March 31, 2025 - Jekyll Harbor Marina, Jekyll Island to Brunswick Landing Marina, Brunswick, Georgia

Last night, when I was on Facetime with Ashley, a tugboat was pulling a really long barge type of boat.  We aren't sure exactly what it was, but the pictures turned out nice.

We had a quiet morning drinking coffee.  At about 9:00 a.m. we left Jekyll Harbor Marina, and took off for the Brunswick Landing Marina, which is only about a 10-mile trip.  Kip isn't feeling the best, he has an upset stomach. 

On the way, 

Arriving at the marina

We arrived around noon and were assigned a slip on the 0 dock (the docks are numbered 0 to 10).  We are happy because we are able to look down river without anyone in our way!  

Kip is now feeling worse, so he decided to lay down.  He wasn't hungry or thirsty and had a slight fever.  He asked me to get him some 7up or Sprint, so I walked over to Dock 9 and got three bottles of Sprite from the pop machine.  

I brought the pop back to the boat, and he drank some and then lay down again.  I got ice for the cooler and then walked up do laundry.  There were several people in and out of the lounge waiting for the machines, and I had a nice chat with each of them while waiting for my two loads of laundry to complete.  We relaxed on the boat (it is going to rain again), and Kip went for a walk.  While he was gone, I finished the book I was reading ("The Inconvenient Wife").   

Kip ate some crackers and asked if I would want to walk into town (he said he felt better moving around a bit).  We walked into town and noticed that the buildings are very old (and fun to look at), and that most of the businesses closed by 4:00 p.m.  PLUS, there is not an ice cream store here that we could see.  Boo.

Back at the boat we relaxed while listening to a bit of thunder.  It sprinkled, but no huge storm (not yet anyway).  Kip isn't hungry, so we will skip dinner (but I will probably have a snack later on).  Hopefully he is better tomorrow.  

I think we decided to take the boat out of the water here and be home a bit early.  Not sure what date yet, but we will figure it out and post it when we do.

We watched "Reacher" and went to bed early.  

March 30, 2025 - Jekyll Harbor Marina, Jekyll Island, Georgia

It looks like rain this afternoon, so we packed up early and took the marina bikes out.  

Halfway through the bike ride it started to sprinkle...  then poured.  

The trails on the island are amazing (the trail in this picture was through the marsh and it had sandy spots):  beautiful trees with moss on them, great trails, historical markers, beautiful houses, boardwalk trails, etc.  I enjoyed going as fast as I could with my legs stretched through the puddles like I did when I was a kid.  We did bring our rain jackets, but when we got back, we were soaked.  

We got back and saw this!  A pelican must have had a bad batch of fish and decided to throw it up on our boat.  Nice.

For the rest of the night we talked about how much fun the bike ride was.  We tried to dry off and tucked in the boat for the rest of the day.  You could see the sun occasionally through the clouds...

buy for the most part it was cloudy and rainy (as you can see through one of our windows).  Definitely inside boat time.  

We read, slept, I took a shower to warm up, ate, talked to Ashley and family, and watched another episode or two of "Reacher".  Tomorrow we are moving to another marina.  I hope the weather is cooperative.

March 29, 2025 - Fernandina Harbor Marina, Amelia Island to Jekyll Harbor Marina, Jekyll Island, Georgia

We had coffee and left the boat around 9:00 a.m. to go to the farmer's market in town.  We bought a cinnamon roll, a Bundtfetti cake, and a peperoni cheese roll.  

Back to the boat around 9:45 a.m. and packed up to go to our next stop:  Jekyll Island.  We ate the cinnamon roll on the way, and it was very good!  Kip drove the entire way and I'm glad he did.  I was napping and we hit waves so big that I was airborne, and Kip said the anchor on the front of the boat was sometimes under the water.  

We went straight to the gas dock, got fuel and a pump out.  We are now in Georgia, and everyone is very nice.  We have heard plenty of people saying, "Hi Ya'll".  The tide is low (the tide shift is over 8 feet) and the ramp from the dock to land is extremely steep (where the guy is waking in this picture).  

Low Tide

High Tide

When the tide is low, boats get stuck in the mud.  

Our boat is on the left in this picture -- behind our boat is shallow but because our draft is about 3' we are not getting stuck.

After we got settled, I took one of the marina bikes to Shark's Beach.  The woman at the marina told me said there are shark's teeth there.  I used one of the marina bikes.  She said to take the main road, go right, and then bike down the trail.  if I smelled BO or urine, there was a rattle snake on the trail so watch where you are going.  👀  I made it there (along with about 15 others) looked and looked through the oyster shells and mud but found nothing.  I asked several people if they found any, and they said they had not.  

I got back on the bike and rode to the Atlantic side of the island.  The tide was low, the beach was a muddy mess, the water looked like chocolate milk, and no shells.  I did, however, go past a DQ, so Kip will be happy about that!

I got back to the boat and Kip had been getting things settled on the boat.  We walked up to the restaurant called Zachary's Riverhouse for supper.

Kip had crab soup, shrimp and fries and I had chicken fingers and fries.

After dinner, we set our chairs on the dock to watch the sunset.  The cruise ship we saw at Fernandina is now passing through this location.

It was dusk, but we still were able to take the marina bikes into town and go to the DQ.  The place was packed!  After we ate our ice cream, we went outside to get the bikes to go back to the marina.  We got on the bikes and realized it was pitch black out and we didn't have any bike lights with us.  It was a very exciting bike ride back to the marina, I'm just saying!

We finished "NCIS" and found new episodes of a show we previously watched, and enjoyed, until the episodes ran out.  The series is called "Reacher", and it is really good.  Highly recommend it.  More adventures tomorrow.

March 28, 2025 - Fernandina Harbor Marina, Amelia Island, Florida

The marina is using a dredger to get sediment out of the marina, so boats have more depth when entering the marina for dockage.  Kip really enjoys watching them do their work.

A cruise boat came into the marina.  This boat travels the ICW with passengers (like a cruise ship only smaller).  

There are many boats to rent here.

Kip pretending that he caught a shark (the shark is not real)!

After we ate breakfast, we packed our backpacks up and walked a couple of miles to the Fernandina Beach.  We walked the beach (which had lots of nice sand, and it was low tide, but not many shells).  Then we walked back to the marina taking side streets to look for old Victorian houses.  We also took a detour to see the lighthouse, but it was under construction.

We got back and read for a while, then napped (or should I say "tried" to nap).  Kip must have gone off of the boat 20 times, and each time the boat rocked under his weight.  Tough to nap.  

We had a small supper because we weren't very hungry, walked into town for ice cream.  On the way back we snapped pictures of the sunset.

The dredging barge was in the way, but it still turned out nice!

This is the last night at this marina.  We are on the move again in the morning.  a few "NCIS" episodes and bed for us.  

March 27, 2025 - Sister Creek Free Dock to Fernandina Harbor Marina, Amelia Island, Florida

We had breakfast and coffee and then took off around 8:00 a.m. for our next destination.  The morning sunrise was stunning!

We traveled about four hours to get to Fernandina Harbor Marina on Amelia Island.

We are on a dock with other boats (no slips, just lined up on the inside of the dock).  The tide is about 7', so when we got here the ramp was at a severe angle, and when we got back from supper it was even with the dock.  We are glad to be on a floating dock, so we don't have to worry about lines getting too tight or too loose.

We tied up walked into town and looked in some of the shops and got the lay of the land.  

We came back to the boat and rested and then decided to eat at a restaurant called "Salty Pelican" which is across the street by the water.  

Kip had soup, shrimp, and fries and I had chicken tenders and fries.  Delicious!  I was walking back to the boat to put leftovers in the refrigerator and Kip was taking pictures of the sunset.

After the sunset pictures, we walked a few blocks for ice cream, then back to the boat.  We are catching up on the newest episodes of "NCIS", but they aren't really as good as we remember.  Oh well.