Kerry and Sal's Sailing Voyage: We Made it to Florida…BUT… We’re Still Cold!!

We only spent about 4 days going through Georgia. We had some days of sun but strong winds. Sometimes in our favour, other times not. Sunday November 28^th we anchored across from Fort Frederica, which is a historical site that displays the remains of a fort and village over 300 years ago when the English and the Spanish were fighting over the ownership of Georgia. All that remains now are a few remnants of the houses and a wall or two of a defensive fort. It was nice to walk around. We saw our first Orange tree- a Seville Orange tree. My parents picked a few and brought them back, but they were very seedy and not edible. We spent the night with the antique cannons aimed at us. The next day was a windy and we crossed Sapello sound. It was very exposed and we felt like we were out in the ocean again. Rolling waves had us bobbing around for about 1 hour until we were back in the protection of the river. We found a protected anchorage behind Cumberland Island and spent the night there. My mom saw an Armadillo while walking around on the Island. Cumberland Island also has wild horses, but we didn’t get a glimpse of them. I was on the lookout for alligators, but alas I did not see any. It was a picturesque evening.

Tuesday November 30^th we crossed into Florida. We took a mooring ball for the night and went ashore. We showered and walked around in our shorts and t-shirts. So happy that we finally made it to the sunshine state! Sal bought me an ice cream (the most delicious one so far on this trip). We looked on the internet and found a movie theater about a 45 minute walk away, so we headed out and were able to watch the new Harry Potter movie. We then had to walk back in the dark. It was an eerie night as the wind was picking up and it was very dark out. Back at the boat, we settled down for the evening, discussing how awesome Harry, Hermione and Ron are! (hehehe). Then we slept, only to be woken a few hours later by banging on the mooring ball…uuuggghhhhhh. The wind had picked up and the ball was bashing into us. It stopped about an hour later, and I looked outside to see what was going on. The wind had changed to the north and a line of very dark clouds were approaching. This was the cold front coming through. The wind started roaring and waves picked up. We were rocking and bobbing and rolling. I was glad that we were secured to our ball, even though I was cursing it an hour earlier. Dad thinks we had gusts up to 40 knots! It died down a bit towards the morning and I was able to sleep. Sal on the other hand slept almost completely through it, besides the parts where I was talking to him.

December 1^st was a wind day. It was too windy for us to dinghy safely ashore so we spent a quiet day in the boat watching a few shows on the computer (until the battery died) and we played a card game, and napped. We tried reading but it made us a bit queasy as we were still rolling around a bit. We ventured out in the evening for dinner at Chautauqua. Did I mention that it was also starting to get very cold with a biting north wind? Well it was!

(Submarine in it's garage)

December 2^nd, the wind had died down enough for us to make it ashore. This time we were walking around in jeans, shirts, 2 sweaters and a jacket… what a difference! We did a bit of shopping and exploring the downtown. Time to move south…maybe we can catch up to some warmer weather. I told Sal if we ever do this trip again… we’re leaving in the beginning of August, not the middle of September! We left the mooring ball and headed down the river where we went about 10 miles and then anchored for the night.