Some of you
may have been wondering if I have fallen off the edge of the earth and I am
here to tell you, I have not. The thing
is, I grew up on the idea that if one hasn’t something nice to say, one might
opt to say nothing. While I’ve been struggling
with this idea for the past week I fear I must come clean, so here goes.
Our transit
along the ICW took us through some beautiful marshland areas with birds
overhead and dolphins playing in the river.
We happily sailed along, anticipating our arrival in the quaint little
town of Fernandina Beach, researching the guidebook as we headed north
considering all the things we would do and see on arrival. A day at the beach? Historic sightseeing, perhaps? I can tell you that we were completely shocked
by what awaited us as we rounded the bend into the mooring field of the harbour
marina….what appeared to be a cute little basin was flanked by a pulp mill on
one side and a sawmill on the other with water the colour of a rusted out
washbasin and sulphur scented air. I
wanted to cry. This was to be our “relax
and enjoy” time and I couldn’t let the Captain see my disappointment….he had,
after all, taken us safely through our route and it seemed a rather unkind to
start to this leg of our journey. “Looks
like a nice marina” I said as we both looked from right to left, then left to
right at the glut of industry flanking an otherwise lovely little spot and then
we heard it……the train whistle announcing that the iron horse would be running
right along the waterfront transporting who knows what from here to there. Ugghhh.
Time to go sign in, find the showers and check out the Captains
Lounge. Once I had the shower stall in a
condition that I could step in without worry of developing some dreaded rash, I
turned on the water to the find my senses being assaulted by the pungent odour
of sulphur….oh, my….I did cry. What
the????? Not one single guidebook, and
we have several, mentioned this fact and with no weather window to move on, we
were stuck here. No worries, I’ll just
shower on board once we have completed our provisioning. A two and a half mile walk to the grocery
store is something we typically enjoy although by the time we arrived, we were
soaked to the skin in perspiration from the heat and covered in dust. It was good of the folks not to stare at
these two rather weather beaten sailors and I suspect, we are not the first of
our kind to grace their presence. We
also, typically, call a taxi to return us to our “home”, a mere two and half
miles, maybe eight dollars in fare. Once
underway we were advised that the ride would cost $16.00 no matter where we
were going at which point Gregg suggested a trip to Fort Lauderdale….turns out
the driver had no sense of humour. Well,
dear reader, I could truly go on and on but I’m sure you get the idea. We did go walking and out to the mouth of the
inlet in the dinghy which was very therapeutic in terms of CLEAN, BLUE,
ATLANTIC OCEAN AIR AND WATER!!!!! This
time I cried with joy!!! Several thunder
and lightning storms, with accompanying torrential rains, later, we were
finally on the move, yipeee!!!!
We are
currently in St Simons, Georgia, on the hook, and the truth is, Gregg has gone
ashore several times while I am happy to putter around on our girl, reading and
preparing myself for tomorrow’s outing when we will rent bikes and “cruise” the
little island together. We do have a
church very close by that plays carillion bells on the hour and have found
ourselves singing along to the hymns of our childhood….our parents would be
proud!
Until next
time……
Love and
hugs,
Shelley and
Gregg
PS You may want to visit “The Captain’s Corner”
page which is now up and running! This
is where you will find Gregg’s musings about our adventure and what it means to
be the Captain of our girl, Simplicity II!
