1st Leg - SAV to Fernandina

8/6/12 – Monday – To catch up on the gap in time between stories, Stephen and I rented a wet slip in Wilmington Island, GA at a monthly rate.  I worked at Basil’s, a local pizzeria, which is kind of poorly run (I’ve seen a few) and Stephen worked at Tubby’s Tankhouse.  Our neighbors are awesome and the Steve at the boat yard helps us in every way imaginable.  He even checked out our rigging and boat for the trip.  Mickey and Marcia, our neighbors seen below, helped us in more ways than I can count. 

Mickey made a big impact on us.  He has a great attitude and is sort of a Leonardo Da Vinci with improving things.  Every time I was struggling on the boat, he’d say, “Oh, that’s an easy fix” and then fiberglass a drain on the boat or reach in his pocket and furnish a dozen bolts exactly the size I need.  We are expecting him to meet us in Key West in October.  After two weeks we began getting settled and started making plans of how to improve our lives on land.  This was defeating the dream to fix the boat and continue on, so we decide to bail by the end of the month. 

Two weeks later, 2 days after our monthly slip is up, we head south again with an improved boat.  New rigging, new motor mount, fixed motor, new Genoa, waterproof gas storage, and a dinghy.  We motor out in the morning and take the ICW because the wind is in our face and no good for sailing South.

Femi and his dog Dubious (Dubi) join us for this adventure.  The motor and dinghy are working great.  After an easy day of motoring and getting comfortable, we drop the hook just north of the Sapelo River. 

8/7/12 – Tuesday – We motor down the river a bit until we find a beach to walk Dubi.  What we find is a small section with no grass, which is covered with shells.  The oysters and clams are dead, so the shells are no longer sharp and it is safe for Dubi and I to walk barefoot.  Dubi doesn’t drop a deuce so we motor on to find a better place.

The place we find is small (football field size) uninhabited island with some palm trees, pine trees, and lots and lots of horse tracks.  There are lots of firsts on this trip: Dubi likes this place swims semi-assisted for the first time back to the boat.  Femi also swam for the first time aside from scuba diving.

Later on in the day, I make what could be a new type of barbeque sauce.  4 parts pesto sauce, 2 parts yellow mustard, 1 part sriracha chili sauce, 1 part honey, ½ part Louisiana hot sauce.  It’s good.  We head straight into a storm with some cheap wine and American cheese slices (cultured in ‘Merica) and the storm breaks into two sections which pass around us.  We get a little rain.

At night, we pull into a marina (the first one in 50 miles) to get gas.  Hidden Harbor is the name.  Nice place and really cool people.  The owner offers to drive me into town to a gas station and tells us where to find a good anchorage.  If you’re going south, this is a worthwhile stop.

8/8/12 – Wednesday – Dodged some more storms; came up with a new name for the boat: The Unsinkable Storm Dodger!  Saw wild horses on Cumberland Island.  Enjoyed some cheesy-ramen-macaroni and parked the boat across the river from Fernandina Beach, which we will explore tomorrow.