Last stop in Florida

5/10/15
Fernandina Beach FL, ICW
Position: 30 40.343N, 081 28.132W
Posted by Bill

Yesterday we got up at the butt crack of dawn again and left St Augustine. We had a good 3 days there waiting out weather and working on boat problems. It was nice to be tied up to a dock with shore power for a few days, especially because I found the problem with the larger air conditioner…yay!!! It was pretty muggy while we were there and with the air on we were able to close the boat up to the bugs, which are getting really bad. The culprit on the air conditioner turned out to be a wire connection that had melted (I think when we were running the heat non-stop in Beaufort last November for the cold spell) and corroded:
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It was not easy to see, but after a call to Mermaid Air (the maker of the air conditioner), they led me to more intensive poking around, which resulted in finding the fault. I spliced in new connections and viola…both air conditioners now work!

While in St Augustine we hit some good happy hours at Pizzally (the best in the city), had dinner at a few places, visited the winery and distillery for tours and free drinks, got some groceries and some spare parts for the boat. It was a good time as always, and nobody got hurt…yay again.

Leaving at the butt crack of dawn we made our way past downtown St Augustine. Pics:
Butt crack of dawn:
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Flamingos (say it Maddox):
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A pirate ship:
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Downtown:
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It was a long day of driving the ICW…just under 65 statute miles, and a good 11 hour day. Along the way we saw some dolphins:
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We have been seeing them every day. It is funny because we never saw a dolphin in the Bahamas, and on the way south last fall, we saw them frequently, but not as many as we see now. We also saw a turtle swim by the boat as we were moored in Fernandina:
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This may be the first turtle we saw in the ICW, but we saw tons of them in the Bahamas.

We didn’t sleep well in Fernandina. When the tide changed, the boat shifted and the mooring ball was pinned to the boat by the wind, and banged half the night against the hull. At the same time, the smoke from the neighboring factories was blowing into the boat with the stench of fresh dog shit all night. Not good folks!!! We did get to go to some of our favorite establishments there, including Tastys…great burger and fries, and The Salty Pelican…shrimp, tuna and fried cheese curds. It is hard to believe that this is our last night in Florida until the return next fall.

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