Fernandina Beach to St Augustine

A perennial favorite, we love to stop at is Fernandina Beach. This is the first time coming from the north and the ICW. Usually we are pulling in after an overnight ocean run from Charleston and use this place as a stop-over to replenish and refuel.  Our arrival felt different as a result.
The town is charming and very convenient to walk to. We always find something interesting to do and good places to eat. We spent three days here and had ample time to poke around and most importantly we were here on a Saturday for the farmers market and the February air temps were delightful. The other must is to replenish our shrimp "locker" with fresh caught wild shrimp at a local Seafood store. Grrreat stuff.

The farmers' market was well attended with lots of produce; not quite sure where it was from but we loaded up on all of the essentials as well as some home made hot tamales, we're talking seriously good. We walked around the outside of the town and off the beaten paths and found a very interesting series of roads and homes.

Since we are always on the look out for pelicans we found this one outside the Seafood store obviously looking for some grub.

The important chore of the stay was washing and cleaning the boat. Having sat in Charleston for the past several months we
(read me) let this chore slide a bit. While I do like cleaning the boat somehow 40 degree temps and wind take the fun out of it. It was in need of a good basic cleaning & took all one day. I felt there was plenty more to be done yet satisfied I got the big stuff.





Sunday is the day we leave for St. Augustine and meet up with Risky Business. We will travel with Barry & Alice together to Key West and the Outer Reef Rendezvous, where they head on to the Bahamas and we head north again. They have the better itinerary and a great time to go to the islands. For us that is a next year event.
Our original plan had been to meet Risky Business at the ICW-St Johns intersection in the mid morning time frame. Barry found he had to leave earlier due to a low low tide or risk getting stuck. We caught up with them in St Augustine and now are snugly tied up along side in the Camachee Marina.
On our way to St. Augustine we came across this Heron "high rise". We counted 6 nests  perched in the transmission tower, a first.

Tomorrow we are off for Daytona Beach  and hopefully this very fine "shorts" weather will continue.

Here is a nice picture of Risky Business and Seabright together in St Augustine.