Merry Christmas from Florida!

We left St. Simons Island, GA yesterday morning. Our first task was to take on fuel. We were told of a place about an hour away that sold diesel fuel for $1.75. Most places are selling it for $2.50 so we were real happy to take advantage of the great price. We had not put any fuel in the boat since May of 2007 so it was time.

We anchored in another beautiful, quiet anchorage on the Brickhill River in south Georgia, just behind Cumberland Island with it’s wild horses and armodillos. As we turned into the river we saw another DeFever (the make of our boat). We had met the owners at the last DeFever rendezvous in 2007. We couldn’t get them on the radio because they had taken their dingy ashore to be with friends but we did catch up with them later by phone. It is fun to run into folks we know on their boats.

This morning we left the anchorage and crossed the GA/FL line. We wanted to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day in a marina, just more festive.


We are in Fernandina Beach, a historic town on Amelia Island, which is an interesting place whose claim to fame is their history. It is the only town in the US that has been under the rule of 8 different countries. We ate lunch at what was the first Customs House in the US. They also claim that the first saloon in the US was established here.


Tonight we are going out for dinner as tomorrow everything will be closed. Rick wants the ‘traditional’ Christmas dinner of hamburgers on the grill! The temps are warm, in the mid-70’s so we will enjoy them out on the aft deck.

Our next stop has not been determined yet. We’ll spend some time tomorrow coming up with a plan.

Well, after celebrating Christmas and just relaxing!!!

As we are writing this, we are listening to Christmas music on our iPod and admiring the beautiful tree that Jayne made for us with shells from NC beaches, thank you Jayne. To all our family and friends, we will miss seeing you this time but we both wish everyone a peaceful and happy holiday. And, of course, the big one…good health!!

We started this entry on Christmas Eve and are completing it on Christmas Day. We spent the day walking around the deserted town, doing laundry and relaxing, just as we had hoped. Here are a few shots from around town.

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Still Florida bound!

Just a quick update from Rickshaw. We stayed in a beautiful, quiet anchorage on our way to St. Simons, GA. We were all by ourselves and enjoyed the sound of pines and palmettos whispering in the wind. On top of that we had a beautiful sunset. We hope you aren’t too tired of our sunset pictures!!!

We left mid-morning the next day to take advantage of the rising tides. We aren’t used to leaving so late but there were at least four areas that were 4-5 feet at low tide which would cause us anxiety. So, we took it slow and didn’t run into any problems. That was, of course, until the storm hit. I think the temperature fell about 30 degrees in just minutes. We were going through a large sound which meant it was very open and that the water and wind were both much higher. It got very, very dark and it was difficult to see because of the strength of the rain. Luckily, it only lasted about 15 minutes which sounds like a short amount of time but when you are in it, it seemed like a very long time. But, if we didn’t have that kind of fun, what kind of stories would we have to tell??

We got into the marina at St. Simon’s island around 4:30 and got ready to have dinner with Rick’s grade school buddy and his wife, Gayle and Dee. They picked us up and took us to a great Italian restaurant. Then they brought us to their beautiful new home where we snitched some Christmas goodies and took a few pictures. Gayle also bought us a new coffee maker as ours died the day before yesterday. Thank you Gayle!!

Tomorrow we leave for an anchorage and then on to Fernandina Beach, which is just south of the GA/FL boarder. We will be in Florida, yea! It is supposed to be close to 80 degrees on Christmas. That is pretty nice to think about.