Fernandina – On an mooring

The streets are spotless and picturesque

We got up before sunrise and left shortly after it cleared the horizon. We wanted to get through some thin water with the full tide under us. We are now in the most poorly kept stretch of the ICW. It definitely keeps the towboats in business. There’s more of the same ahead of us until we get north of South Carolina. Luckily, there’s 6 to 8 ft tides in the area so you can guess when most of the snowbirds pass through.

Fernandina was much more than we expected. The marina itself is first rate but the town is the real attraction. It burned to the ground in the 1800’s and when they rebuilt, they heavily favored all brick buildings (never again…)There are dozens of shops to look through and at least a dozen restaurants. There is even a Wal-Mart and a Winn-Dixie if you feel like walking a mile. We spent several hours just looking through the shops and had dinner this evening at the Crab Trap, very good.

Shrimp boats are docked nearby

We are now thinking of spending a week at the Isle of Hope Marina near Savannah starting 4/6 if we aren’t delayed by weather. We need to do some major provisioning for the trip north and, besides, we always said we don’t want to get ahead of summer as we go north – we’d rather stay in the warm weather.