We left Brunswick Landing Marina around 9:30 in order to reach the ICW between Jekyll Island in the mainland around 10. We need at least half tide to get through that portion. None of the marinas that I called south of us reported position changes in any hazard markers due to the recent hurricane. That coupled with the fact that most of our days trip would be at half or greater tide gave us the confidence to forge ahead.

Georgia doesn’t have the most scenic part of the ICW but we did see trees blown down, a number of buildings with the roofs partially blown off and three sailboats blown out of their anchorages and up the bank.

Sue really wanted to stop at Fernandina Harbor Marina because it’s just a short block from their old downtown. She wants to return to the restaurant where we first had fried green tomatoes. When I called them to make a reservation I got a recording saying they had extensive damage from the hurricane and we’re completely shut down until further notice. We had to settle for a marina a few miles on and away from everything.

As we passed the submarine base we saw two of these Navy boats, one to each side of the channel. They told me to pass between them and later called me and told me “something was coming” down the channel and we had to go 500 yards off to the side (it was deep enough here to do that) and face my bow away from the channel. From previous trips we assumed a nuclear sub was going to come by. Maybe they were worried I might have a deck gun that would rise up out of my bow like in the James Bond movies? It’s not like we could not still watch them from the back. Once they found we were turning off into the ICW instead of going out to sea they said to keep going, we’d be out of the way in time.

We needed half tide to get into Amelia Island Yacht Basin, our destination Marina, but it will be less then a six hour trip so we had no problem.

Tomorrow will have to wait till 10 o’clock to get out of here, then we’ll be on our way to Saint Augustine.