Wednesday 11/22/2017 -  Overnight to St. Mary's River

I'm in Florida!!  Hooray!!  I'm at a mooring on the ICW just inside (south) of the entrance to the St. Mary's river.   The sun came up at 6:30am and we all rejoiced (on VHF channel 18) that the night was over.  We came in the inlet at 9:30am with a flood (pushing us in) tide, hung a left into the Amelia River/ICW and went about a mile south to the Fernandina Marina.  It was very sunny, light wind, and warm.  What a great welcome to Florida.  Once at the mooring, it didn't take me long to remove my long underwear and jeans and replace them with a pair of shorts. 

At first, I didn't really know where I was.  All I had really seen coming in was an old fort and a couple large factories spewing all sorts of smelly, ugly fumes.  After about an hour, I realized I was IN Fernandina Beach.  I've been here twice before by car and only remembered it as a really attractive little town.  Once I focused on the shoreline, I could see the buildings and the marina.  Unfortunately, in the afternoon, the wind picked up and it got a little rough on the mooring.  I called a friend who keeps his boat at the marina and made a reservation at the marina for Thursday.  I was really happy to be in Florida and to know things were warming up.  It was also nice knowing I had avoided a 3 to 4 day trip through the windy rivers of the ICW in Georgia.