If you’ve been following us you know about the Bums, right?  If not sure, then check their blog that’s been up and running for oh, must be at least 12 years, since they headed off on a sailing catamaran named Bumfuzzle, to circumnavigate. First, just Pat and Allie circumnavigating, then they changed gears and modes of transportation several times, but always some very vintage-y cool vehicle, like a Traveco, or a VW Bug. Across the country, to Mexico, across the pond and back- when oh, Allie was due with Ouest, who is now SEVEN! Then along came Lowe, so now the perfect family of blonde Bums. There’s so much more to their story, you will just have to read it for yourself.

How do we know about them? Well, several years prior to 2010 we needed to figure out “how much would we spend out there?” Keep in mind this is before blogs, when people just had a website. Pat had the knowledge and background to construct a great site, even had a “Buy us a beer” feature. One thing they did that almost no one else did, was to put up a page that showed their spending by category; not very many categories mind you, but hey it was better than nothing. From that fateful moment on, Russ checked that blog regularly. Jimmy Buffett was our musical inspiration, Latitudes and Attitudes (Lats & Atts) our monthly magazine inspiration and now Bumfuzzle.com was our online addiction! Buy the boat and we are good to go! 🙂  Oh wait, we bought their book too and Russ had them sign it for me as a gift.

Imagine our excitement when we read the latest news; they’d bought a Grand Banks 42 and would be cruising Florida and Bahamas! Good news: the boat is located in St Augustine, Florida. Bad news: Irma is on her way. Good News: Boat is in a snug and sturdy marina, one that we’ve been to and were planning to visit again. More Good News: The marina sustained next to zero damage and all boats were fine- yay!  Bad News: even with several attempts we never did get to met the amazing Bums in person. But hope springs eternal and as long as they are on the East Coast, it may happen.

There you have it; just some background for you as I take you through Florida.

After leaving Jekyll Island (and the fog) behind we crossed the FL/GA line south of Cumberland Island, sans musical accompaniment.

While we didn’t see much worse than this (below), had we ventured up the St John’s River (Jacksonville) or down into the Keys, the sight would be heartbreaking.

Just before this spot is one of those sections where we are happy to have Navionics running on the iPad, and to be a shallow draft boat. Hoping the dredge will continue north around the corner.

The tide was nearly high as we transited the Fernandina area but almost low through Sisters Creek. Not much wiggle room as the northbound tug approached us, so Russ slowed to a crawl and moved over as far as he dared- into 4 1/2 ft- yikes. A few minutes later I looked back to see the tug getting his comeuppance for pushing us out of the channel.

We’d snagged the last slip that was wide enough for us at Camachee Cove Marina and Russ backed in like a pro. The marina isn’t within walking distance of downtown St Augustine, but either Uber or Lyft will only set you back $8 one way. Everything else about the marina is “what’s not to love?”.  I was thrilled to receive a second highball glass in the goody bag as now we have two glass drinking glasses that fit where I keep them.

Full moon brought a king tide one morning that kept us aboard until the water receded enough so we could jump off the floating boat dock onto shore. Eventually the ramp became usable again.

 

Flagler College is very impressive but that’s because railroad magnate Henry Flagler built it as the Hotel Ponce de Leon, going all out with scads of imported artisans and craftsmen and the best architects from NYC. Built in 1888, the hotel was a resort like no other. More than a place to stay- it was an exclusive and opulent playground for the world’s most privileged elite. Eighty years later, the college was founded and has no doubt invested millions in restoring and preserving this architectural wonder in the heart of St Augustine.

 

Guided tours are offered twice a day. We missed the 2pm tour, so a tour will be on the list for our springtime stop.

I’m gonna remind you how lovely the Mosquito Lagoon is and we love traveling through it on beautiful days to better see and photograph its wildlife residents- like dolphins, manatee and birds of all sorts.

At the end of the Lagoon you use the Haulover Canal to get over to the Indian River of grapefruit fame.

I know you can’t see the manatee in the above photo, but I was zoomed in to take that shot. Hadn’t refocused yet when a manatee surfaced at our bow where I just happened to be standing, camera ready- but oh bummer too zoomed. Would have been a good shot otherwise.

Just after exiting the short Haulover Canal, where only a very few locals were fishing:

Our month’s reservation at Ft Pierce City Marina was due to begin Nov 13 but since we were in the neighborhood early and the weather was going to deteriorate, we decided to go early. That meant just one night at good ole Velcro Beach where we took the bus to Publix and tried to open accounts at a new bank. More on the “establishing residency” process later.

Thursday, Nov 9 we arrived at FPCM, “A” dock, our home for at least the next 30 days. Power, floating docks, good wifi, laundry, secure, on-site restaurants and 15% off gift shop purchases- happy us. Packages would be arriving shortly- thank you Amazon, and others.

 

I’ve been thinking that postings of late are lacking in the proper cruising excitement that readers hope to find; and while I’m tempted to greatly embellish or just downright tell a tall tale, I can’t bring myself to do it. Please content yourselves with lots of photos and know that if anything remotely interesting happens, I will write about it!

We’ve started using Navionics on our iPad now. We’d been using Garmin Blue Charts as a backup to the Navionics we have on our old E120 chartplotter because it shows all the ActiveCaptain hazards, anchorages and marinas. It also has a sonar setting that shows depth contour lines and is generally more detailed and up-to-date than the Garmin charts. Garmin, while very pretty, is not known for updating often or well. On Ortolan, we had a touchscreen Garmin chartplotter with Sirius XM radio; one of the fancier pieces of equipment on that cat.

So the newer version of Navionics that runs on the iPad (but not on the old E120s at each helm) is the Captain’s new best friend. It’s got color, dots that show the shallower water (you define the depth) and shows you the deepest water path through the channel/ICW. Traveling through the southern half of South Carolina and all of Georgia requires luck, nerves of steel, accurate electronic charts, oh and a boat that only needs 3ft of depth! 🙂

We used to stop at Osprey Marina for diesel and extremely competitive (if not THE lowest) fuel prices; dockage was a good deal too. Over the years we watched Bucksport Marina come alive and become a bit more substantial; and then we stopped this past Spring to check them out.  Easy to stop, friendly service and competitive fuel price. Twenty-five minutes and off we go, down the scenic Waccamaw with a favorable current.

Our next travel day would include the Cape Romain Wildlife Refuge stretch that lies south of Georgetown as you travel toward Charleston.

 

 

 

As we approached the two guys below I could have gotten a better shot but the distance was too great, even with cropping, so just pretend he’s got a water jet shooting him up a few feet.

The night before going into the Ashley River Marina in Charleston, the anchorage in Dewees Creek was simply idyllic. Our first time using the creek; two thumbs up!

Last fall we pulled into Ashley and met Richard and Jan, owners of PDQ34 Soul Sauce. Lovely people who live nearby, with a long cruising history, more recently local cruising on their PDQ. We’d reserved a few nights at St John’s Yacht Harbor as they offer a two-hour courtesy car and lower dockage rates (being farther from town). Wanting to meet up with Soul Sauce, we let them know our plans. By fantastic coincidence, friends on m/v Kemo Sabe who own the slip opposite theirs, were leaving the day we planned to arrive and said we could rent their slip for a very reasonable amount. Hard to say no to that. Felt bad cancelling with SJYH though.

Not a coincidence though was that we each planned our arrival and departure around the time of slack current; this makes for much less drama and therefore no excitement. We waved to Kemo Sabe (pretty sure I’d read reviews they’d written in ActiveCaptain) as they headed off. Richard and Jan got more experience in the helping cast off and catch your lines department; not that they need it, but was nice they were there for the exchange.

Tucking into a slip during windy/rainy times has pros and cons; the downside being it’s unpleasant to walk around in the rain but if very windy then I feel safer and can enjoy some hobby time. We prefer to travel on non-rainy, low wind at our backs days as we (mostly Russ) are exposed to the elements up on the flybridge, with sun protection but only minimal wind thanks to our low front wind screen. We move right along during nice weather and hunker down when we don’t like the conditions. Being able to do 80+ mile days is helpful when we want to move along.

After Charleston, a stretch of lovely days would enable us to enjoy traveling to Brunswick, GA. Deeper draft boats became scarce, but they should have stuck with us as we had higher tide through nearly all the shallow spots.

Tried out another new-to-us anchorage and it’s a keeper. Morning offered up this pretty red glow that perhaps warned of lousy weather to come, but not today.

Delayed leaving this peaceful spot until 8:30 so that the tide would be up a bit in the Little Mud River- another stretch where if you draw more than 4 ft you want some tide assist. We went through two hours after low tide and saw no less than 8 ft- but the moon cycle is providing at least a foot more water than typical.

We’ve seen goats and horses along the ICW but cows are a first!

Brunswick Landing Marina (BLM) is very popular for re-fueling and as a former naval hurricane hole, is a perfect spot to leave your boat for extended periods of time or just make it your year-round home base. Slips were in short supply as many boats hadn’t headed off yet and I’m guessing a few had come up before Irma. But while our slip had no protection from southerly winds, most of the strong stuff expected would be from the West to North.

We got to meet the owners of Kemo Sabe, and they both are Buffalo, NY natives. 🙂 but not living in that frigid northland anymore!

And what did I tell you about distilleries and craft breweries? This will give downtown Brunswick a much-needed boost; plus a craft brewery will be opening across the street. What’s not to love? Oh right, no donuts. 😦

The Farmer and the Larder is changing course, but one of the owners is opening a restaurant across the street; we look forward to checking out Strong Roots in the spring.

Downtown was very quiet for a Saturday, but we learned from a shop owner that the BIG Florida/Georgia football game was this afternoon, so that’s where everyone was. Georgia won.

 

But the loading dock south of us was the intended destination, whew.

Tuesday and Wednesday nights would find us nine miles from Brunswick, at Jekyll Harbor Marina. Loaner bikes and a golf cart; everyone is happy. We needed to be stationary on Nov 1 to accomplish a long list of to-dos in changing our domicile from CT to FL. The “stay or go” decision hinged on Florida’s healthcare and those costs/subsidies weren’t available until Nov 1. Once we saw the numbers, it was full speed ahead to tackle the loonnngggg list, that we’d only begin to check-off on Nov 1.

Tuesday, after we arrived- that was Halloween but sure didn’t look or feel like it- got the golf cart for a shopping/grocery run then biked the southern part of the island in the afternoon.

Yes! A beach. First one in months.

 

 

The squirrels left out the remains of daily snacking- gave us a never-before look at the inside of a pine cone that’s been stripped.

This info panel contained several pieces of interesting historical information from the year I was born.

 

Over the past few years we would focus on comments from Bob423 as they were precise and concise. Not that we usually had to worry but it’s good to be prepared. Then Russ discovered not only does Bob423 have a blog, he also produces a guidebook. So I’ve added a link to his blog from ours.

Normally, Bob423 is ahead of us and most snowbirds, but not this year. We are a week ahead of last year and Bob423 is a bit behind thanks to weather. So when Russ said that he’d be catching up to us today and anchoring off the marina, I joked that he’d come by at 4:23.  What is the likelihood that we’d see him come past at 4:23? not sure, but doubt me not when I say that after I took the photo the wall clock said 4:23.

 

Thursday we would continue south and cross the FL/GA line: Anything Goes, It’z Just What We Do, Round Here- oh wait not that- the actual state line 🙂

Morning fog showed signs of lifting, but whether it did or not, we had to get going with a long day ahead.  Next stop, Pine Island- north of St. Augustine.