Finally Heading South

We spent a long January, getting ready to head south and start the season.  We are still working toward that goal but at least we are on our way.

Fernandina Beach, as tropical as it's name may sound, had a cold, unfriendly weather pattern for the the first month of 2016.  But, it apparently had a warm and humid summer judging from the amount of mold and mildew we found on and in Belmira.  Just another lesson learned about the care and feeding of sailboats in the off season and how it can change with latitude. What we learned in New England didn't translate to how you prepare a boat for off season in the south.

But, we got through it and with enough elbow grease and more than a few well learned, and practiced sailor's curses, were finally ready to make our way south and hopefully to a warmer Florida.

We had a great farewell dinner with Ed and Kathy Saltmarsh, sailing friends from New England, who were escaping the winter and were passing through Fernandina Beach.  Along with their friends, our new friends, Dean and Kathy, who have sailed for years and had many great tales of great sailing adventures to share.  We had a great evening and they all came down to the dock at Tiger Point to see us off.  Hope to follow up with a picture as soon as I catch up with Ed and his cell phone.

  

We did make our escape and once again entered the ditch, aka, the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway , the ICW.  The ICW, original built and maintained by the US Army Corp of Engineers has fallen on hard times due to government funding cuts.  And although the Coast Guard and travelers reporting, attempt to keep users updated on current conditions, traveling the ICW at 5 knots, can sometimes be as stressful as driving I-95, down the Florida coast at 85 mph, in the pouring rain, with a flock of migrating snow birds.

But in spite of some difficult times, five days on our journey south has brought us to an anchorage north west of the Melbourne, Florida bridge.

This is where we posed for this selfie with our Carter Lake Sail Club burgee for a Facebook post to let folks know how we were doing.
 
Here is the pic and hopefully more regular posts as we make our way south.  Stay tuned.