Day 1

Howdy folks! Congratulations, you’re reading my very first post from the boat! (I’m new at this blogging thing, so there are a lot of firsts…) let me set the scene for you: I’m sitting on the sofa, I’m in my comfies, and I’m stuffed because I just ate an amazing dinner at the marina’s restaurant. Oh, and it’s raining outside. Best trip ever? Duh.

So I wanted to tell you all the cool stuff we did today… or at least the stuff I can remember. (it was a long day… and we saw a lot of really cool stuff…)

ok, so first of all, just after we got past NAS Jax, we met a friend! A beautiful boat named Five Star, and we chatted with them over the radio for a while… they were on their way to Wilmington and followed in our wake until we got out into the channel… here’s a picture of our friends following in our wake- and that’s some of the Jax skyline behind them… oh, and some crazy sea gulls.



It's a little ridiculous that this is the ONLY picture I took today.

we saw TONS of bridges… but keep in mind we were in Jacksonville for much of the morning… right under the I-95 bridge, we saw 2 dolphins!

Later, just north of Jacksonville, we saw a dredger in action! Looked kinda like the one that was in our canal, only about 12 times bigger…

We saw the St Johns River lighthouse (WAY too tiny to get a picture of…) and the St Simons Island lighthouse (no excuse for not getting a picture of that one… shame on me.)

I learned how to set lines… and fenders… which is cool- in some ways it’s easier than on a smaller boat, and in some ways it’s harder. With a smaller boat, I generally have jumped off with the line in hand and brought the boat to me. Today, I learned how to be ready when the Captain gets the boat exactly where he wants it, then I throw the line. Oh, and I should mention, just as a little side-note/bragging on my Captain, he did it without thrusters! They’re broken til we get to Charleston.

Friends of the Captain met us here at Golden Isles Marina and had dinner with us. They’re gonna meet us again in Newport (tentatively). I just love meeting new people. :D

Also, while listening to the Margaritaville station on Sirius, we heard Jimmy Buffet’s cover of “Southern Cross.” Definitely a best part of my day…