Our first stop after crossing into Florida was at one of our favorites, Marineland Marina. While we have stopped many times at St. Augustine (10 miles north) to a mooring, we’ve lately snagged a slip at the very protected & reasonably priced Marineland Marina, then rented a car or Uber’d back up to St. Augustine to visit by land.

The sun setting (for good?) over Marineland – the world’s first “oceanarium”, originally named “Marine Studios” built to film early underwater movies. On opening day to the public in 1938, they figured on a few hundred curious tourists to stop by – instead over 20,000 tourists clogged A1A for miles.

While there, we learned some great news! While Marineland had been in bankruptcy & auctioned to a Texas developer for 9 million, a last-minute reprieve. At the very last court hearing, a local multi-millionaire couple pledged 5 million to keep Marineland in operation & the judge approved the sale. So, one of Florida’s oldest tourist attractions & smallest will continue on with its expanded research, rescue & education programs.

While our Uber driver was driving us back to Marineland from St. Augustine, there just happens to be a Parlor Donuts shop on the way…

Our base for Bahamas prep is Vero Beach, where we have our storage unit, a dentist & doctors. From when we were at the Vero Beach City Marina last year, this is Twin Sisters from space courtesy of Google Earth.

While I used to clean our boat’s bottom myself before crossing, our Manta has roughly twice the square footage of bottom surface than our PDQ. Florida’s warm water, along with hardly underway for 3 weeks, the growth quickly accumulates. These 2 divers spent 1 1/2 hours with tank air & without any breaks – so the same job would have taken me … days. Once underway to the Bahamas the growth isn’t as bad & I can keep up with it myself.

As our Bahamas prep winds down (major provisioning of groceries, wine & beading supplies for Lori) I’m studying the weather daily to see if we should speed up, or slow down, based on approaching weather windows. As December moves along & especially into January, the good windows become narrower & fewer. Some years we’ve had no wait at all, some we’ve moved up our schedule rushing to leave now & one time (2 years ago) we had to wait 3 weeks. Which will it be this year?

The Farmers Market in Charleston is one of the most varied & scenic.

Ohhhh … will this just buff out? While docked at Beaufort, SC we were jarred out of our sleep at 6 AM by a BAMM! then a serious of crashing & grinding sounds! Our “fire drill” response wasn’t very good as it took us over a minute to put on some clothes & find flashlights. Outside we saw a boat smashed sideways against our bow in the strong current gunning their engine in an attempt to detach! From the horrific sounds, we were sure we suffered serious structural damage to our entire bow(s), anchor chute, stainless steel railings, etc., but I guess we were fortunate. It will be a bit difficult to repair though, as our faded yellow gelcoat will be tough to color-match.

Squeaking thru … this bridge near Savannah has been recently replaced, but they are already adding a 2nd new one. There was a barge working right in the opening reducing the horizontal clearance to only 30′ & we are 21′. Technically, lots of room, but …

We haven’t visited downtown Savannah in a couple of years. We almost stayed at a new marina right downtown (and mostly protected from the ship wakes), however with their 24-page contract & requiring copies of all vessel paperwork, insurance & drivers licenses, simply for a 2 night stay (along with high dockage rates) discouraged us. Instead we stayed at a marina on the ICW & rideshared in as usual.

An eerie pic of Driftwood Beach on the north tip of Jekyll Island, Georgia on a cold, 55-degree day.

A parade of a dredge, barges & 1,000′ of pipeline all being towed by a single tug on the ICW at 2 knots. The arrows show its entire length – fortunately we were docked & not needing to get past.

Our annual favorite “waiting room” anchorage off Cumberland Island, Georgia before our insurance will allow us to crosss into Florida. The assortment of birds change hour to hour depending on feeding habits, tide, sunshine & temperature.

We typically see a bald eagle just sitting majestically at the top of dead tree. Here 4 bald eagles were soaring overhead for almost an hour (occasionally landing in a tree) with lots & lots of vocalization – a first.

Our wild horse grazing in the muddy bank next to us. We learned a few years ago that even though it seems they’ll certainly get struck in the mud, they effortlessly just step out when done eating.

Roseate spoonbills are our favorite. They comically waddle around sweeping their bills back & forth looking for tasty bites in the shallows.

After November 1st, our insurance company deems Florida to be hurricane-safe(?) so we can officially cross the Georgia/Florida line. As last year, we’ll stay a week in Marineland, visiting St. Augustine & the area by car. We’ll then spend a few weeks in the Vero Beach area bouncing between marinas & anchorages, as we work on our Bahamas prep and provisioning.  With the Bahamas continually increasing their immigration requirements & fees, we keep saying this will be our last Bahamas year, but ahhh … that beautiful blue water …