Carol, I understand from Gary that I missed your birthday last weekend. Sorry, so belated birthday wishes to you.
Yesterday was uneventful except for the strong tides which were often against us. We spent the night near Darien in Georgia. After docking the boat we decided to go ashore and explore. We found a bar/restaurant and decided to pop in for a drink. I had my Baileys and Gary his beer. There were several people in the bar watching the football game so we got talking to them. The barman and barlady were so very pleasant as were the locals. They were surprised that we had stopped at their marina as it was quite a way from the ICW, the current was strong and the water shallow. The barman was quite taken with the fact that I had driven the boat. (I think his impression of lady drivers went up). The lady asked if I would like a coffee and beforte I could reply placed one in front of me (no, I was not drunk and needed sobering up). She then got the bottle of Baileys and proceed to pour it into my coffee instructing me to tell her when to stop. And what a nice coffee it turned out to be. What was even nicer was the bar did not charge Gary for a beer or me my coffee saying it was their Georgia hospitality. How very kind of them. A most enjoyable evening.
Today we have reached Florida and hope to get to the St John's River tonight. The sun is finally shining and the cabin warm enough for us to put on short sleeved shirts. We passed a degauser. What is that you may ask? I would not have known if Gary had not told me. It was in the waterway on the end of a peer and looked like an unfinished building (no sides just vertical metal beams - see photo). The purpose of it was to remove magnetic fields that had built up in ships. Apparently, TV used to have degausing fields around picture coils. We also passed some type shipyard that had a secrity guard keeping an eye on ity. If you got to close to the ships he/she came out to you to warn you away.
We have seen quite a few dolphins today plus the usual shore birds. A bonus was to see two large flocks of storks sitting on sand spits. We could not get in too close because the area around the spit was shallow. The storks used to be on the endangered species list but have increased in quantities in the last few years.
Well, I took a couple of days off because there was really nothing to write about. The weather was cloudy, overcast with no sun at all. Humph, did we not come south for the sun and warm air?
Today is 21st November, 2012. Happy birthday, Chris!
We have reached our destination after a very nice nights stay just outside of Jacksonville, Florida. We met a very nice couple of residents who invited us out to dinner with them. They took us in their car to a restaurant called the "Sanddollar" and we had a very good meal. Brown (his real name) and Nancy took us back to the boat said goodbye and off they went. When we got up the next morning we found some charts of the St John's river left for us by Brown and his wife. How kind of them.
Yesterday was uneventful. What was nice was we saw several bald eagles. Such a magnificent bird. I am really glad that the people of the United States did not go with Ben Franklin's suggestion of having the turkey for the National Bird. The Bald Eagle is much more majestic.
We reached our destination, Astor just south of Lake George around about 2pm yesterday afternoon. The boat will be moored here for approx 6 weeks and then we will return to enjoy the winter sunshine in January and February. When we return and tour Florida we will be able to stop and see the sights something we have not been able to do on this journey. The cat has done great so will come back with us. Now we have to get her home by car and she hates the car. The vet gave me a sedative for her but I hate to use it. She has been so good on this boat adventure maybe she won't mind the car as much.
The boat is moored next a beautiful house boat owned by Ralph and his wife. I think they will keep an eye on our boat for us while we are back in Maryland.
Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed the journey down here. We have had no major problems except our generator is not working properly. We will take care of that when we return. I thank-you for accompanying me on this journey. Mum, I have enclosed a photo of a bird that we saw when we took you to Florida and you could never get its name right. Do you remember its name.... the an -hin- ga, a relative of the cormorant. This photo is for you.
Take care everyone. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Over and out,
Margaret 88, x, x, x,
No comments:
Post a Comment