The first day of “no more Daylight Savings Time” let us sleep until the sun came up and still feel like relative early birds. The weather was favorable for an early morning Sound crossing, but the winds were forecast to be up to 28mph tonight and tomorrow in the area we planned to anchor and where we would have to travel tomorrow. So, we decided to stay here today and tomorrow. (Paula danced a little jig because Jekyll Island is the bomb.)
Early in the morning, Paula ran off to take pictures of flora and fauna. Results below.
Tom spent this time on the computer checking the weather in different micro-climates from here to St. Augustine, and cross-checking against our charts, hoping to find a new way to arrange our travel to wiggle around the weather and let us leave sooner. He was not successful.
As a consolation prize, he allowed himself to be dragged off on the bicycles by Paula, who packed a mini-picnic lunch. We rode the bikes for a while and then had a long beach walk-lots of birds, soft white sand, crashing surf with the tide coming in fast, and threatening clouds.
Once the beach was eaten by the tide, we went to the beach village plaza and ate at some of the wooden tables and chairs there. Of course then we had to browse the shops and get ice cream. Paula got a new pair of swimming shoes on clearance at the general store, and we revisited the historic section and bought some locally made chipotle mustard we eyed yesterday. Tommy was again mesmerized by the ritualistic bizarre pageantry of croquet at the Jekyll Island Club.
Then it was back to the Marina, where we met Keith, who lives aboard his Island Packet 31 with his significant other, and toured each other’s boats. He had put in a central vacuum system which was great, and had solved much of the problem of condensation of the portion of the mast in the cabin by a wound-rope surround. He showed us his treatment of the interior wood with Danish Oil which looks terrific.
We also met and talked at length to Barb, a lifelong boater and long term sailor, who gave us great tips on everything from line-handling, to travel tips around large barges to insect/rodent prevention/control. She and her husband also have a blog, and there are some great recipes on it, in addition to other good info.
After the visits, we napped to football (our favorite way to enjoy football) and then had Paula’s famous pork chops with onion gravy, Brussels sprouts and cheddar cheese rice.
