Let it snow...just not here

Aaahhh…warmth. Finally we’re in central Florida and it’s beautiful. Since we left Annapolis we’ve been waiting and hoping for warm weather and we finally have it. When you cross into Florida from Georgia you think you are going to cross an imaginary line where the weather goes from 30 to 75 and although this usually isn’t the case, we were very lucky and have experienced the warmth since we arrived in Fernandina Beach, Florida over a week ago.
When I last left y’all…we were planning a 100 mile jump off the coast from Savannah river to Fernandina Beach, Florida. We timed out tides and planned to leave on an ebb (the current going out), and planned our arrival in Fernandina mid morning the next day. We listened to the weather and can you believe it…gale force winds from the NE and then blowing NE to E for the next week….UGH! So we hunkered down and waited for the gale winds in a little river called Kilkenney creek, only after spending a day in Savannah and enjoying the deep history and lush scenery of this beautiful city. We ventured into the city with Twice Loved's crew and spent a beautfiful sunny day exploring the squares that make up Savannah. So once the winds died down a bit, we yet again continued our way down the ICW. Everyday we listened to the weather and everyday they called for NE to E winds. Although we had heard a few horror stories about the Georgia section of the ICW such as going aground all the time, you’ll travel east and west more than north and south etc…we found it great, HOWEVER...I'm not sure if you've heard out desparate cries to "let us out of the ditch". Apparently being an 'El Nino' year the weather has been for lack of a better word crummy and unusually extremely windy. The weather was extremely cold through Georgia, but the depths were good even though we had to deal with 10 foot tidal ranges, we had great anchorages and Georgia isn’t very long along the coast so we travelled through quite quickly. It just goes to show that you have to experience your own thing and make your own judgement about different scenarios which we’ve learned time and time again on this trip.
Finally on a clear blue day, with current running with us and the sails closed reached we crossed the line into Florida only after watching the wild horses play on the beach. From Fernandina Beach we made our way to St. Augustine and anchored for a couple of days to check out the city. This is a great city, with a real Spanish flare to it. The buildings are incredible and the history again is outstanding. While in St. Augustine we decided that we would plan another attempt at an overnight sail. 120 nautical miles separated us in St. Augustine from Cape Canaveral. I began studying the charts and making sure we had details of the inlets etc…The weather was to be overcast but bearable and the winds although blowing from the east still were only forecasted to be around 10-15 knots with 3 foot waves. Finally….a prime opportunity to go. You’re not going to believe this…..we woke up …are you ready….socked in with….yup…FOG. OMG….we couldn’t believe our luck. Now when I say fog…I mean like Olcott fog. We couldn’t see people anchored in front of us, behind us, beside us etc… So, we decided to wait for the next day. I mean how long could it stick around anyway, we’re in Florida…you don’t have fog in Florida. We wake up the next day….socked in again. We wait until noon, our departure time….fog. We find ourselves struggling with what to do. Do we go ahead anyway and hope it’s not that bad even though they’re calling for fog through the day, night and next day? Do we wait in St. Augustine and if so how long are we going to wait for, as everyday we wait, we lose a travel day. Do we continue down the ICW as the fog lifted enough for us to make our way? UGH…We don’t have radar, so to continue on the outside was risky. I didn’t want to wait and lose travel days, so guess what that leaves us with….continue down the ICW. We made the right call however, as that night the fog rolled in even more and we woke up yet again to 0 visibility, but our disappointment was difficult to mask.
Although we’re in the ICW it opens up quite a bit and we can actually sail without the motor. Not to mention it’s warm and anything is bearable when it’s warm. So we’ve actually had a great time sailing, meeting up with old friends, sunny days…it has been great.
We made our way to Daytona Beach, Titusville past cape Canaveral (Kennedy Space Centre) and to Cocoa Beach. While in Titusville we met up with Snowday a boat we met while in St. Catherine’s in Lake Ontario and were lucky enough to see manatees in the harbour.(aka: sea cows) Snowday discovered that they love fresh water and because they were at the marina had access to fresh water and secretly left the water running so our new friends would come and entertain us. They are amazing, HUGE animals. We saw a mama with her baby and then later saw the papa. Ok…so when I say HUGE, I mean like HUGE HUGE. I had no idea they were so big. They have a huge face and when drinking the water revealed the inside of their mouths which have no teeth just 2 big palettes as they only eat vegetation. They are a very slow animal therefore the state has posted manatee zones all over the waterways to deter high speeds. It was very cool to see them and we marvelled at their ways for about and hour and then we turned off the water, but I swear they would’ve stayed all day if the water was left on.
From Titusville we sailed to Cocoa Beach city. While here we took the bus to the beach and went to the famous Ron Jon’s surf shop. While Mike and I were shopping in Ron Jon’s we heard a voice say “Where’re y’all from?” And so it began. From that initiation we and Twice Loved spent 2 days and 1 night at the brand new Ron Jons water park resort for free. Yes…it was a time share promo, but for 90 minutes of our time (and in those 90 minutes that sales person clued in pretty quickly that we were not interested---Lieran…I thought about you the whole time), we enjoyed 2 days and 1 night free. Our suite had a Jacuzzi tub (in which I enjoyed a 2 hour long bath and refilled twice) a king size bed, living room, 2 TV’s and a kitchenette. They had mini golf, a 200 foot tall waterslide, lazy river, pool, hot tub, tiki bar, movie theatre, tennis, basketball, private beach access and it was right beside the Cape Canaveral entrance where we could see the launch pads for the space shuttles from the resort. It only cost us $6.00 for the room tax. Needless to say, it was a nice xmas gift to all of us, and we enjoyed it thoroughly.
We’re back at home on Meggie now and plan to head out tomorrow and head for Stuart, Fl to hopefully meet up with some other sailors that we know that are there and enjoy a quiet xmas.
So in a nutshell, this has been our life for the past few weeks.
We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the best the new year has to offer.
So…until next time
Feliz Navidad
Kylie & Mike