Amelia Island

Florida does not seem to want to let us go.  We were hoping to be underway today and across the border in Georgia, but the same crazy weather that is leaving April snow in the northland has us staying in port for at least a couple more days.  We had heavy rain on Tuesday, and when that left the winds kicked up.  They are still incredibly strong--20-25 mph out of the northeast, with some higher gusts. Tomorrow is supposed to bring continuing strong winds and more heavy rain. We are looking forward to continuing our journey, but we are thankful in the circumstances to be warm, comfortable, and tied up snugly at the Amelia Island Yacht Basin. Our hope at this point is to be able to leave on Saturday morning, but the weather will determine if that can happen.

We were fortunate to arrive here early enough on Monday (April 14) that we could get in a little sightseeing before the weather turned foul.  The European history on Amelia Island goes back to 1562, when the French landed on the island.  It is the only municipality in the US that has flown eight different national flags. Lon and I hopped on our bikes and headed toward the town of Fernandina Beach.  It is a quaint, well-preserved town from the Victorian era.

Centre Street, Fernandina Beach

Restored Victorian home

It is not just a "touristy" town, however.  It is an active center for commercial shrimping, and logging trucks heading for the paper mill are a common sight.

Logging truck in Fernandina Beach

Shrimp boat fleet

When Lon needed to head back to the boat to work I continued exploring. I stopped at "Main Beach", then continued down Fletcher Avenue, the main north-south street just behind the dunes. This part of the island had many modest homes, surprising considering the proximity to the ocean, and a variety of architecture.

New architecture . . .

 . . . and old

Main Beach

It was mentioned in a previous post that the tides can be rather large in this part of the coast.  The marina we're staying in has a tide swing of about 7 feet.  Because the entry channel is fairly shallow (about 3 feet at low tide), we needed to time our entry--and will need to time our exit--for a minimum of 1 hour before or after low tide.  The following photos show the channel at low tide and just prior to high tide.

Marina channel at low tide

Marina channel at high tide

We celebrated Lon's birthday on Wednesday (April 16 ) with a movie (Captain America) and dinner at the Doo Wop Diner. His birthday present is this trip!