Amelia Island to Crescent Beach, FL
Left our peaceful anchorage around 7:15 this morning, trying to get as far south as we can before Skeet has to go back to UNC for spring semester. It's a bit tricky to figure out where we'll be and when, and he needs to fly back to RDU by January 7th. At the moment, he's got a refundable flight out of Miami.
This morning Ron showed me how the Aqua Map app on his iPad has a lot more detail than his Garmin chart plotter, which is why he’ll have the two side-by-side for cross referencing. It also allows him to look at KORKZcrew's instruments without having to toggle back and forth between that information and the chart.
Aqua Map app is on the left; Garmin chart plotter is on the right
This is the first day it’s been warm enough and clear enough to go outside in the morning, and to drive from the flybridge, Skeet's favorite hangout. He is happy to drive for hours at a time, and loves being solo for much of it. He'll even politely ask me if I mind going downstairs when he's feeling like being alone, which I totally understand and respect.
Fonda managed to get my blood flowing this morning while we were underway. It's usually not an issue to do her workouts while the boat is moving, and I've got several ways to hold onto something if we hit choppy waters or boat wakes. It seems like having to keep my balance just adds to the workout challenge, so I'm all for it. Steve agrees.
The last time KORKZcrew went on her Bahamas adventure, we spent some time buddy boating with another couple who happen to live in St. Augustine. We've been chatting with them off and on for several weeks, as they hope to head back to the Bahamas this season as well, but won't be able to leave until February. It worked out that we could meet them for lunch today, and they were also nice enough to be the recipients for a few last minute Amazon packages we needed to have shipped.
Jan (pronounced Yan) and Tonya have a very cool backstory, part of which I already knew, but I learned another fun piece of it today.These two are both originally from St. Augustine, and were high school sweethearts. They each married other people and had children, then thirty years later met again at their high school reunion, and the rest is history. It turns out that the Conch House Marina Resort where we met them today was also one of their favorite hangouts as teenagers, and is the very spot where they met prior to attending their reunion — the first time they'd seen each other in thirty years. It was as if I could picture the whole story from start to finish.
It was such a treat to spend time with them again, and we all felt strange being in anything besides shorts, tshirts, and flipflops. Hopefully our paths will cross in the Bahamas this spring. There's something really special about people in the cruising community. Everyone seems eager to help in whatever way they can, probably because they understand the challenges that come along with this lifestyle. I've also found the people we've met up to this point to be extremely down-to-earth, easy going, and kind. Not a bad group to be around, to say the least, and when you end up with friends like Jan and Tonya, it feels like you hit the jackpot by complete chance just because you happened to be in the same anchorage at the same time in the Exumas. Pretty wild how that works.
KORKZcrew continued south after lunch for a few hours with Skeet resuming his post at the helm, and Steve resuming his on the bow, looking for dolphin. We anchored near Crescent Beach, Florida around 5:30. Back at it again tomorrow!
Here's to another great day on the water!
Night night KORKZcrew!
8.5 hours underway; approx. 49 nautical miles traveled
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