Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Amelia River Anchorage at the Top of Florida

We can practically SEE Georgia from here! Today it’s only a short ride to St. Simon’s Island, so we’re taking it easy this morning and doing a little “housework” on the boat. 

In Connecticut, the marshes are a narrow strip that separate the solid ground from the river. Here in northern Florida, the marshes are everywhere. This is like no place I have ever seen. We are anchored in Bell’s River off the Amelia River in the marshes. It’s flat. It’s calm. It’s quiet. The distant green grasses are only a few feet high; flat water, flat marshes, big sky. From time to time, the dolphins jump out of the water as though they want to look at us.


Yesterday was a long day, stopping to refuel and covering a lot of miles before we stopped. We saw more of the monster-sized mansions along the ICW, with elegant landscaping, covered docks, and boats raised out of the water. Around noon we passed directly west of Ponte Vedra Beach and the restaurant where we had had dinner Monday night. At that same moment we were having a cold lunch of my leftover shrimp and grits with an excellent apple salad. The ICW channel was particularly shallow from time to time at 5’ and sometimes very deep at 45’, so Brian had to watch the charts closely. Late in the day, Brian encountered a towboat with barges, but I was taking a glorious nap then and and missed it. 

The evening was wonderful - exactly what we love – a gorgeous sunset, a great dinner, a beautiful anchorage. The night was a bit freaky though. We are anchored near a paper factory, and after dark the wind shifted and blew the awful smell exactly in our direction. Brian closed all the windows and turned on the generator and the air conditioners. But we’ve never slept with our generator on, and I didn’t sleep at all last night because I was so anxious about it. At some point in the middle of the night the wind shifted, Brian turned everything off, and I fell asleep. Now it sounds silly.


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