In view of the time we wasted coming home and fixing our broken instruments, and the fear of being caught in a thunderstorm and losing visibility on the ICW, we decided to go on the “outside” (ocean). We left through the Ft. Pierce inlet early in the AM, traveled all day, through the night and all day today. We arrived at St. Mary, Ga. Finally out of Florida.
The trip was uneventful, except for my watch at night. When lightning strikes even 20 miles away it lights up the night sky. You don’t necessarily see the strike, but the whole sky lights up in the distance. This was happening throughout the night. On my 36 mile radar I saw a number of storms that looked like they were going to intercept us, but none did, except for a little rain. When it was Janice’s turn to take watch I didn’t sleep very well. I made up for it after sunrise.
We had a pod of dolphins following us for what seemed like a half hour.
They might have stayed that long because they were curious about Schooner’s barking at them. They sure didn’t look scared. I got some short video clips of them (not very good), which I’ll upload in the future.
First thing we did when we arrived was to dinghy into the marina to take showers. When I closed my eyes in the shower it seemed like the room was rocking and rolling (like being at sea). I’ve experienced this before after being on a boat for a while. You get used to the rocking, so that when you’re on solid land, you’re not used to the stability. Janice experienced it as well. Don’t know about Schooner.
Will probably stay here another day, than move on. Would like to get to the Chesapeake before peak hurricane season in September.
Alan,
Great, you made it to St. Marys, GA! We were going to try to make it there by car one time on our trip coming back from the north but the weather interfered and we had Freckles. (It might have been the time when Larry was trying to outrun a hurricane and get south before it came across FL.)
We have made it to Jekyll Island (by car) off of Brunswick, GA and we found it to be a dog friendly place. Their low country boil at the marina is a delicious recipe but expensive. We always stay in Darien, GA (mm 49 on I-95) near where the shrimpers dock and that’s a dog friendly town. Homeland Security trains out of Mudcat Charlie’s where we eat. You’ll see their boats docked there. The marina also has a Kingfish tournament every mid-June and sportfishing boats come from all over the south. Off of Darien, GA is Sapelo Island but we needed a private guide because we had Freckles. It was well worth it because he was a local. University of GA runs the public tour out of their research center.
We always experienced the rocking and rolling after we got off the Groverbuilt from a 6 hour (with the new Yanmar diesel) ocean ride to Bahia Mar, Ft. Lauderdale! Usually we noticed it when we were sitting down stateside.
When we moved to FL in 1987 BF (Before Freckles), a pod of dolphins played with our bow in the ocean off of the St. Lucie Inlet. The Groverbuilt had the Volvo Penta inboard diesel at the time and the boat had a semi-displacement hull so Larry could probably explain why they liked the boat. It was a wonderful “welcome” to FL experience for us and a nice reward for you for being able to get underway!
Jane
Thanks for the ideas. We’ll try to hit as many dog friendly towns as we can.
Sounds like you really earned your way out of Florida. I’d love to see the photos of the dolphins. Thank you both for taking us all on your adventure
The dolphins are one the way!