Kilkenny Creek to St. Simons Island (Nov 29):  Since we didn’t have to get to Little Mud River until 2:30 PM, we had to stall for some time.  I wandered over to two sailboats at the end of the dock around 7:30 AM and asked them if they knew anything about Little Mud River.  They knew nothing and one of them had a draft of 6 feet while the other smaller boat drew only 4 feet.  I told them what I knew and the larger boat said that he would follow us all day since they were going to St. Simons also.  We left the marina around 8:30 AM into an outgoing tide that increased our speed.  Two hours before we reached Little Mud River, I radioed the sailboat and said that I was backing way down in order to stall for time.  We ran 2 hours at 3.5 to 3.8 knots and entered the river at precisely 2:30 PM.  After getting thru it, we had to increase our speed running almost full out in order to make our marina at St. Simons Island before dark.  We pulled into our slip at Morningstar Marina at 5:20 PM.  We stayed here the following day to get provisions and relax.  That night we ate at the marina’s restaurant which was elegant but pricy, a well deserved treat after a long, tense day. 

St. Simons Island, GA:  We took advantage of the courtesy car this marina lends to transient boaters.  We left the marina about 9AM and drove to the local Wynn Dixie supermarket.  As we entered the front door, we noticed a sign that they were offering flu shots as of 9:30 AM that day.  What luck!  We’ve been looking for a place to get our annual flu shots for weeks since the supply was short.  So we signed up and did our shopping.  We were first in line at 9:30 and were pleased that this was now behind us. We drove back to the marina and rested the balance of the day.  I did some maintenance in the engine room then took a much needed nap. We had an early dinner and planned our next day’s cruise.

The morning of Dec.1st, high tide was at 7:30 AM.  So, by the time we reached Jekyll Creek just south of Brunswick, it was about 8:30 AM, and we still had plenty of depth through the entire creek’s trip. What was a surprise that day was the crossing of the St. Andrews Sound.  We had head winds then cross winds with seas of 4 to 6 feet. Mon Amie rocked and rolled especially since I had the stabilizers turned off. Once we were able to get out of the channel and turn back from heading south east to heading southwest, the following seas helped us maintain some balance.  That’s one advantage of the Krogen’s hull design.  But, the duration of the cruising this sea was about a half an hour.  Later, someone told us that the crossing of St. Andrews Sound is the most difficult of the entire ICW.  We believed it.  We entered the Cumberland Sound where the Navy’s Submarine base is located.  Fortunately, we didn’t run into any subs this trip.  We came up to the municipal marina at Fernandina Beach and tied up to the outside bulkhead after having a pump out.  The wind was quite brisk, so we rocked and rolled a bit after being tied up. We heard the weather forecast that we were in a tornado watch area for the next 24 hours.  So, I paid for 2 nights so that we would be secured during the following day. But, we did reach Florida on December 1st. 

After breakfast on Tuesday, Al changed both Racor filters.  He thought that it was time especially since our rocking and rolling of the previous day.  That afternoon, we took a stroll down main street of the historic district.  This was a pleasant surprise.  It is filled with various shops and restaurants.  Suzanne bought a fancy, formal jacket at one of the lady’s upscale shops.  Al had an ice cream cone after which he had a hair cut from a cute, young beautician.  Returning to the boat, we weathered the stormy conditions and fortunately didn’t get the forecasted 60 mph winds that night. We

took another look at our master plan and decided that we could forgo stopping at St. Augustine in order to make up the day lost here.  It was another early night to bed.