Jekyll Island, GA (2014-03-20)

N31° 02.576', W81° 25.533'

Tonight finds us at anchor in Jekyll Creek, Georgia.  The first day of spring and our exodus north has begun in earnest.

Well, actually we've been moving north for the last couple weeks, but I did want to stay south of the Florida-Georgia border until at least the third week of March.  The first day of spring seemed like a good day to leave Florida, so off we went.

Wednesday morning we loosed the mooring lines and travelled a whole mile to the Vilano Beach free city dock just south of the Usina bridge.  This is a very nice and solid floating dock that is limited to 4 hour stays (again, I don't know if the limit is strictly enforced, or is just a tool to prevent abuse) and is only two blocks away from a Publix supermarket.  We picked up quite a few groceries, both to replace what we've used since our last shopping in Vero Beach, but also to prepare for travelling through Georgia and South Carolina.

After returning to the boat with our groceries we continued up the AICW towards our destination of the Jacksonville free city dock on Sisters Creek.  It was a cold and cloudy day, with a bit of a brisk breeze blowing from the north.  I ran from the flybridge and bundled up against the cold, and Dar spent most of the day down below in a warm stateroom.  I could actually run from the lower helm on days like this, but I actually enjoy running from the flybridge on colder days.  If the wind is a bit too cold for me I can always close up the isenglass, which makes the flybridge much more comfortable.

Today the sun was out and it was a much more comfortable temperature, warm enough for short sleeves most of the day.  We're hopeful that the arrival of spring means that we'll have more days like today, but we're pretty well set up for the cold with our Mr Heater.

Tomorrow we'll continue on into Georgia, and if the weather holds for us we'll be in Beaufort South Carolina by Sunday.  There's some bad weather forecasted for Monday, so we might be hunkering down for a day or so until it passes.  After that we'll be working our way through South Carolina, continuing to unwind the miles back up the AICW.