Day 295, Sunday, April 13th
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| Ian getting a lift with us |
The night past without incident and Dawson wakes Julie at
6:30 to take over the helm as we are nearing our destination. It has been 47 hours and we have only 2 hours
to go until we are safely anchored in Fernandina Beach. The last couple hours we have been motoring
through a “Critical Right whale habitat”.
This is the area the few remaining right whales come to calf. They sleep at the surface and it is a very
calm night so we wonder if we will see any.
We sure don’t want to hit one for our sake and theirs. Since there is little to no wind, we have
been motoring and the motor will alert the whales to get out of the way. We are glad for that as hitting a right whale
could sink a boat.
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| mudflats |
Dawson has been on shift since 2:00 a.m., however since we
are coming into port he stays awake when Julie takes over. It takes almost 2 hours to get into the river
system where we anchor. There are no
mooring balls available but that is okay as there is lots of room to
anchor. We have timed the daylight, the
currents and the tides perfectly for an uneventful entrance. We have about a 2 knot current push into the
harbour which is fine. The inlet to
Fernandina Beach, St Mary’s is a very easy entrance well marked with a clear
deep channel. Once anchored we call into customs to get our
arrival number, make sure the boat is well anchored and head off to bed for a
well deserved nap. We are both up around
1 pm and it is now dead low tide, we decide we are just a little too close to
the tidal flats so move the boat about 50’ further out into the channel. There is a 7 foot tide here.
After we are happy with the new anchoring we decide to head
into Fernandina Beach. Fernandina Beach is a very nice historic town with lots
of neat shops, and history, boasting lots of industry and tourism. The town is very clean and has all the
facilities we will need for the next couple of days. The water we are anchored in is very brown
and not very appealing. There are
dolphins meandering along in the waters and one wonders why they would choose
to be in the brown chocolate milk water instead of the beautiful blue ocean
just a mile away. It is Sunday, but the tourist town is quite
alive.
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| Dolphin fin |
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| Jazzebelle at sunset |
We stop by Windward and pick them up and then swing by Momba
to introduce ourselves to Bruce who we have been chatting to and buddy boating
for the last couple of days. Bruce also
hops in the dinghy and comes into town with us.
We are followed in by Ham and Peter off of the Sarah G, a 3 masted
schooner that we met last November that also sailed close to us the last couple
of days. Julie and Lynn cruise through a
few shops, but Dawson and the guys head to the bank then off to a patio
restaurant where we will have dinner. The
restaurant chosen is really good and there is music playing also. We are a group of 7 persons and everyone
enjoys the company, music, and dinner. Dawson
enjoys a burger his 1st restaurant burger since leaving the US 6
months ago. Just didn’t seem right
having beef and not seafood in the Bahamas.
After dinner we head back to our respective boats as everyone is still a
bit tired from our 49 hour sail.
Cheers
Julie and Dawson
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