FLORIDA!!!!

After two nights of anchorages in southern Georgia, and a brief, but nasty crossing of the St. Andrew's Sound, we crossed the Cumberland Sound this am....and into Florida!!! The warm weather has FINALLY caught up with us, too! We had mid 60s yesterday, in Georgia, and today it is in the mid 70s..yea!!! Our nights are also finally out of the freezing range, and in the mid 50s...whew!

We tied up to a mooring ball in harbor of the small town of Fernandina Beach. Marinas in some towns(Annapolis) secure lines to the sea floor, and then have a floating ball on the surface, that you can tie to. The balls are spaced so that each boat has enough room to swing with the wind and tide changes, without hitting each other. It's an affordable alternative to getting slips, which are charged by the foot. The mooring balls here are 18.oo per night. Paying for a mooring ball also allows you to use some of the things at the marina who owns them(free dingy dock, showers, trash drop off, etc).

Once we were secured to mooring ball 7, Scott inflated our dingy, as this is the first time it has been warm enough to use it; we planned to go into town for the afternoon. However, our dingy motor is having major trouble, and needs carburetor repair. Scott messed with it for a bit, but couldn't stand to pull the carburetor apart again(having already done it at home two or three times). We actually toyed with buying a new one, with this motor having been a problem since we purchased it. So we began to search out our options in Fernandina Beach. After an online search, and some phone calls, we tracked down Bob, the "carburetor guru", who will fix it for 50 bucks..yahoo! Tomorrow am, we'll get a ride into town from one of the guys at the marina. We'll tow our dingy behind their boat, and then it's a block to Guru Bob. Scott and I will spend time in town, while the motor is being fixed, and then we can dingy back to our boat. Ahh the joys of cruising. At least it's WARM while all of this is going on! I've opened up the boat, for a big dose of fresh air.

Here are some pictures from the past few days.