On to Jacksonville, FL

As sad as we were to see all the kids head back to their own homes, we were ready to head south and find some warmer weather.  We left Charleston and went about 20 miles south and anchored out for a night waiting for a weather window  to jump out into the Atlantic and knock back about 130 miles to the south.  We came in near the Georgia-Florida line into St. Simon's Sound and tucked in to catch up on sleep.  I have two brothers celebrating milestone birthdays 70 and 60 and my family is putting together a party back in Texas.  I really hate to miss family or a party so we made arrangements to leave the boat in an affordable marina in Jacksonville and used airline miles to book tickets.  I am so grateful all the million moving pieces came together.  Oh, it's 10 degrees warmer so the thermal underwear is packed away for now!

Currents are amazing things.  This one was running in our favor but it
doesn't always work out that well.  The hull was moving 6.6 knots but the
current moved us along at over 9.

Tides are quite variable too.  You can clearly see the water line on the
marsh grasses at one of our anchorages.  When we drop the anchor
we need to know the tide range so we don't end up on the bottom
 during low tide.

A sand beach seemingly out of nowhere along the waterside.

Coming into St. Simon's Sound we saw this overturned ocean going ship.
We remembered reading about the fair weather disaster back in September
but had forgotten all about it.

The ship was full of cars headed for a foreign market.  There must have been a
dramatic shift  in the load to make the vessel fall over on it's side.  At least
it wasn't in mid-ocean as it would have sunk with a total loss.

The boat was deemed too unstable to right so they are cutting it
up bit by bit and salvaging the metal.  I don't know if the  cars are still
in there or not.

We are finally back in Florida waters.  We still have several hundred miles
to go before we reach home but at least we're local again.  So far we
have logged just over 4,000 miles this trip out. Not bad for old folks.
Jacksonville is a very busy seaport with a large Navy presence as
tons of commercial traffic as well.  You do feel like  Lilliputian next
to these giant cargo vessels.

Constant dredging is required to keep the sea channel passable for all
the huge ships.