Mañana on the Loop: April 2016

JEKYLL ISLAND

April 29- Yes we decided to stay for another day as we wanted to see some of the island. We took the dogs for their morning walks and put them on the boat with the air conditioning going as it is again quite hot. We are borrowing 3 bikes from the marina and we have one of ours and are biking to the local museum. We are taking a trolly tour of the historical area here on the island and hope it will be interesting - and boy was it. One sixth of the wealthest people in the world back in the 1800's started a club on the island to promote building cottages here on this island. These cottages are not like the ones we all know, some of them were as large as 7000 sq ft with as many as three bathrooms and boasting of 12-15 servants to wait on them. Some of the names mentioned were J.P. Morgan and the Rockafellers. After the tour we went to the wharf for some lunch and then we headed to the ocean area to look around. There were some little shops that we popped in and out of and then headed back to the boat. It was quite warm so we stayed in the air conditioning for the rest of the afternoon. At 7:00 pm we took Koby for his nightly walk as the no-seeum's were out and really hungry. It will be an early night as we will be leaving at 7:00 am tomorrow.

This is the marina office

This building is the showers and a restaurant not open yet

Dave ready for our tour

Dave and Bill checking our map

We could have taken the horse and buggy

The above six homes are actually cottages

This was the first condo built on the island

This was the local church

We had lunch at the pier

The view from the pier

This is a shot of beaches on the ocean side

JACKSONVILLE TO JEKYLL ISLAND

April 28- We left Palm Cove Marina at 9:00 am at low tide so we were a little nervous about possibly going aground but everything was fine. Again it is a very warm day and we are doing about 50 miles today. We got confused at the junction of the St. John's River as to where we turn off to the ICW but Bill hailed us and told us what he thought. A fellow Looper who had just left the St. Johns River said that Bill was correct so we turned around and followed him into the channel to our right. We followed "No Zip Code" for some time until he turned into Fernandina to stay the night. We passed the sub area at Cumberland Island but did not see any. We arrived at Jekyll Harbour Marina at Jekyll Island Georgia at 4:00 pm just as the skies were getting dark and threatening. We took Koby up to shore and got back just in time before it started to rain. It was a short rain and the sky cleared again but it did rain again during the night. We were very tired from our trip so we just relaxed for the rest of the evening.

A waterfront condo area at Jacksonville

I believe they are dredging here

An area that they work on large vessels

Some construction on the bridge

This is where we got confused

A railway bridge opened for us

Fellow Looper "No Zip Code"- love the name

HAMMOND BEACH TO JACKSONVILLE

April 27- We left Hammond Beach Resort at 9:00 am along with Mist on our way to Jacksonville. It is another very warm day, with little or no wind at present. We traveled through an area I called millionaires row because as we headed down the river for 6 miles it was lined with very large homes and in front of each was a dock with a roof over each dock. It was a slow ride through there but once through the current helped us pick up speed. The tides are starting to get bigger now and will increase again once we are in Georgia. We arrived at Palm Cove Marina in Jacksonville at 3:00 pm. We quickly washed down Manana and the dingy and went for a quick swim in their pool here to cool down. We went to a restaurant next to the marina for dinner and I would say the food was so-so. We needed some groceries so after dinner Dave, Bill and myself walked to the Publix about 3 blocks away. It has been a long hot day so we called it a night.

An abandoned sailboat

The houses along the ocean are like these

These are homes along the ICW

Passing the anchoring field at St. Augustine

St. Augustine lighthouse

A beautiful view of St. Augustine

A very full marina there

This is the Bridge of Lions

Out this channel and your on the ocean

A beautiful beach with no one on it

This is actually St. Augustine's airport

A beautiful home just before our destination

Just under this bridge and to the left

We have arrived at Palm Cove Marina Jacksonville

This marina reminds us of Marker 1 in Dunedin

DAYTONA TO HAMMOND BEACH RESORT

April 26- We are outta here!!! Horray! We left Daytona Boat Works at 9:00 am along with Mist. We are heading for a place called Hammond Beach Resort in Palm Coast for the night. We had a wonderful trip, sunny with little traffic to contend with. We passed by St. Augustine as they were having a shrimp festival and everything was booked up. We arrived about 3:00 pm to this beautiful marina and we had large company in the form of a 100 ft viking and a 65 ft Defever on the dock with us. Unfortunately they do not have wi-fi on the docks so I was unable to blog. We went to dinner at their other resort which we traveled to by shuttle. We had a wonderful view from the restaurant- golf course on one side and ocean on the other. When we finished dinner we decided to take a look around this huge resort including a water park, a professional golf course and the ocean. When we finished with our tour we called for the shuttle and went back to our boats and called it a night.