We left St. Augustine with a full fuel tank and with water at 8am to catch the tide heading towards Jacksonville. We were going at a good clip to make time hoping to be able to get to Fernandina Beach. We needed to get used to travelling on the ICW and going under bridges again. We left at high tide which meant there was too much water under the bridges. We came across one that Andiamo would fit under but not by much. We were holding our breaths and our antenna was clicking the underneath of the bridge. At the far end of the bridge there had been a light hanging down with a chain. We hit the chain but kept going. No damage was done to either the boat or bridge. Having 12 feet under the boat was much different from the 12,000 feet out in the ocean. Even though the USA has navigational aids, (Bahamas have none) it did not mean that there was a lot of water in the channel. We hit the bottom a few times with Betty and John both being at the wheel. Nothing major but we felt it. There was a full moon out so the tides were much more extreme. The low tides were lower than normal and the high tides were higher. We saw a sailboat aground in the middle of a channel but it soon floated off as the tide rose. We went around her and saw her later arriving in the marina.
We arrived at Fernandina Beach City Marina at 4pm which was too late to pick up a mooring ball. We were all tied to a bulk head which made it much easier to visit each other and to walk around. We had a wonderful cherry pie aboard Pekabu.
We were planning on exploring the town in the morning and heading out to sea at 5pm for an overnight trip to Hilton Head. It was much easier travelling in the ocean than through Georgia. Georgia's ICW waterway was known to be very shallow and we would not make it.
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