Warm Weather Fairy – Fernandina Beach, Florida, USA, November 3, 2025

The last couple of days in Savannah had suddenly dropped from the high seventies to mid-60’s with remnants of Hurricane Melissa.  Being connected to the dock when it dropped to 45 degrees at night, it was no big deal since we have heat.  However, this makes for very cold passage weather.  It’s time for go south and we decided to ride the intercoastal down through Jekyll Island for a few days in search of some warmer weather.

This year we decided on a new addition to the boat – plants.  Mom & Dad helped with a few starts from theirs then we picked up some lettuce, spinach, and herbs as well.  Ron is much better with this than I am, so I am hopeful.  I have always had a bit of a black thumb.  When the guy at the plant store tells us “You can’t kill this one,” then I know – this one is for me!

After a couple of lovely days in Jekyll, it wasn’t getting much warmer and this means it was time to continue our quest south for warmer weather.  We said our goodbyes and headed down the intercoastal waterway. 

Unfortunately, as much as we wanted to go on the outside, the wave heights were just too much so we decided to knock off about 50 or so miles a day for the next week as we head down to Vero Beach and stage for our crossing to the Bahamas.  This means we had to anchor in the intercoastal which is always a treat.  Last time we did this the anchor chain got wrapped around the keel.  We got lucky Ron didn’t have to jump into the alligator infested waters to unwrap it and the tide and current move us just right the untangle.  Our first night south this time was south of Fernandina. The current and wind was against one another which rubbed the chain on the bottom of the keel chipping off the bottom paint.  Check out our anchor tracking for the evening.  Hope it get better as we go than this!

Hole here, hole there – October 22, 2025, Savannah, GA, USA

Yes, we are still in Savannah.  Not only did they find the major hold in our hull but a secondary one as well.  Our fiberglass guy is good and has done a good job drying out the hull after they pulled out the sail drive.  Ron prepped engine, and as long as they are pulling the sail drives, he inspected the seals, and they looked pretty good.  They hope to finish our repair and have us back in the water by Thursday.  We then plan to sit on the dock for a week to ensure all is well not only with our new repair, but the rebedded windows and sail drive install.    

Once this was taken care of Ron got to work reinstalling the engines and then it was time for splash day 2.0 – fingers crossed there will be no leaks.  The contractors were great, and Ron managed them well.  Our “project manager” there did nothing but bill us for work we know they didn’t do because Ron did it!  Anyway, we will be out of Thunderbolt Marina soon and onto the dock there.  The dock is managed much better, and their office has been very flexible with us based on our recent issues.

We decided to stay on the dock 5 days to a week to ensure there were no water intrusion issues and everything was tested including the windows, the sail drive box, the engines themselves, and the water maker remount on the starboard side.  I am glad we came down early since we have done a lot more to this boat pre-launch than we anticipated.  We have only lost a week, so I still feel lucky.

In the meantime, we have completely put up the RV, moved everything onto the boat we needed, cleaned and vinegared the RV and driven her up to storage for the remainder of our sailing season.  It means we didn’t have anywhere to stay, and we have become much too familiar with the Best Western near the boat yard.  We used any time not working on the boat to complete our provisioning so that by the time we have our leaks tested, we are truly ready to go.  I had someone ask me why we grocery shop for 6 months before we leave and not just get everything in the Bahamas.  The answer to that is things are about 3-4 times more expensive.  Example, a case of beer would cost about $18-$22 here in the states (cheap miller lite beer), is about $55-$65 in the Bahamas.  Even if we don’t drink what we pack, it makes an excellent item for trade!  So, at this point we are about as full as this boat could get!

Our next stop is Jekyll Island, GA for a few days with my parents.  I don’t anticipate us coming back to the states for a while so it will be nice to see them again before leaving.