When we heard that Judy and Nic Waterman were going to be visiting HHI for a week, we decided to divert to Shelter Cove from our Charleston location. This was also going to be an opportunity for Sandy and Frank Marinari to meet our Mike, Balva and the Watermans. Things turned out just as we had hoped with "social nights" in the condo the first night and on Blue Grotto the second night. We departed at 3 PM on the third day for a 16 hour trip to St. Mary's inlet via a somewhat rough open ocean trip. We planned on staying at Fernandina Beach, but it turned out to be too rough to make the turn into the entrance (the seas were 5-6' and directly on the beam when we turned; and the run from the outermost sea buoys was long enough to make it very uncomfortable). So, we decided to continue on for a couple of hours to the entrance at Mayport/Jacksonville (where the entrance has a very long/large breakwater and it is safe to turn into the channel just outboard of the breakwater). So, that's what we did and it all worked out just peachy. By the time we turned westward we were almost into the protected waters of the breakwater, so there were only a few moments of significant rolling.

We headed over to the ICW cut-off and then went about an hour South to the first reasonably sized marina. It turned out that this marina (Beach Marine) was the same place that Chris Wells and I used several years ago when I helped him move Koan from Morehead City. We settled in and awaited the torential rains for two days. On the third day it was sunny and warm and we were ready for our move to St. Augustine. Stay tuned...