cart (big box for 3 fans!) came in handy.  And again a few days later for a walk to the propane fill location.  While Mike’s been playing with fans, I’ve been cleaning/polishing stainless steel topside; together we spent part of a day tending to the ground tackle/anchor & chain rode… dragging 120′ of chain out on the dock to rinse and give it a coat of Boeshield to help stave off corrosion, then re-stash it.  There’s always a project waiting.

But then, sometimes we just sit and read for hours on end, especially on our few-and-far-between rainy days.  It all balances out in the end.  Today we’ll do a bit more planning for our upcoming meander along the Georgia coast and into South Carolina.  As always, stay tuned.

armadillo

trail at Guana River Wildlife Management Area

creative transport

Great Blue Heron

???

Tri-Color Heron

Tri-Color at water’s edge

Ray Brilli’s Lazy Day in St Augustine